ChannelCon 2016: Cloud and data protection moves at CompTIA show

Several channel-related announcements spun out of CompTIA's recently concluded ChannelCon 2016 conference. Here are a few examples:

Unigma, a unified cloud management platform vendor that targets IT service providers, unveiled its Cloud Comparison Calculator, which compares costs among   Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. The calculator, demonstrated at CompTIA's ChannelCon 2016, is currently in beta release. The calculator gives users a taste of Unigma's multicloud management platform, which lets managed service providers (MSPs) and cloud partners track metrics from AWS, Google and Azure via a single pane of glass, according to the company. The platform also includes cost management and reporting features.

Kirill Bensonoff, who founded Unigma in January, said the company's early customers tend to be organizations driven by Azure. He said customers typically are those getting into Azure and their first foray into managed cloud, or organizations that have been doing business with AWS and are looking at Azure as a second cloud provider.

"Azure is definitely the one that is kind of picking up the cloud migration within the IT service provider community," Bensonoff said. "Azure is always first in terms of what we are developing -- not to say the others are too far behind."

Bensonoff is also co-founder of ComputerSupport.com, an MSP and cloud service provider in Framingham, Mass. He said he is focused on Unigma now, but is still involved in the management of ComputerSupport.com.

Datto executives will soon be traveling to Southeast Asia to get the company's newly opened Singapore office off the ground. From the Singapore hub, Datto will support its channel customers in Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia, among other areas. In North America, meanwhile, the company launched a data center in Calgary, Alberta, giving the company a bicoastal data center presence in Canada. The company's other Canadian facility is in Toronto. Singapore and Calgary are a long way from Datto's origins in founder Austin McChord's Connecticut basement, a journey McChord outlined in his ChannelCon 2016 keynote presentation. Datto, a backup and business continuity vendor, based in Norwalk, Conn., sells exclusively through the channel.

Also in the data protection space, Barracuda Networks Inc. at ChannelCon 2016 debuted a virtual appliance version of Barracuda Backup -- Intronis MSP Edition. The virtual appliance is sold as a subscription and is available in North America and Europe. Neal Bradbury, senior director of business development for Barracuda's Intronis business, said the extension to the Intronis backup appliance line will create more opportunities for channel partners with customers running virtual environments. Barracuda earlier this year rolled out an MSP-oriented firewall appliance under the Intronis label.

Also at ChannelCon 2016, AVG Business added D&H Distributing to its roster of distribution partners. AVG late in 2015 announced its distribution strategy and has been inking deals with distributors in 2016.