ChannelVision Playbook V6

Trend Micro to Invest $100m in Emerging Tech Trend Micro has created a $100 mil- lion global venture fund targeting startups in emerging technology sectors, such as IoT. In addition to capital, portfolio startups will gain access to Trend Micro’s technology and its channel of more than 28,000 partners. Trend Micro said that working with start- ups will allow it to unearth insights into new business models, market gaps and skill shortages. “These learnings will influence Trend Micro’s cybersecurity solution plan- ning across the company,” the firm said in an announcement. Establishing a separate venture capital unit also provides Trend Micro “additional freedom” to explore new areas of technol- ogy “without disrupting core business re- sources,” the company said. Will AI be ‘Weaponized’? A full 62% of security experts believe that artificial intelligence (AI) will be weaponized and used for cyberattacks within the next 12 months, according to a survey by Cylance of infosec experts at the recent Black Hat USA conference. “While AI may be the best hope for slowing the tide of cyberattacks and breaches, it may also create more ad- vanced attacker tactics in the short-term,” said a Cylance blog post on the survey. While the majority of those surveyed said that they felt there was a high possibility that AI would be used offensively, 32% said that there wasn’t a possibil- ity of that happening, and 6% said they didn’t know. It was not- ed, however, that the potential use of AI as an offensive weapon wouldn’t slow the use of AI as a defensive tool. The futuristic dream of the univer- sal, invisible and always-on Internet of Things (IoT) is one step closer, says MetTel, which recently an- nounced the first SIM that intelligently roams to identify and automatically and securely connect to the strongest signal globally. MetTel says its IoT Single SIM ensures the best possible connectivity no matter the device or location, chang- ing the game for supply chain complexity, retail issues, home health care and other industry challenges. Leveraging the coverage of four major U.S. and 650 world- wide carriers, MetTel’s Single SIM offers real-time data on- session activity that provides a current view of product status and location on anything from a mo- bile phone to a jet engine. It also ar- chives the past 48 hours of sessions for reference and analysis. Geo-fenc- ing gives the MetTel IoT Single SIM the ability to proactively self-report when it has entered special zones or reached its destination, so businesses are making informed decisions with always-on mobile tracking, engineer- ing and analytics. “The Single SIM is but one key part of the holistic approach MetTel takes to IoT,” said Max Silber, vice president of mobility and IoT, MetTel. “With al- ways-on connectivity that isn’t dictated by device, carrier or location, this solu- tion can effectively decrease mobility costs for major organizations, increase supply chain automation capabilities, and bring telehealth connectivity and deployment into rapid adoption.” While IoT Single SIM currently resides on a hardware chip, it utilizes an eSIM-ready infrastructure. eSIM- based technology changes the way SIM profiles are managed, says Met- Tel. Conceptually, an eSIM can host multiple profiles and work with all form factors, morph- ing from one type of carrier SIM to another, thereby mak- ing it universal. Although the eSIM has not yet arrived on the market, similar capa- bilities can be realized today with the MetTel IoT Single SIM, says the company. The difference is that the eSIM’s self-contained IMSI identity marker allows it to autono- mously shift forms while MetTel’s version boasts unlimited IMSI in the cloud, providing MetTel and its cli- ents w ith greater control o ver the IoT Single SIM’s transformations from one carrier network to another. MetTel Launches Auto-Connecting ‘IoT Single SIM’ Channel Vision | July - August, 2017 10 Swing by #927 for a quick update on our SD-WAN services & snag a CT Panda! Hybrid Networking • Managed Cloud • Global Colocation ctamericas.com 6 THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK