The 20 Coolest Technology Products We Saw At XChange 2020

Solution providers who attended XChange 2020 in San Antonio got a chance to scope out some of the hottest new products in IT across security, data center, cloud and MSP software.

Live From The Show Floor

Solution providers who attended XChange 2020 in San Antonio got a chance to scope out some of the hottest new products in IT across security, data center, cloud and MSP software.

XChange 2020, hosted by CRN parent The Channel Company, offered a look at products from dozens of top vendors on the show floor. The products ranged from APC by Schneider Electric’s EcoStructure Micro Data Center C-Series 6U, to AppRiver's Security Audit Tool, to Intermedia's Contact Center Solution.

If you missed the show, or just wanted to refresh on some of the key products you saw there, we've rounded up some of the showcases that grabbed our attention in San Antonio.

What follows are 20 hot products for solution providers from XChange 2020.

AppRiver - Security Audit Tool

AppRiver used XChange 2020 to tout its offerings for email security including its security audit tool. The solution assesses Office 365 tenants to determine if there are any holes in security. Capabilities include building a profile for each user based on what policies and rules they have set up -- such as whether there is multi-factor authentication set up and what the password policies. The solution also scans the inbox itself to see if it is compromised. AppRiver's security audit tool is integrated into the company's partner portal itself, so that partners can see the security audits and provide one-click mitigation measures in the portal.

SOCSoter - MDR Platform

Formerly focused on working as an MSSP itself, SOCSoter has expanded to offer its managed detection response platform to other MSPs. The company reports having about 400 MSPs as partners currently, with a major ramp up in working with MSPs over the past year. The MDR offering provides a managed SOC/SIEM platform with capabilities to detect malicious activity, monitor networks, manage endpoint agents and provide reports and dashboards. SOCSoter's platform also offers advanced threat intelligence, pattern analysis and threat discovery, while the company also offers solutions for compliance and endpoint detection response.

Thycotic - Secret Server Cloud

Thycotic used XChange 2020 to showcase its offerings in password management, with a focus on cloud solutions. One of Thycotic's solutions, Secret Server Cloud, aims to be the go-to cloud approach for management of privileged passwords. The product provides enhanced security for storage and sharing of passwords, as well as control of user activity by permission level. Secret Server Cloud is delivered via a software-as-a-service model that enables partners to get started with the solution quickly, and the solution requires no provisioning or patching while offering redundancy delivered by Microsoft Azure.

Sprint IoT in a Box

Sprint Business at Xchange 2020 was talking to solution providers about its expanded IoT in a Box offerings and new features.

Specifically, the wireless giant has expanded its IoT in a Box solution for the hospitality segment with the addition of a panic button in keeping with the American Hotel and Lodging Association's 5-Star Promise, a pledge to provide hotel employees and guests with safety devices aimed at enhancing hotel safety, including preventing and responding to sexual harassment and assault. Sprint has developed a "no dead zone" technology that empowers the technology to work even in difficult areas to get connectivity, such as stairwells and parking garages. The technology can also track individuals if they are on the move away from an attacker.

Sprint partners in the hospitality space have access to the latest offering, which is now mandated in specific U.S. cities, including Chicago, New Jersey, New York, and Orange County, California, according to Overland Park, Kansas-based Sprint.

Intermedia Contact Center Solution

Business communications specialist Intermedia took to Xchange 2020 to show off its Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solution to partners, an offering that the majority of the firm's partners are now selling since it was first introduced in 2019.

The Intermedia Contact Center offering is an omni-channel solution that can integrate with many third-party solutions via APIs, including CRM tools like Salesforce. Intermedia partners also have the ability to wrap their own services around the solution, such as reporting, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company said.

The contact center solution adds another path to recurring revenue for Intermedia's nearly 7,000 channel partners, according to the company. The offering can be sold via a white-labeled model or in an advisory model through partners.

The contact center solution is a result of Intermedia's acquisition of cloud contact center specialist Telax in August. Now combined, Intermedia partners can provide an integrated communications offering that includes Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), collaboration and CCaaS, the company said.

