Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Friday, September 16, 2016.
Actually, there are 13 entries for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs), independent software vendors (ISVs), telco master agents and telco agents to sip on. Take a look…
13. MSP Acquired: Mirantis has acquired TCP Cloud, a 30-person MSP that supports customers running OpenStack, OpenContrail and Kubernetes. The acquisition will support Mirantis’ initiative with Google and Intel to enable OpenStack on Kubernetes.
12. Oracle Cloud Revenues: They rose 59 percent to $969 million in Oracle's first quarter ended Aug. 31, the company said yesterday. The impressive growth wasn't strong enough to offset Oracle's falling software licensing revenues, and the company's shares fell a bit last evening. Still, Chairman Larry Ellison says Oracle is preparing a major IaaS offensive vs. Amazon Web Services.
11. Enterprise Cloud Adoption: Large enterprises are are getting set to accelerate their public cloud services adoption, research from management consulting group McKinsey & Co. shows. ChannelE2E's Reaction: Thanks for affirming what the rest of the world already knows.
10. AWS Direct Connect Services: Equinix has launched an AWS Direct Connect cloud service in the company's Los Angeles data centers. With AWS Direct Connect, companies can connect their customer-owned and managed infrastructure directly to AWS, establishing a private connection to the cloud. That connection, in turn, boosts network reliability, security and performance, Equinix asserts. Equinix now offers the AWS Direct Connect service in 12 markets, five of which are in North America.
9. Azure Managed Cloud Services: - Rackspace has announced Managed Application Services for Microsoft Azure. The offering supports multiple third-party applications on Azure, including Magento, SAP Hybris, Oracle Commerce, Adobe Experience Manager, custom Java and .Net applications running. Rackspace, which is going private, continues to bet heavily on managed cloud services for Azure and AWS.
8. Google Apps for Government: Alphabet has hired State of Wyoming CIO Flint Waters to help state and local governments adopt Google Apps for Government cloud services.
7. Cloud Pricing Nonsense: A key Microsoft executive claims cloud price wars with Amazon are largely coming to an end. ChannelE2E's reaction? Nonsense. Much like Moore's Law in the hardware market, ChannelE2E believes the major cloud providers will continue aggressive price cuts as storage and bandwidth consumption escalate over the next decade.
6. Angle Funding Downturn?: AngelList, which runs an online portal connecting entrepreneurs with private investors, is assembling a “rainy day” fund and exploring new businesses as the market for investing in young startups slows, Bloomberg reported. Hmmm...
5. Salesforce Buys Consultancy: Salesforce.com has acquired Gravitytank, a Chicago-based "innovation consultancy" that helps brands grow their businesses, according to a Gravytank blog post. Th acquired team will assist Salesforce customers with design, research and strategy to drive customer and partner engagements.
4. Microsoft Stores Pursue SMBs, Push HaaS: Microsoft's retail stores now have dedicated SMB Zones to support small business customers. Microsoft is also working with Dell to promote Hardware as a Service and PC subscriptions in the retail locations. It's unclear if or how the Microsoft Stores will work with local small business resellers.
3. Clinton's Email Server Security: Hmmm... What does all this mean?
2. PSA Meets Salesforce Billing: FinancialForce, which develops PSA for Salesforce.com, has launched FinancialForce Billing Central, a cloud application that unifies billing, revenue management and accounting operations on the Salesforce Platform, the company claims. FinancialForce typically competes in the mid-market across numerous verticals, but has a growing base of VAR and MSP adopters.
1. Corporate Culture: GreatAmerica's executive team yesterday offered partners a two-hour boot camp on the company's corporate culture. It was the single best discussion I've ever witnessed on the topic. We've got a boatload of notes from the session and we'll publish a recap soon.
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