Microsoft's Move on AI Staff, Consolidation in Cybersecurity, AI SolarWinds and Dell's Initiatives

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Business of Tech lounge, a live version of the Business of Tech podcast.

[00:00:18] It's Wednesday, May 22nd, 2024 and I'm Dave Sobel.

[00:00:22] Today on the show, Tama Bravo combines two of their companies, Microsoft wants to move

[00:00:27] their staff, Enable and MSP Alliance team up, TVCynics has new resources, SolarWinds

[00:00:33] and Dell infuse AI into everything, Alcyon's CEO Niraj Talia weighs in on data protection

[00:00:40] and AI, plus two previews as McKenzie Brown has big ideas about vulnerability programs,

[00:00:47] and a preview of coming weekend's interview with Synchro's CEO Michael George.

[00:00:53] Plus your questions and comments.

[00:00:56] I want to thank Sales Builder, our Patreon sponsor, whose support makes this show possible.

[00:01:02] Focus on your IT sales workflow with the power of automation and visit them at salesbuilder.com.

[00:01:08] That's B-U-I-L-D-R dot com.

[00:01:12] Want to get your logo here and your shout out?

[00:01:15] Vendors, you can do so with our vendor Patreon program.

[00:01:18] It's a simple monthly subscription and visit patreon.com slash MSP radio to sign up.

[00:01:24] I can't do this show without support and thanks again to Sales Builder for that.

[00:01:28] Now we'll be taking questions and comments throughout the show, so make sure to put them

[00:01:33] in chat.

[00:01:34] There's a dedicated question section in the show with listener submitted questions, but

[00:01:39] we'll take those chat comments anytime.

[00:01:43] And now our top story and today a collection of stories.

[00:01:49] Microsoft has reportedly asked its China-based employees to consider relocating to countries

[00:01:54] like the US, Ireland and Australia, which could impact China's AI ambition.

[00:02:00] The move comes amid increasing competition between the US and China in the field of artificial

[00:02:05] intelligence.

[00:02:06] The relocation offers were made to about 700 to 800 employees, mostly engineers working

[00:02:12] in cloud computing and machine learning operations.

[00:02:16] While employees have the option to remain in China, Microsoft has reportedly stopped

[00:02:20] hiring them.

[00:02:22] The global shortage of top AI engineers and researchers makes the potential loss of Chinese

[00:02:27] talent a concern for China's AI aspirations.

[00:02:32] Private equity firm Tama Bravo has announced the merger of its security information and

[00:02:37] event management company, LogRhythm, with rival cybersecurity Exabeam.

[00:02:42] The merger is expected to accelerate the development of AI-driven cybersecurity solutions

[00:02:47] and is set to close in Q3 2024.

[00:02:53] Enable and MSP Alliance have partnered to help managed services providers proactively

[00:02:57] address cyber compliance requirements through MSP Alliance CyberVerify program.

[00:03:04] This program aims to equip MSPs to identify gap, certify compliance alignment and offer

[00:03:09] compliance as a service solution to their customers.

[00:03:13] TD Cinex has launched MSP Evolve, a program designed to optimize operational excellence

[00:03:20] and accelerate business growth for managed services providers.

[00:03:24] The program offers a range of solutions customized for MSP needs, including support, services

[00:03:30] solution and training programs.

[00:03:33] MSP Evolve features the TD Cinex Stream 1 cloud platform, which provides automation,

[00:03:39] integration, purchasing, management and billing solutions.

[00:03:43] The program also includes security services such as the Security Operations Center service

[00:03:48] and cybersecurity assessments.

[00:03:52] SolarWinds has launched SolarWinds AI, a generative AI engine designed to transform IT operations

[00:03:58] and enhance IT service management.

[00:04:01] The AI-powered feature in SolarWinds Service Desk accelerates ticket resolution, summarizing

[00:04:07] ticket histories, providing suggested responses and generating real-time recommended steps.

[00:04:14] SolarWinds AI prioritizes privacy, security and trust through its AI by Design framework,

[00:04:20] which includes principles of privacy, security, accountability and fairness, transparency

[00:04:25] and trust, and simplicity and accessibility.

[00:04:29] Dell Technologies has launched the Dell AI Factory, providing customers with access to

[00:04:34] a wide range of AI solutions and technology partners to meet their unique needs.