IntelePeer Atmosphere CPaaS Platform

Communications platform-as-a-service (CPaaS) provider IntelePeer showed off its Atmosphere Communications Platform, otherwise known as CPaaS 2.0. The Atmosphere platform can help enterprises embed real-time communications into their applications, including SMS, voice, and social networking communications.

The best part is, the IntelePeer platform lets non-developers build communication-enabled applications that don't just target IT teams, IntelePeer partners can also target marketing, HR, finance, and customer service teams that are looking for ways to increase productivity, improve customer engagement, and reduce costs.

San Mateo, Calif.-based IntelePeer's CPaaS platform uses IntelePeer's homegrown voice and communication solutions.

APC by Schneider Electric’s EcoStructure Micro Data Center C-Series 6U

APC by Schneider Electric is giving channel partners a 17 percent discount on its new EcoStruxure Micro Data Center C-Series 6U wall mount. The new micro data center brings together power, cooling, racks and management purpose-built for edge environments.

The 6U wall mount is designed for edge computing where space is at a premium and resiliency is a must, allowing for large edge servers, networking equipment and UPSes to be safely mounted on a wall. It consumes zero floor space and is 60 percent less intrusive than traditional wall-mount enclosures, according to Ritarossi. The micro data center’s shock packaging means partners can preinstall IT for quick and standardized rollouts, and its integrated dust filter and fan ventilation make it ideal for light industrial environments.

CyberPower’s Redesigned PowerPanel Software

The power protection and management specialist recently unleashed a new version of its PowerPanel Business software that provides a new level of power management to its UPS and PDU systems. CyberPower Systems’ PowerPanel Business 4.1 makes it easier to monitor and manage IT equipment with a new visual indicators and color-coded user interface, supporting multiple operating systems from the likes of VMware, Linux and Windows.

The new software makes UPS configuration, automatic shut downs and event notifications easy to manage. PowerPanel Business 4.1 is available in three versions: Local, for connecting a computer directly to the UPS with USB or serial cable; Remote, for connecting via the network to the RMCARD installed in the UPS to manage up to 50 clients; and Management, for administrators to monitor and manage an unlimited number of CyberPower products on the network.

Vertiv’s Liebert PSI5 Lithium-Ion UPS

This week, Vertiv launched its new “game changer” lithium-ion UPS products aimed at replacing all lead-acid based UPS systems. The new Liebert PSI5 is the first single-phase UPS from the Columbus, Ohio-based data center company available with next-generation lithium-ion batteries. The new interactive UPSes come in 1,500VA and 3,000VA capabilities which includes a battery management system that provides real-time monitoring of battery conditions and ensures reliable operations.

To drive channel sales around the new solutions and to replace the competition, Vertiv has unveiled a trade-in program that enables customers to trade in almost any single-phase UPS —whether from Vertiv or a competitor — for discounted pricing. The program also includes free shipping and recycling of the old UPS units.

KMC Commander

KMC Commander is an IoT and automation software platform from building automation vendor KMC Controls that allows solution providers to easily collect, visualize and analyze data from a variety of sensors, devices, controllers and building systems such as HVAC. As the data is collected through an edge gateway, the cloud-based software can be used on any device to set up alerts, triggers and alarms to, for example, detect system downtime or the presence of chemicals and gas. KMC Commander be set up for users with different permissions, so that solution providers and customers can customize access. The platform comes with security features such as data encryption, whitelisting and the requirement that only the software can initiative communication with outside servers and devices.

Dynabook Portege X30L

The Dynabook Portege X30L is a lightweight laptop that only comes in at 1.92 pounds, which Dynabook claims makes it the world’s lightest 13.3-inch notebook with 10th-generation Intel Core processors. The laptop is built for professional use with Windows 10 Pro preloaded and its slick, durable Onyx Blue magnesium alloy chassis. The laptop supports up to an Intel Core i7-10710U processor, which comes with six cores, a 12 MB cache and up to 4.70 GHz in clock frequency. It also comes with Intel UHD Graphics, up to 25 GB in dual-channel DDR4 memory, up to 512 GB in M.2 PCIe NVMe solid-state storage (with optional Intel Optane support), Intel Wi-Fi 6 and up to 14 hours of battery life. In addition, it has two USB 3.2 ports – one of which supports external charging of devices while in sleep mode – and one USB-C 3.2 port for laptop power and display.

