Elevology Blog

After several false starts, hyper-converged infrastructure developer Nutanix on Friday finally completed its IPO.

And, in a time when tech IPOs have not been doing well, Nutanix's IPO stands out for a surprising opening day success.

NetApp is in the process of rolling out a "hard deck" program and other changes to its channel program, targeting accelerated growth in the storage vendor's small and midsize business market.

A "hard deck" in channel terms is a program in which a vendor sets aside a certain number of customers or potential customers, typically its largest, as targets for either its direct sales team or direct sales working with partners, and leaving the rest to be handled exclusively by solution providers.

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Deloitte Introduces New Apple Practice to Help Businesses Design & Implement iPhone & iPad Solutions

CUPERTINO, California and NEW YORK — September 28, 2016 — Apple® and Deloitte today announced a partnership to help companies quickly and easily transform the way they work by maximizing the power, ease-of-use and security the iOS platform brings to the workplace through iPhone® and iPad®. As part of the joint effort, Deloitte is creating a first-of-its-kind Apple practice with over 5,000 strategic advisors who are solely focused on helping businesses change the way they work across their entire enterprise, from customer-facing functions such as retail, field services and recruiting, to R&D, inventory management and back-office systems. 

Apple and Deloitte will also collaborate on the development of a new service offering from Deloitte Consulting called EnterpriseNext, designed to help clients fully take advantage of the iOS ecosystem of hardware, software and services in the workplace. The new offering will help customers discover the highest impact possibilities within their industries and quickly develop custom solutions through rapid prototyping.

“We know that iOS is the best mobile platform for business because we’ve experienced the benefit ourselves with over 100,000 iOS devices in use by Deloitte’s workforce, running 75 custom apps,” said Punit Renjen, CEO of Deloitte Global. “Our dedicated Apple practice will give global businesses the expertise and resources they need to empower their mobile workforce to take advantage of the powerful ecosystem iOS, iPhone and iPad offer, and help them achieve their ambitions, while driving efficiency and productivity.”

Have no fear channel partners, the "C" in VCE is staying intact. Cisco Systems CEO Chuck Robbins and Dell CEO Michael Dell shook hands and pledged their allegiance to their VCE alliance and its $3 billion Vblock business in a face-to-face video interview.

"Everywhere I go our customers have asked, ‘What's the commitment to Vblock?'" said Robbins in a one-on-one sit-down with Michael Dell posted on YouTube by Dell EMC. "From our perspective it drives UCS, it drives our Nexus portfolio, it drives our ACI portfolio -- so we are committed. … We both feel like our customers and our partners can continue to invest with confidence."

View a mobile-optimized version on Apple Newsroom

Siri Comes to Mac with All-New Capabilities for the Desktop

CUPERTINO — September 20, 2016 — Apple® today announced that macOS™ Sierra, the latest major release of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system, is now available as a free update. macOS Sierra brings Siri® to the Mac® with intelligent and helpful features users know and love from iPhone® and iPad®, along with all-new capabilities designed specifically for use on the desktop. Features like Universal Clipboard, iCloud® Desktop and Documents, Auto Unlock and Apple Pay® on the web help your Mac work even better with other Apple devices. And Photos gets an update with a new Memories feature that automatically creates curated collections of your favorite photos and videos.

Siri on the Mac can help send messages and email, find documents, look up information, search a user’s photo library, adjust system preferences and more. Users can also drag and drop Siri results into documents or pin them into their Today view for later reference. Universal Clipboard allows users to copy content from an app on one Apple device and paste it into another app on a different Apple device. With iCloud Desktop and Documents users can now access the files on their Desktop from iPhone and iPad. And Auto Unlock lets users automatically log into their Mac when they are wearing an authenticated Apple Watch®.

Apple Pay on the web makes the online shopping experience in Safari® more convenient and secure than ever. Shoppers can now click the Apple Pay button at checkout on nearly 300,000 participating websites, including 1-800-Flowers, Gilt, Instacart, Lululemon, Warby Parker and more, and then complete their purchase with Touch ID® on iPhone 6 or later or with Apple Watch. Users’ credit or debit card information is not shared with online merchants and strong encryption protects all communication between a user’s device and Apple Pay servers.