[00:04:39] The AI Factory includes AI PCs, infrastructure for AI workloads, data protection solutions,

[00:04:46] an expanded networking portfolio and collaborations with leading ecosystem partners.

[00:04:52] Dell is also expanding its AI professional services to drive improved business outcomes.

[00:04:58] Additionally, the Dell AI Factory has expanded with NVIDIA, offering new server-edge workstation

[00:05:05] solutions as well as services to accelerate AI adoption.

[00:05:09] So why do we care?

[00:05:12] So first disclosure, I'm a shareholder in both Enable and SolarWinds.

[00:05:17] Now there's a tale of three investments here.

[00:05:20] I want to look at this from an investment perspective.

[00:05:24] First cybersecurity.

[00:05:26] There's a slowdown in cybersecurity investment and so consolidation among the vendors is

[00:05:31] happening.

[00:05:32] There isn't that much of a cybersecurity product need.

[00:05:37] While I want providers to integrate cyber into their business, know that doing the basic

[00:05:43] really well is a sound strategy.

[00:05:46] There are in fact too many products and too many solutions in the cybersecurity space.

[00:05:52] You don't need all of them.

[00:05:54] And in fact, the investors themselves see that.

[00:05:58] That's why they're doing consolidation.

[00:05:59] And that's our takeaway from those moves.

[00:06:03] Second AI.

[00:06:05] Everyone is throwing AI into their products.

[00:06:08] Some of it will be useful and others will be not.

[00:06:13] Beyond the spectrum of activities between we do everything recklessly and we are ignoring

[00:06:18] this space.

[00:06:19] There's both an opportunity now in advising solutions, particularly around data management.

[00:06:26] And there is time to take advantage of them.

[00:06:29] You don't have to do everything AI and you don't need to buy into the marketing that

[00:06:33] is coming from these vendors.

[00:06:35] But at the same time, you want to be doing the basics of working with customers to make

[00:06:40] sure their data is ready.

[00:06:42] Third, basic blocking and tackling our marketing support.

[00:06:46] The recent X announcement, the enable one.

[00:06:49] Sure.

[00:06:50] Perfectly solid moves.

[00:06:52] Now ask within what context are these?

[00:06:57] Are they the only play for that vendor or is this part of the larger series of investment?

[00:07:04] That's the trend we're looking for.

[00:07:05] If it's a one off and they don't have this as part of a larger strategy, that's a problem.

[00:07:11] But if it fits in and they're supplementing their other offerings, that's important and

[00:07:16] a better strategy.

[00:07:18] Now, I also want to comment on Microsoft's move.

[00:07:23] Consider that they're trying to de-risk their investment in China.

[00:07:28] That speaks to the geopolitical scene that we're dealing with right now.

[00:07:32] And that's a supply chain issue that you as a provider want to think of.

[00:07:36] In particular, we want to understand what happens as things continue to chill between

[00:07:41] the US and China in relations.

[00:07:44] There's going to be a number of second order effects here, which will be staffed.

[00:07:50] So what do you think?

[00:07:51] Are you encouraged by this kind of move?

[00:07:53] You got a question or a comment?

[00:07:55] Put it in the chat.

[00:07:56] If you're watching live, we'd love to hear from you.

[00:08:00] Now next up, I want to revisit this past weekend's interview.

[00:08:05] Alcyon CEO, Niraj Kalyan, joined me and we talked about data protection and AI.

[00:08:11] Here's a snippet of that interview.

[00:08:14] So what does AI bring though?

[00:08:16] Because if I remove AI from everything you just said, it's still all internally coherent.

[00:08:23] So what does AI bring that makes it different in this?

[00:08:27] It brings two or three things.

[00:08:30] It brings from the end customer perspective.

[00:08:35] What the end customers get a number of great features, including improved security.

[00:08:39] You can't do ransomware manually.

[00:08:42] You get improved, it's within that you have ransomware detection, malware detection, anomaly

[00:08:48] detection, someone suddenly doing something strange, deleting files within, moving files

[00:08:53] out.

[00:08:54] There's a lot of work that goes in there.

[00:08:56] For today, for example, we have multiple AI models that are continuously learning on every

[00:09:01] batch what novel behavior is.