HE150

The HE150 is a new appliance from Scale Computing that uses the Intel NUC mini PC to deliver a small, all-flash, NVME storage-based hyperconverged infrastructure solution at the edge. With its small form factor, the appliance consumes a small amount of power and can fit in many constrained locations without the need for a rack or server closet. Scale Computing promises highly available virtual machines that can be created in minutes, no single point of failure and self-healing machine intelligence with HE150, which also supports multi-site management. The vendor claims HE150 has “the industry’s lowest edge acquisition and deployment costs and can reduce ongoing management costs by 60-80 percent” compared to other hyperconverged edge solutions.

Ubiq Security

Ubiq Security has in beta a new management console with multi-tenancy capabilities to make it easier for MSSPs to manage many customers in a segmented fashion, according to Chief Revenue Officer Scott McCrady. The new management console will be generally available next quarter, McCrady said, and can be in an MSSP’s local environment or in the cloud.

The management console will allow MSSPs to view and control all their customers from a single location without having to log into a bunch of different locations to manage the underlying customer experience, McCrady.

There’s also a use case for Ubiq’s new management console with large customers who wish to provide their security team with a master view into the different teams or departments within the organization, McCrady said. For instance, McCrady said the new management console could make it easier for a large chip manufacturer to give program managers the ability to secure data and IP inside a particular team.

ID Agent

ID Agent has taken over the development of the AuthAnvil authentication suite and plans to rebrand and relaunch the offering next quarter, according to Vice President of Business Development Matt Solomon. AuthAnvil offers two-factor authentication, single-sign on and password management, and was recently placed under the ID Agent umbrella by Kaseya, who purchased both companies.

The relaunch and rebranding of AuthAnvil will allow ID Agent to not only provide single sign-on capabilities internally, Solomon said, but also bring multi-factor authentication and password management to a broader set of end users. AuthAnvil will be a critical component of the ID Agent security stack by ensuring that channel partners are adequately protecting their end customers.

As part of the relaunch, Solomon said ID Agent has gone back and fixed bugs reported in AuthAnvil as well as added more mobile capabilities. The company has also worked to create a more unified look and feel across AuthAnvil so that it doesn’t feel like users are going into a different environment, Solomon said.

Bitdefender

Bitdefender will in June cut the ribbon on its first-ever Security Operations Center (SOC), which will protect MSPs and customers from the most pernicious threats while reducing their overhead, according to Senior Director of Managed Security Operations Daniel Clayton.

The SOC will be located in San Antonio, staffed by 26 security analysts – which include 24 shift workers, a manger, and a senior security architect – and be capable of supporting between 1,200 and 1,500 customers, Clayton said. The Bitdefender SOC analysts have been working out of a temporary office in San Antonio for the time being, and are currently supporting less than 100 customers, Clayton said.

The company is considering adding a second SOC in Romania, Germany, London or Israel to address data sovereignty requirements, Clayton said. Having an additional SOC in a different part of the world would add more flexibility from a time zone perspective and allow Bitdefender to address the needs of the small number of customers who don’t wish or aren’t allowed to use a U.S.-based SOC, Clayton said.

Axcient AirGap

Axcient used XChange to talk about its new AirGap technology that is says fights ransomware by offering a multipart control at the software layer and the human layer to separate the request to delete data from the mechanics of deleting it.

Axcient CEO David Bennett said that, should someone attempt to delete backup data, AirGap routs the request to an authorized administrator for confirmation. There is also a time delay before the data is accidentally deleted to prevent the deletion.

"We want to make sure no one spoofs the customer," Bennett told CRN. "AirGap gets the request, and goes through the MSP for validation to delete data."

AirGap works well with Axcient's AutoVerify technology that checks data on a regular basis to make sure it can be recovered as promised, Bennett said.

