XChange 2020

CRN is live in San Antonio for XChange 2020.

Get all of CRN's coverage of the event here and follow along on Twitter at #XCH20.

March 3rd

‘You Cannot Break That’ HPE Says Of The iLO 5 Chip In Gen 10 Servers
“In less than 24 hours you can not only identify the event hack, but you can absolutely be back up and running to how you were before the hack occurred,” said HPE’s Alle Whipple.

Unitrends MSP: Make Disaster Recovery As A Service Part Of Every Service
Unitrends MSP offers technology to help MSPs help customers avoid disasters by preparing for them, proactively testing for them and patching operations where needed, which all can be made into a Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service offering, says Andrea 'Alex' Courson, the company's MSP director.

Axcient CEO To MSPs: We Can Help You Keep Customers From Paying Ransomware
Axcient's new AirGap technology, which separates backup requests from the actual backup mechanics to prevent malicious deleting of a business' data, is part of an overall strategy from the company to help MSPs keep customers from paying attackers.

IntelePeer: CPaaS Is 'Not A Feature Set, It's A Toolkit'
‘CPaaS with us is not solving a single problem for a single vertical, it's meant to be more of a toolkit for customers,’ says Peter Neal, senior sales engineer for IntelePeer at Xchange 2020.

Former NBA Coach Kevin Eastman On How To Build Great Teams
'How can you even start a team if you don't have as its foundational piece what your values are? And let me give you an example or a definition of what we think a value is: something you're willing to be fired over. That's a value,' Kevin Eastman says of the most important ingredients for a team.

IT M&A Experts: 5 Business Strategies To Get Acquired’
Small-business guru Karl Palachuk speaks at XChange 2020 about how to make decisions and delegate wisely.

Why Growing Your Business Demands A 'Culture Of Consistency'
“What we’re really trying to do is solve for all that space in between. All that time a technician is wasting on retrieving passwords, looking up documentation, that is the focus of IT Complete. Retrieving that wasted money for an MSP,” said Matt Solomon, vice president of business development with Kaseya.

Service Models Like HPE GreenLake Can 'Double' MSP Valuations, Exec Says
'Want to double your valuation? Become an as-a-service vendor. As-a-service vendors typically get a 6x multiplier versus a 3x multiplier for product only solution services, even in small organization,' says Scott Herman, director of North American distribution for HPE-owned Aruba Networks, at XChange 2020.

March 2nd

D&H Distributing: 'The More Recurring Revenue You're Bringing In, The Higher Your Valuation'
The channel hasn't historically captured enough of the nine million SMB seats that are buying IT as-a-service and D&H wants to help solution providers take advantage of the market opportunity.

Wasabi Warns Against Hidden Cloud Storage Fees, Cloud Lock-in
Hidden costs ranging from egress fees to fees just to see what is stored on the cloud can hide the true cost of cloud storage, according to Wasabi which just happens to have an alternate that provides for a fixed cost with no hidden fees.

Henry Cisneros: Urbanization, Changing Demographics Should Be A Focus For Solution Providers
“What we’re really trying to do is solve for all that space in betweThe former HUD secretary and former San Antonio mayor says the expansion of major metro areas and growth of the Latino population in the U.S. have broad implications for the tech sector.

M&A Adviser To Solution Providers: To Boost Valuation, Get To 50 Percent Recurring Revenue
The reality is that maximizing a solution provider's value depends primarily on increasing recurring revenue, customer satisfaction and financial fitness, says Linda Rose, principal at RoseBiz.

Expert: MSPs Need To Be A Virtual CIO For Customers, Rather Than A 'Virtual Captain Obvious'
An effective virtual CIO reduces noise levels for customers while increasing their productivity and use of technology, says TruMethods founder and President Gary Pica.

Kaseya: IT Complete MSP Platform Recoups ‘Wasted Money’
“What we’re really trying to do is solve for all that space in between. All that time a technician is wasting on retrieving passwords, looking up documentation, that is the focus of IT Complete. Retrieving that wasted money for an MSP,” said Matt Solomon, vice president of business development with Kaseya.

ProLiant Server Chief David Gaston: HPE Silicon Root of Trust Is Security Game Changer
“Security is the differentiation that we and our partners are leading with,” said HPE Senior Director of ProLiant Servers David Gaston.

Xchange 2020: Storytelling Can Help MSPs Score The Right Business
Partners should tell their story by identifying their audience, introducing themselves as the guide, and spell out how their plan will transform their customers' businesses, says Mary Stanhope, founder of iMarket2.

Pax8’s Nick Heddy: ‘Run With Microsoft’ To Capture $180B SMB Spend
To help MSPs capture the opportunity, Pax8’s first partner conference Wingman 2020 in June will feature Microsoft employees walking partners through Dynamics, M365, Azure, with one-on-one coaching, and the registration fee comes with two Microsoft certification exams.

APC By Schneider Electric Offering 17 Percent Partner Discount On New Micro Data Center
APC by Schneider Electric is providing a 17 percent discount for channel partners who sell its new EcoStruxure Micro Data Center C-Series 6U wall-mount architecture.

Channel M&A Is ‘Rampant’ With No Slow Down In Sight
‘There’s lots of different reasons for M&A, but our conclusion was, it’s basically around skills, people and capabilities. That’s what folks are buying and that’s what is important,’ says Mark Williams, a senior consultant for CRN parent The Channel Company.

UPS ‘Game-Changer:’ Vertiv Launches New Lithium-Ion Products
'To get a lithium-ion UPS, it costs double what you’d have to pay for lead-acid. And that barrier has prevented lithium from getting rapid adoption in single-phase UPSes—until now,' says Vertiv’s Joe Scarci, director of offering management.

Cybersecurity Expert: SMBs Are Trusting Their MSP ‘Way Too Much’
'SMB are starting to wise up, and are starting to be forced to wise up. We were just seeing cybersecurity not really get done in the SMB space,' says Solis Security Executive Vice President and CTO Chris Loehr.

March 1st

NPD Group: Channel Plays Key Role In Digital Transformation
Channel sales of software, services, and subscriptions are growing quickly as solution providers and MSPs find gold in helping their customers implement digital transformation projects, says John De Vito, executive director of product development at NPD Group.

Why Talent Management In The Channel 'All Comes Back To Culture'
A panel of solution providers at XChange 2020 told attendees that focusing on issues such as culture, on-boarding and retention will pay major dividends.

Former U.S. Army Captain Shannon Huffman Polson: 'A Leader Has To Own Her Story'
Polson, one of the first women to pilot the Apache helicopter, spoke about how to have 'grit' in leadership at XChange 2020.

Datto Warns MSP Attacks Are ‘Skyrocketing’
Ransomware attacks via MSPs are on the rise, growing from one attack about 18 months ago to five attacks just this week alone, according to data protection vendor Datto.