[00:09:04] None of that would be possible in a legacy world with heuristic workloads.

[00:09:09] But I think it is also more important for our partners what AI brings to the table.

[00:09:15] They are getting a material reduction in operational time.

[00:09:20] We've had so many – and this is heartwarming to me – we've had so many partners come

[00:09:25] up and thank us and say, look, you are literally saving hours of my week that I used to be

[00:09:32] doing in all the great things on my backup system.

[00:09:35] Why?

[00:09:36] Because on our side, what shows up as ease of use to them is AI because we do better

[00:09:40] scheduling.

[00:09:41] We write in a thousand percent copy.

[00:09:43] You can never set up a manual schedule for a person to back up when they're the most

[00:09:47] active and when they're modifying the most data.

[00:09:50] Our system can do it for our customers.

[00:09:52] You don't need to worry about scheduling anymore.

[00:09:54] You don't need to worry about reliability.

[00:09:56] We need to go from the best time to do it is when we try something out of our immediate

[00:10:01] some issues.

[00:10:02] So, from an ease of use and operational perspective, so what suddenly goes away that again, you

[00:10:10] focus on the thing that really brings value to the business and not the things you need

[00:10:13] to break and fix internally.

[00:10:16] I think those are the two big things.

[00:10:17] When we talk about ease of use, when we talk about reduction in pain, when we talk about

[00:10:21] customer benefit, that is the consistent message we have received on all of it.

[00:10:30] And of course, we have to ask, why do we care?

[00:10:33] So AI in everything, right?

[00:10:35] Well, that's the reason.

[00:10:37] I'm not particularly excited by every company bolting a chatbot onto their product as their

[00:10:42] only move.

[00:10:43] And I want to see artificial intelligence and machine learning be used to improve the

[00:10:48] product itself.

[00:10:51] Now a chatbot might be part of it, but it's not that alone.

[00:10:56] Neeraj makes some arguments in the interview that incumbent players can't do that.

[00:11:01] Maybe?

[00:11:03] I don't want to necessarily look at a broad sweeping statement.

[00:11:07] Instincts say he's also right.

[00:11:11] But the flip side of that would be that a larger incumbent player has a lot of data

[00:11:15] that would be very useful for a machine learning algorithm.

[00:11:19] So what we're looking for is tangible investments in artificial intelligence and machine learning

[00:11:25] that improve the product.

[00:11:27] I want providers to take a critical eye to this because it is very much both a technology

[00:11:34] and a marketing term.

[00:11:37] We need to be very dismissive of the marketing term and focus on the specific implementations

[00:11:42] that matter, and that will make a difference.

[00:11:45] Now this interview is live on YouTube and on the podcast feed.

[00:11:49] So if you want to dive more into the topic, I encourage you to focus there.

[00:11:53] A reminder, we do take those questions and I'm watching that chat.

[00:11:56] So if you've got comments or concerns, throw it in.

[00:11:59] What do you think?

[00:12:01] Is AI showing up in too much stuff?

[00:12:03] Is it valuable already in products that you've seen?

[00:12:07] Let us know.

[00:12:08] Now I'm taking off on Tuesday from the regular news show, but you'll get an extra interview.

[00:12:15] Mackenzie Brown, who's VP of security at Blackpoint Cyber has some bold thoughts on disclosure.

[00:12:23] Here's a preview of that interview.

[00:12:26] Researchers and security research plays an imperative role in information security.

[00:12:32] That being said, we have a lot of issues in cybersecurity, as everyone knows.

[00:12:36] And I was kind of mentioning this the other day, but I just got back from RSA and this

[00:12:41] is where marketing money goes to get set on fire.

[00:12:44] That's super interesting.

[00:12:45] But we have an inundation of marketing and tooling and technology specific to security

[00:12:51] that is overwhelming and quite frankly, not necessarily useful.

[00:12:55] We have an increased year to year of attacks.

[00:12:58] So that's not going anywhere, cyber attacks.

[00:13:00] And if you don't have mess up money, essentially, whether it's through cyber insurance or an

[00:13:05] incident response team, and people struggle and many people go out of business because

[00:13:08] of cybersecurity threat.

[00:13:11] And then we struggle finding good talent.

