Friday Tech News

Insights & Trending News in Enterprise Technology 1/31/2025

Author

Phil Moroni
January 31, 2025

In partnership with

Good morning!

Ugh. I’m still writing the date as 2024 when I write these... I thought that would have died when I gave up writing the date with a pen and paper lol (side note, gave up paper in 2019. You should too). Anyway…onto the news!

This week was nuts in tech. That’s the first time I’ve ever said such a thing I think here.

We saw great funding announcements to finish off January, the rise of new AI models that tanked the US stock market giants @ NVIDIA, and a ton of debate around the future of the OSS market.

This edition has some good announcements from several large providers, but mainly covers the aforementioned topics. As always, if you like what you're reading, LET ME KNOW! I would appreciate it 🙂 .

In the coming weeks I’ll be publishing my first “Founder Focus” of the year. I’m excited that it’ll be with Francesco Cipollone from my company, Phoenix Security.

Let me go on record and state that what I believe Frank has built is truly special. If you understand the modern problems that practitioners and executives are facing around IT (rising costs, rising amounts of tools, consolidation of choice in the market, demand for jobs, and how the hell to secure AI) and what he’s trying to do about them. I love his vision and mission and I’m looking forward to educating those who will listen to what we’re doing here at Phoenix.

Onward to the news, and have a wonderful rest of you weekend. Stay physically and digitally safe.

Phil

OEM News & Updates 📰

Palo Alto Networks | PANW Introduces Quantum API

  • Quantum Random Number Generation, or QRNG is an Open API framework, developed with six leading innovators. The framework aims to prepare orgs for future quantum security threats by promoting multi-vendor interoperability and enabling robust QRNG system. Crazy that we’re reporting on Quantum now for enterprise tech.

  • It addresses the convergence of AI, ML, Deep Learning, Classical supercomputing, and quantum computing 🤯 .

  • It generates “truly random numbers for secure cryptographic keys”.

  • Bet you didn’t think I followed these guys? Well if you don’t know, they have ridiculous great threat intel, and yes, they’re a huge tech company.

  • Verizion Business has unveiled their “AI Connect”, an integrated suite of solutions designed to manage AI workloads at scale on networks.

  • They’re partnering with Google Cloud, Meta, NVIDIA, and Vultr to enhance their AI ecosystem.

  • The new strategy focuses on enabling real-time decision making and supporting enterprise needs with low-latency connectivity and robust security.

  • It’s about time I covered the VAR and GSI space. Now - keep in mind - I used to do this stuff and have tons of recommendations in the space depending on what you’re looking for. But I have to try and diversify a bit and report on other tech as Services become more “software like”.

    • Big shoutout to my friends Matt Donato and Dan Desko with Echelon Cyber & Risk. If you aren’t following what they’re doing but need a boutique, solutions focused partner, you may want to check them out. Big fan of what they’re doing and the content that Dan puts out on a weekly basis. Great people truly trying to help.

  • This new service is an update to their existing STaaS and VCISO offerings. That’s Security Team as a Service btw.

  • Unlike traditional detection and response models, Echelon’s new service emphasizes preventing security incidents before they occur (people after my own heart ❤️ ) ensuring that security platforms are effectively managed and optimized.

  • The service aims to help orgs manage their security tools more efficiently, addressing common challenges like lack of resources and expertise.

  • Cyware has partnered with Team Cymru to launch the industry’s first pre-configured threat intelligence platform (TIP - yay another new one).

  • The new solution offers real-time visibility into botnets, malware, and malicious activities for enhanced EDR.

  • The platform enables security teams to automate threat hunting, integrate threat indicators with network defenses, and gain detailed threat insights, significantly improving threat mitigation and response.

  • Dynatrace announced new capabilities for their customers’ GenAI initiatives, providing comprehensive insights into AI apps to enhance reliability, performance, security, and compliance.

  • The platform now includes advanced LLM model analytics, input and output guardrails to prevent issues like hallucinations and PII leakage, and multi-model tracing for end-to-end observability.

  • Dynatrace integrates responsible AI practices by tracking every input and output for audit trails and offers real time queries through Dyantrace Grail to support compliance and optimization.

  • OpenAI has introduced Operator, which I previously reported on a couple weeks ago. It handles web based tasks like browsing, shopping, and ordering products for users. It’s a virtual assistant. Sick.

  • Major ecommerce brands like eBaty and Etsy are among the first partners trying this for their brands.

  • Tons of safety measures implemented. No DeepSeek AI operator here.

  • ServiceNow’s Agentic AI innovations have new capabilities designed to autonomously solve complex enterprise challenges. These innovations include an AI Agent Orchestrator to manage and coordinate AI agents across tasks and departments, and an AI Agent Studio for building custom AI Agents.

  • The new AI agents are built directly into their platform, leveraging billions of pieces of information and probably just as many automations.

