Facebook Launches Channel Program With Workplace Offering

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(NOTE: This story and video were originally posted to CRN,com Oct. 14.)
 
Facebook took its first dive into the channel last week, launching a new enterprise product called Workplace.
 
Facebook tapped about a dozen channel partners to sell the product and assembled the Facebook Workplace Partner Program. 
 
Workplace is a collaboration, messaging and social networking offering built to compete with Salesforce's Chatter and Slack.
 
Also last week, Cisco EMEAR President Edwin Paalvast said Amazon Web Services is a "hiccup" away from bankruptcy.
 
Paalvast was critical of the financial model behind AWS, and contrasted it with Cisco's own IoT-focused applications.
 
Paalvast said the AWS model is not built to turn a profit for partners, despite its 58 percent increase in sales for Q2.
 
And, Samsung officially halted production of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone following several incidents in which the phones caught fire.
 
Taking the phone off the shelves gives competitors like Apple and Google a chance to rack up extra sales.
 
Samsung's potential losses from the catastrophe could be as high as $2.8 billion in Q4.
 
But despite the bad headlines, channel partners expect Samsung to recover.