[00:13:14] We're obviously in a world of InfoSec.

[00:13:16] I'm sure Dave, you and I could probably talk over a beer for hours about what's broken

[00:13:21] and how it's not aligning with IT as a whole.

[00:13:25] But threat intelligence and threat research or rather information sharing of threat research

[00:13:32] is valuable and sometimes not even achievable.

[00:13:37] Real threat intelligence is not achievable gaining to what we are being sold in the market.

[00:13:44] So the whole concept around know thy enemy, I'm going to slap you in the face with a phone

[00:13:48] book but it's like the art of war quotes over and over of knowing thy enemy.

[00:13:53] This is where researchers play an imperative.

[00:13:55] But we have kind of disrupted away the way the InfoSec culture has been where if we are

[00:14:02] performing exploit development, proof of concepts, and basically the race to get those POCs out

[00:14:09] before other security companies, just for pure marketing, we're actually doing more

[00:14:16] harm than good.

[00:14:18] And coming from the incident response world, this is where we saw this a lot.

[00:14:22] Just to put in perspective, we have 23,000 vulnerabilities that were released in 2023

[00:14:26] and that's a lot.

[00:14:27] Now, albeit a lot of those didn't come with exploits, they're not going to be as critical

[00:14:32] or severe, but a lot of them come with exploit development, which is basically the how do

[00:14:38] we utilize this vulnerability to do and in what manner to perform malicious actions or

[00:14:43] be successful as a bad guy in my attack.

[00:14:47] But we also have the other side of the house where we're performing this research, which

[00:14:54] is imperative. It needs to be done.

[00:14:55] We need to understand how these threats work.

[00:14:57] We need to understand how to mitigate and remediate against them.

[00:15:00] But we're releasing that information before a vendor even has time to whether create a

[00:15:06] patch, communicate the patch, test it, ensure that people are actually implementing it

[00:15:11] correctly or creating processes in a workflow that is coordinated.

[00:15:17] So we're going to ask, why do we care?

[00:15:20] And there's two things I want to highlight from this.

[00:15:22] The first is a casual mention of what she put in there of mess up money.

[00:15:27] Think about that. A security researcher, a security combat person who's defending

[00:15:34] our city is running the anti hacker programs, focuses on the idea of having ready mess up money.

[00:15:42] And what these what's implied in that is both the resources and the plan to handle the incident.

[00:15:48] I think this is a point that we should delve in further.

[00:15:52] And I want you to listen in the interview to hear more about the discussions about what's

[00:15:56] appropriate and what's not.

[00:15:57] And the second portion that I want you to think about listening to this interview when it

[00:16:01] comes out is disclosure programs matter to ensure proper communications.

[00:16:06] And you as a consumer of most of the software want to ensure your vendors have a program.

[00:16:13] Now, this is a topic that I've hit up before, and I think you'll appreciate McKinsey's

[00:16:18] perspective here.

[00:16:19] This interview is going to release on Tuesday to the public and my Patreon supporters already

[00:16:25] have. Now we are taking questions.

[00:16:27] So if you're watching live, make sure to throw them in there and you can submit them

[00:16:31] anytime in the chat window or submit for next week.

[00:16:36] If you're watching the recording, sending to question at MSP radio dot com.

[00:16:41] Now, remember, if you bring your question live, you'll get a live response.

[00:16:46] Do enjoy taking questions.

[00:16:48] And of course, if you don't want to do it on live and you're want to be anonymous, you can

[00:16:52] always submit them ahead of time.

[00:16:54] Q&A gives you a chance to get involved with the show.

[00:16:57] Now it appears today we're a little quiet, so that's good news.

[00:17:01] Know that you can continue to put those in.

[00:17:03] And if you're watching this recording, put them in the comments below and I will make

[00:17:08] sure to answer all of those questions.

[00:17:11] Now, additionally, I want to highlight one other upcoming interview with Michael George.

[00:17:17] Now, Michael George is the former CEO of Continuum, and he's just recently come on as

[00:17:21] CEO of Syncro.

[00:17:23] And he had the opportunity to catch up.

[00:17:26] Let's look at a clip that upcoming interview.

[00:17:29] Change is really two things.

