The unofficial end of summer is almost here with Labor Day just around the corner. For the Channel Partners team, that means putting the finishing touches on preps for Channel Partners Evolution.

One of the vendors pitching a tent in the expo hall will be Bigleaf, which will espouse the virtues of its "cloud-first SD-WAN to partners. Jeff Burchett, co-founder and VP of sales and marketing at Bigleaf, gives Craig and Kevin a preview:

"It is definitely a crowded space right now. One of the biggest challenges we have as a company ... it really comes down to differentiation, helping partners understand where we fit uniquely relative to the rest of the market ..., said Burchett. "We got started with a very specific problem in mind that we wanted to address ... the unique needs of SaaS and cloud and UCaaS applications when you're accessing them over the public internet."

Also on the show, T.C. Doyle, senior director of content for Channel Partners and Channel Futures, interviews Josh Wilhelm, the new president of IT solutions provider Right Hand Technology Group, which specializes in vertical industries, most notably, manufacturing. Wilhelm offers a partner perspective of managed services, security, M&A activity and more.

All that, plus a preview of the MSP 501 Awards dinner at Channel Partners Evolution, and Craig reminds Kevin about his domination in their fantasy football league.