The content team at Channel Partners Newsletter tracks stories of interest to the technology advisor and wider channel communities. Anyone selling communication and connectivity solutions will want to stay abreast of these developing stories or catch up on ones they have missed. We are tracking—with the help of ChatGPT along with AI tools our parent Informa has developed—a roundup based on story traffic, mentions, impressions, reposts, and social media engagement. All links are valid as of Nov. 19.

Cloudflare CTO Makes Global Apology for Global Outage

Cloudflare CTO Dane Knecht apologized to the internet after Cloudflare resolved an outage that caused widespread problems across the internet ecosystem. Knecht took to X to offer his apologies, writing "I won’t mince words: earlier today we failed our customers and the broader Internet when a problem in @Cloudflare network impacted large amounts of traffic that rely on us. The sites, businesses, and organizations that rely on Cloudflare depend on us being available and I apologize for the impact that we caused." Read the Mashable story.

Verizon to Cut Around 15,000 Jobs

The Wall Street Journal reported that Verizon plans to cut roughly 15,000 jobs, looking to reduce costs as it contends with increased competition for both wireless service and home internet customers, according to people familiar with the matter. The majority of the reduction is expected to be made through layoffs. Verizon also plans to transition about 200 stores into franchised operations, which will shift employees off its payroll, one of the people said. The company had about 100,000 employees as of February, according to securities filings. Read the Wall Street Journal story.

Analysts Expect Verizon Cuts to Stores, Network and Enterprise Groups

Now that Verizon is expected to slash 15,000 jobs very soon - its largest reduction ever - Fierce asked analysts where the cuts are expected to hit. The experts predicted many reductions will come at the operator’s stores, but the network and enterprise sectors, as well as middle management could also feel the brunt. Read the Fierce Network story.

Nvidia and Microsoft’s Massive AI Deal

Nvidia and Microsoft announced a partnership with private AI startup Anthropic that consists of Nvidia buying $30 billion of cloud computing capacity from Microsoft and contracting up to 1 gigawatt of additional capacity. The first gigawatt of Anthropic’s commitment will run on Nvidia’s Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin systems. In exchange, Nvidia will invest up to $10 billion and Microsoft will invest up to $5 billion in Anthropic. Read the Investopedia story.

Nokia CEO Preaches Full Stack Integration

Nokia announced that it will reintegrate its four primary businesses into one unified entity — reversing the decision four years ago to split them into autonomous units. That move boosted infrastructure revenue at the time, but it also fractured communication and co-development across the company. In effect, Nokia had done exactly what it told its customers not to do: split itself into silos. Read the opinion piece on Fierce Network.

VMware Exalts Cloud Savings

VMware cloud environments powered by virtual storage area network (vSAN) are about to get cheaper after its Broadcom parent adjusted hardware requirements in a testing rethink. The news comes as Gartner research revealed the virtual machine (VM) giant is losing its stranglehold on an increasingly fragmented VM market. Read the SDxCentral story.

Channel Partners Navigate Sustainability Challenges

As sustainability moves from a buzzword to a business imperative, technology partners are recalibrating their strategies to balance profit, purpose, and performance. Omdia’s latest research reveals how the channel is adapting amid global uncertainty - where environmental and social responsibility are increasingly linked to business resilience. Read about it on Omdia’s website.

Lumen links with enterprise network startup Meter in NaaS push

Lumen Technologies has teamed with enterprise networking upstart Meter to offer a software-defined connectivity proposition for businesses that aims to shake up the traditional network supplier scene. The offering brings together Lumen's wide area network (WAN) and Meter's local area network (LAN) platform into a single product that enterprise customers can purchase and manage via the Meter Connect procurement portal and, soon, through Microsoft Marketplace. The pair also have some customers in common. Read the Light Reading story.

USTelecom Highlights ‘Egregious’ Permitting Problems

The trade association USTelecom prepared to file comments with the FCC urging the commission to use its authority to "return America's permitting to the realm of common sense" via actions on timelines, fees and coordinated practices. The telecom group's comments were in response to the FCC's notice of inquiry (NOI) on "Eliminating Barriers to Wireline Deployment." The notice sought input on ways the commission can use its authority under section 253 of the Communications Act to preempt state and local laws that "have a prohibitive effect on wireline telecommunications deployments and services.” Read the Light Reading story.