Author | Lightnews

Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar @channelwritrguy.bsky.social · 12h

Try reading CRN to her. As exciting as it is to us, it'll put her to sleep faster than anything else.

Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar @channelwritrguy.bsky.social · 14h

Should Intel's acquisition of SambaNovaAI take place, Intel would gain a developer of chips, systems, and clouds aimed squarely at AI inference and give more direction to Intel’s AI strategy which has seen several ups and downs.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/wdvhm5up

Intel Looking To Acquire Startup AI Chip Developer SambaNova: Report

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan has been executive chairman of SambaNova since 2024, and Intel Capital is one of SambaNova’s investors.

tinyurl.com

Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar @channelwritrguy.bsky.social · 1d

ServiceNow Pres./CFO Gina Mastantuono told me in an exclusive meeting that AI bubble concerns are overblown. She also talked about the company's Fed business during the shutdown, H1-B visas, competition with Salesforce, and 3Q25 numbers.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/35r9je3k

ServiceNow’s CFO On The AI ‘Revolution,’ Government Shutdown Impact And Salesforce Competition

ServiceNow President and CFO Gina Mastantuono told CRN that the company’s Federal business is strong, and that AI is a revolution and not a bubble.

tinyurl.com

Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar @channelwritrguy.bsky.social · 1d

.@Zones, which in the last few years restructured from a product reseller to a full-blown global technology solution provider, also make a lot of executive changes. I had a nice conversation with new CEO Yehia Maaty Omar about the changes.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/48upxytp

Zones’ New CEO Yehia Omar On How The Company Has Restructured For The Future

Yehia Omar, Zones’ new CEO, takes over a company that over the past three years transformed itself from a product-focused reseller to an international services provider.

tinyurl.com

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Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar @channelwritrguy.bsky.social · 2d

Global technology services provider DXC Technology Tuesday unveiled a new framework it uses for implementing AI internally and for its clients. Called Xponential, it's DXC’s next-generation AI orchestration blueprint

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/2du2jajb

DXC Unveils Xponential, Its Next-Generation AI Orchestration Blueprint

DXC’s new Xponential blueprints for AI aim to ensure the services provider’s clients have a safe, well-governed agentic AI experience.

tinyurl.com

Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar @channelwritrguy.bsky.social · 6d

I had a nice meeting with NetApp CEO George Kurian where we discussed the difference in value of data vs. storage and how businesses can take advantage of their data. We also talked about NetApp's role in AI, and H1-B visas.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/f42upje9

NetApp CEO On ‘Bringing AI To Your Data,’ Changing H-1B Visa Rules And The Firm’s Channel Strategy

NetApp CEO George Kurian in an exclusive meeting with CRN talked about the importance of transforming data for AI, and about the negative impact of high H1-B visa fees.

tinyurl.com

Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar @channelwritrguy.bsky.social · 8d

Down payment on a small beer.

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Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar @channelwritrguy.bsky.social · 13d

I had a nice long talk with NetApp CEO George Kurian about how NetApp differentiates itself by its focus on transforming, managing, and protecting data for AI. We also delved into the H1-B fee issue and how gov't business is changing.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/f42upje9

NetApp CEO On ‘Bringing AI To Your Data,’ Changing H-1B Visa Rules And The Firm’s Channel Strategy

NetApp CEO George Kurian in an exclusive meeting with CRN talked about the importance of transforming data for AI, and about the negative impact of high H1-B visa fees.

tinyurl.com

Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar @channelwritrguy.bsky.social · 14d

NetApp CEO George Kurian and NetApp's top execs introduced how the company is focused on data, not storage, and what it's doing to advance the art of making data AI-ready while providing protection and governance.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/3jykvzza

6 Ways NetApp Is Looking To Power AI Flexibility, Ransomware Resilience

Channel partners say NetApp is on the right track with its talk about transforming data for AI and then making sure it is secure even as the data changes.

tinyurl.com

Reposted by Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar

Semiconductor News by Dylan Martin @dylanonchips.bsky.social · 17d

Intel and AMD on Monday revealed new performance, security and reliability improvements coming to the x86 instruction set architecture in an effort to keep their computer chips relevant against rising alternatives like Arm. www.crn.com/news/compone...

Intel, AMD Detail x86 Improvements To Keep Their Chips Relevant

Intel and AMD on Monday revealed new performance, security and reliability improvements coming to the x86 instruction set architecture in an effort to keep their computer chips relevant against rising...

www.crn.com

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Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar @channelwritrguy.bsky.social · 17d

NetApp looks to help clients derive value from AI data with the intro of a new disaggregated storage system along with a new comprehensive AI data service, and added data breach detection to its cyber resilience capabilities.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/4mrtepju

NetApp Introduces Disaggregated Storage, New Software In Major Enterprise AI Push

NetApp’s AFX disaggregated storage system allows storage compute power and capacity to be scaled independently to meet various AI-ready data requirements.

tinyurl.com

Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar @channelwritrguy.bsky.social · 20d

Data storage/management co. Quantum is restructuring as it looks to jettison old processes and programs more suited for a $553M (2014) company and less suited for a $312M (2024) company. Here's my conversation with new CEO Hughes Meyrath.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/mrxrmk74

Quantum’s New CEO: ‘We Have To Reconnect With Some Of Our Partners And Rebuild The Relationships’

Quantum CEO Hugues Meyrath told CRN that his company has just restructured to act less like the large company it once was and more in tune with what partners need.

tinyurl.com

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Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar @channelwritrguy.bsky.social · 23d

Avnet confirmed to @CRN that it was hit by a data breach but said the stolen data, which is being held for ransom, was unreadable. This followed an attack on external cloud storage supporting an internal sales tool for Avnet’s EMEA business.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/3nm27vx2