"AirGap, stacked with our AutoVerify technology, can verify the data that is backed up is good, recoverable data," he said. "And in the event something bad happens, it can be recovered. It's all about adding multiple layers of protection.

StorageCraft OneXafe Solo 300

Data protection software and appliance developer StorageCraft used XChange 2020 to introduce its new OneXafe Solo 300, the company's first direct-to-cloud data protection appliance for small businesses.

The OneXafe Solo 300, which is currently in beta and scheduled to be released in April, combines a very small appliance with the company's ShadowXafe data protection software, said Jeannine Edwards, StorageCraft's senior director of channel marketing.

"End users can plug it in, and it is instantly discovered and available to be managed via our OneCloud platform," Edwards told CRN. "It's our first appliance for the "s" in SMB, or for companies with under 20 users."

Lee Schor, StorageCraft's vice president of America's sales, said the key to the OneXafe Solo 300 is flexibility. "It can be used as a cloud, or used with external clouds," Schor told CRN.

Liongard

Liongard is roaring.

The highly automated documentation tool more than doubled its partner base last year surging from about 250 partners to more than 700 by the end of 2019, said Shawn Sailer, vice president of managed service strategy at Liongard.

“When we set our targets, I thought they were astronomical,” he said. “We blew them out of the water. We wanted to sync up with over 700 partners and over the last year and we did it. When we had our company kick off meeting this year, it was a real eye opener for me. I was employee number five. At the end of 2018, I think we had about a dozen people. At the end of last year we had 39.”

The company expects the growth to continue through 2020.

“It’s going to be bigger than last year,” he said. “We’ll be more than double that. We have some really awesome distribution partners coming on line in the next quarter as well.”

Its flagship product, Roar, gives MSPs visibility into on-premise apps, network devices, and cloud services. Liongard said the end result is faster on-boarding times, and the ability to resolve customer issues more quickly.

Sailer said the company is building out its development team, its sales and marketing, and it is poised to announce new features and integrations.

“To give you a teaser, its something our best and brightest MSPs have been asking for. It was a lot of work for us to change it inside the app on the front end and the back end to make it really incredible. If they’ve been with us for a while, they already have a hint about what it is.”

NinjaRMM

Ninja RMM says it has one of the quickest update cycles in the market, incorporating homegrown ideas as well as partner feedback to turn around changes to the product about every 45 days. The company has grown its engineering team by 60 percent over the last year, and is focused on ways to make the product as user-friendly as consumer grade apps, Kodie Dower, media relations manager, said. He said Ninja differentiates by providing customers only what they need so they are not paying for what they don’t.

“I think right now people are experiencing the consumerization of software,” he said. “These really clean, UI focused design focused apps that really enable you to get more done. Maybe it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles, but it’s a trimmed down version of what you need and it delivers super powerful stuff when you need it. That’s what we’re thinking about when we’re looking at what is happening with RMM ... If you look at our product now, its one of the cleanest UI’s on the market. Its incredibly fast. Its incredibly powerful.”

Additionally, Ninja has doubled its number of customers from around 2,000 last year, to 4,000 now. Ninja RMM CEO Salvatore Sferlazza founded and sold Anchor, a secure file sharing solution for SMBs which is now owned by Axcient.

Huntress Labs

The friendly face of channel cyber security that is known for explaining threats to the MSP environment and helping solution providers navigate them via its Reddit posts as well as its popular blog, was just awarded $18 million in financing to help it grow its SaaS based end point management solution. The Series A funding from Forge Point Capital will be used to expand its engineering team and product development cycle, as well as expanding into additional market segments and geographies. Huntress said it will also use the investment in its business to remain independent and focused on helping channel partners.

“We wanted to make threat detection available to small businesses, who are under attack just as much as large enterprises,” CEO Kyle Hanslovan has said. “We call it cybersecurity for the 99%. We believe that the best way to effectively reach these businesses is by enabling and empowering the channel.”

Founding in 2015 by three former NSA operators -- Hanslovan, Chris Bisnett, and John Ferrell -- who together have 30 years of offensive cyber security experience, Huntress brought a cloud-delivered approach to MDR based on detecting malicious footholds and attacker persistence.