  • They’re stressing accountability, compliance, and transformative outcomes for their customers. The Agents (do we capitalize this all the time?) provide pre-trained and customizable solutions to automate critical business processes at unprecedented speed.

  • Automox has launched a real-time monitoring feature for Linux CVE data to address the delays in the National Vulnerability Database (NVD). This feature provides timely, accurate, and comprehensive CVE information.

  • The new service expands CVE monitoring support to additional Linux distros including CentOS and Amazon Linux.

  • By offering real-time and context-rich CVE data, Automox enables IT and security teams to try to prioritize critical fixes that need to happen in a timely fashion.

  • Endor Labs has introduced a new feature called AI Model Discovery, which enables orgs to discover and manage AI models used within their apps, filling a pretty critical gap left by traditional SCA tooling.

  • This feature allows orgs to set and enforce policies over AI models, including evaluating models based on risk factors and blocking high-risk models from use.

  • With a significant portion of orgs choosing open source models, Endor Labs’ new feature addresses this by allowing users to gain insight into securing these components of their apps.

  • Hugging Face has partnered with 3rd party cloud vendors in introduce Inference Providers. This feature enables developers to run AI models on the infrastructure of their choice directly from their platform.

  • The new feature offers serverless inference, allowing devs to deploy and scale AI models without managing the underlying hardware. It simplifies access to various serverless inference providers through a unified, nice interface.

  • Acquia has partnered with SearchStax to enhance the search experience of Drupal-based websites.

  • The new search solution improves website engagement, user satisfaction, and conversions with features such as intelligent search suggestions, auto-completion, etc..

  • Marketers can now configure sophisticated search features without complex coding. Pretty slick.

Articles I Liked This Week 💡

  • Thank you for your service Jen - you did incredible amounts of work to better the nation. Big fan.

  • Check Point’s 2025 Security Report reveals a 44% YoY increase in global cyber attacks.

  • Healthcare experienced an 8,614 weekly attack average, making it one of the most heavily impacted sector alongside Education/Research and Government/Military.

  • GenAI was notably used in attacks thru 2024, accelerating attacks and influencing public opinion.

  • see this week’s meme.

  • Really great article highlighting the gender diversity in tech. As a girl dad, I’m 100% in on getting more people in general into Cyber and hope my little girl wants to hack her way through some stuff in the coming years!

Tech Funding & M&A 💸

  • Entrust is a Minessota based business specializing in digital security and credential issuance. Their solutions include software and hardware for issuing financial cards, e-passports, etc…

  • Sectigo doubles their enterprise footprint with this acquisition.

  • ElevenLabs is a New York City based company that specializes in developing AI-powered search synthesis software.

  • Their tech focuses on creating natural-sounding speech, including voice cloning and dubbing tools, which can be used for various applications like content creation etc…

    • scary stuff too IMHO.

  • Dropsuite is a Melbourne Australia based company specializing in cloud backup, archiving, and recovery solutions.

  • Token Security is an Israel based organization that specializes in Non Human Identity security and machine management.

  • Oligo security is an Israel based Application Detection and Response (ADR) platform provider that provides deep application inspection at runtime.

  • Vulcan Cyber is an Israel based company specializing in exposure management to help companies identify, prioritize, and remediate vulnerabilities.

  • Finout is an Israel based FinOps platform provider.

Meme of the week 🤣

Shoutout to Apple for the Magic Wand to remove the curse word 🙂 

Bonus Meme from Forrest

Recommendations 👉🏻

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Thank you so much for making this a part of your Friday morning coffee time. I'm Phil Moroni, and I'm an Account Executive in the Information Technology industry here with another edition of Friday Tech News!

What is this? This is a newsletter that provides updates and insights on the latest trends and developments in the technology industry. I am a professional who specializes in supporting IT leaders in evaluating, investing, and managing people, processes, and technology tools that support their businesses.

Each week, I summarize relevant industry updates from popular Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM's), software publishers, and managed providers. The goal of my research and newsletter is to keep you informed about current trends and events that may impact your business from a trusted and reputable source. It's just information I'm sharing, and I follow and work with hundreds of partners in the industry, keeping track of their growth, changes, and evolution so that you don't have to.

Bottom Line: As you focus on improving your business through digital initiatives, my commitment is to keep you informed of the fast-paced changes and trends taking place so that you can plan ahead and stay ahead of the game.

Key areas of focus for me are:

  1. Cloud Computing, Security, Trends

  2. Developer & Security Tools

  3. Networking & Infrastructure Tools

  4. End User Tools & Workspace Tech

  5. Emerging Technologies and Future Concepts

If you have any questions, would like information about any specific vendors I follow, or would like to have a conversation about any topic that is challenging you, I invite you to engage with me! I value feedback immensely and would love to know what you find valuable about this newsletter so feel free to reach out!

Thank you for reading and stay digitally and physically safe!

Phil

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