Avnet Confirms Data Breach Involving Internal Sales Tool Information

Attackers breached an externally hosted cloud environment supporting a sales tool to steal data from Avnet’s EMEA territory and threatened to release it unless a ransom was paid.

tinyurl.com

Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar @channelwritrguy.bsky.social · 23d

Kyndryl launched an advanced agentic AI initiative aimed at accelerating AI adoption by customers across industries and at scale. Kyndryl Chairman/CEO Martin Schroeter talked about the news and what Kyndryl is working on going fwd.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/pr4pkv38

Kyndryl CEO On Launch Of Advanced Agentic AI Initiative

Kyndryl has added new capabilities to its Kyndryl Agentic AI Framework to help customers quickly adopt agentic AI.

tinyurl.com

Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar @channelwritrguy.bsky.social · 23d

Solution provider and defense contractor SAIC Monday said it will expand its mission-critical security capabilities through a planned acquisition of SilverEdge Government Solutions in a $205 million cash deal.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/mryvhkyh

Mission-Critical M&A: Government-Focused SAIC To Acquire SilverEdge

With its pending acquisition of SilverEdge, SAIC will gain multiple mission-critical AI, cybersecurity, digital transformation and data analysis capabilities.

tinyurl.com

Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar @channelwritrguy.bsky.social · 28d

Digital engineering and digital platform consultancy Synechron Thursday unveiled plans to become the planet’s largest financial services-focused ServiceNow practice with the acquisition of three ServiceNow channel partners.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/4kvy9wz5

Synechron Builds ServiceNow Financial Services Channel Giant Via Three Acquisitions

With the acquisitions of RapDev, Calitii, and Waivgen, Synechron instantly becomes what it calls the world’s largest financial services-focused ServiceNow practice.

tinyurl.com

Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar @channelwritrguy.bsky.social · 29d

Pure Storage intro'd the Pure Storage Cloud to expand the AI capabilities of its Enterprise Data Cloud, and added cyber resilience capabilities and 3rd-party partners to its Pure Storage Cloud to help harden its storage platforms.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/3zyea5pj

Pure Storage Brings Cyber Resilience, AI Front And Center

Pure Storage is beefing up the AI and cyber resiliency capabilities around its storage platform, including its new Enterprise Data Cloud.

tinyurl.com

Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar @channelwritrguy.bsky.social · Sep 30

Infinidat CMO Eric Herzog, in a conversation with CRN, provided an update on Lenovo's plan to acquire Infinidat. He also introduced an update to Infinidat's G4 array line, including a new smaller entry-level but still enterprise-class model.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/4287wkwa

Infinidat Debuts Small-Footprint G4 Arrays, CMO Says Acquisition By Lenovo On Track

The Infinidat G4 array family now has a smaller 11U entry version to make it available to a wider range of enterprise use cases.

tinyurl.com

Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar @channelwritrguy.bsky.social · Sep 26

I think Trump is a terrible person and a terrible president, but we can't blame him for housing costs. This is a long-term issue for the U.S.

Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar @channelwritrguy.bsky.social · Sep 26

TD Synnex’s in 3rd fiscal quarter 2025 enjoyed healthy all-around growth, giving the IT distributor one of its best quarters, with growth across all product lines and geos, plus revenue and earnings that solidly beat expectations.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/muxvfc7t

TD Synnex CEO: ‘We Are Seeing Broad-Based Strength In SMB And MSPs’

TD Synnex enjoyed growth across all geographies and product lines and did particularly well with software and PCs.

tinyurl.com

Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar @channelwritrguy.bsky.social · Sep 25

IT distributor TD Synnex Thursday used its annual TD Synnex Inspire partner conference to roll out a new digital partner portal called PartnerFirst aimed at making it easier for channel partners to work with the company.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/ybked89t

TD Synnex Launches PartnerFirst Digital Partner Portal

TD Synnex’s PartnerFirst digital portal was built with help from the distributor’s PartnerLink channel partner community.

tinyurl.com

Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar @channelwritrguy.bsky.social · Sep 25

IT service provider Blue Mantis this week expanded its go-to-market reach into Canada, as well as its ServiceNow capabilities, with the acquisition of fellow services provider Coreio.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/5484jt2f

Blue Mantis Expands Canadian Business, ServiceNow Capabilities With Coreio Acquisition

Blue Mantis CEO Josh Dinneen talks about the acquisition of Coreio and how increased alignment with ServiceNow is key.

tinyurl.com

Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar @channelwritrguy.bsky.social · Sep 23

Unstructured data management software developer Komprise Tuesday unveiled the general availability of Komprise Intelligent AI Ingest, a new data ingestion engine aimed at high-performance curation of unstructured data.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/3chyzujp

Komprise Intros High-Performance, Secure Data Ingestion For AI

The new Komprise Intelligent AI Ingest aims to improve the accuracy and security of unstructured data as it is ingested into RAG and LLM pipelines.

tinyurl.com

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Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar @channelwritrguy.bsky.social · Sep 22

ODP, which made a $1-billion bet with the acquisition of CompuCom only to sell it a few years later for $305 million, will go private when Atlas Holding acquires it. ODP is parent co. of Office Depot and OfficeMax.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/3pja5cd8

End Of An Era: Office Depot, OfficeMax Parent ODP To Be Acquired, Go Private

ODP, which made a $1 billion bet with the acquisition of CompuCom only to sell it a few years later for $305 million, will go private when Atlas Holding acquires it.

tinyurl.com

Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar @channelwritrguy.bsky.social · Sep 22

As much as I dislike Trump, what is the source of this quote? I've seen references to Trump allegedly telling former chief of staff John Kelly (NOT Mark Milley) "Well, Hitler did a lot of good things." But I cannot find the rest of that quote.

Please show where the quote was from, or pull it.