[00:17:33] The private equity world entered this category back, candidly, when Summit

[00:17:40] Partners funded Continuum and then Kaseya and then Enable and, you know, the whole

[00:17:47] journey. And I think most people do.

[00:17:50] And if you look at and understand the capital markets and the asset classes, private

[00:17:58] equity has two different cycles.

[00:18:02] And the first is value creation.

[00:18:06] And the second is value extraction.

[00:18:09] When we were with Summit Partners, frankly, their growth firm, they're an outstanding

[00:18:14] firm to be funding these companies because they were we were on the value creation side

[00:18:21] of the equation, investing in being innovative.

[00:18:24] We started with just this RMM.

[00:18:27] When we expanded the platform into BDR, we made an acquisition and then we acquired

[00:18:33] Carver. And we were the first to really launch.

[00:18:36] We did a company strategy on security.

[00:18:39] And right, we were we were we brought security to the market.

[00:18:42] As you know, when everybody thought in the small to medium business market, it was not

[00:18:45] there. It was not a small to medium business problem.

[00:18:48] So we did that.

[00:18:49] We brought Sentinel One in to the industry.

[00:18:51] And I mean, look at look at what it looks like today.

[00:18:54] I say no more.

[00:18:56] And it could continue in the hyper growth and in mode that it was in and that

[00:19:02] ultimately had it being acquired by Neckwise.

[00:19:05] When we were, it was 2019.

[00:19:07] It was an eight year journey for me.

[00:19:08] And I love every bit of it.

[00:19:10] It was a really extraordinary thing.

[00:19:12] And I'm grateful for all the people that were part of that that journey.

[00:19:15] It was it was it was really extraordinary.

[00:19:18] You know, I stepped out and then I didn't think I was going to come back in.

[00:19:22] But when the companies, the leaders ended up on the other side, the value extraction

[00:19:28] side with private equity companies.

[00:19:30] And we all know what Connectwise looks like today to say is amalgamated.

[00:19:35] It's a, you know, it was a full acquisition strategy and an amalgamation of assets

[00:19:40] that don't, you know, don't really belong together and then enables, you know,

[00:19:44] brushed under being I mean, being a publicly traded company in a ball cap

[00:19:48] environments and impossibly nobody's investing in innovation and they're on

[00:19:52] the wrong side of that equation.

[00:19:54] So that's number one.

[00:19:55] There's a market condition.

[00:19:58] I'm going to tease.

[00:19:58] He goes into number two right in the interview.

[00:20:01] And so you've got lots to look forward to with that upcoming interview.

[00:20:06] A reminder for listeners, ATRAN supporters already have this video and you can get

[00:20:11] all my interview content early as a supporter.

[00:20:15] Visit patreon.com slash MSB radio and sign up now.

[00:20:18] You'll get the interview right away.

[00:20:21] I also want to let you know that I delivered the commencement address for

[00:20:24] the computer science department in the College of William and Mary this past

[00:20:28] weekend where I'm an alum.

[00:20:29] You may have a young person in your life.

[00:20:31] You want to share some insights with.

[00:20:33] I reflect on my journey in the tech industry, the value and power of

[00:20:37] relationships and offer some insights and advice for the next generation of

[00:20:41] tech professionals.

[00:20:43] That commencement address will also release over the holiday weekend.

[00:20:48] So look for that as well.

[00:20:50] I want to thank sales builder, our Patreon sponsor whose support makes this

[00:20:54] show possible.

[00:20:55] Focus on your IAT sales workflow with the power of automation and visit them

[00:20:59] at salesbuilder.com.

[00:21:01] That's B-U-I-L-D-R dot com.

[00:21:04] And vendors, you too can get your name mentioned on the live show.

[00:21:07] It's a simple monthly subscription.

[00:21:09] Visit patreon.com slash MSB radio for more.

[00:21:13] And listeners, I appreciate your support and here are the best ways to do.

[00:21:17] Like, share and follow on your favorite platforms or support directly on Patreon

[00:21:24] with our give what you want model.

[00:21:26] You said when you think the content has worked and if you have a question and

[00:21:30] are listening to the recording, send it in at question at MSB radio.com.

[00:21:35] We're going to be off next week from the live show and returning the week after

[00:21:40] for more live news and comments.

[00:21:42] Thanks for joining me for the business of tech lounge and I will see you next time.