5 Channel Partner Updates: 21 October 2016

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Friday, October 21, 2016. Actually, there are 19 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… 19 Major Internet Outage: Internet service was disrupted for many people in the Eastern U.S. on Friday after hackers launched a DDoS attack against Dyn, a major Domain Name Server, according to Bloomberg. This round of DDoS attacks appear to be over, but the overall DDoS threat landscape remains a major ongoing concern across the global Internet. 18. SAP Cloud Momentum: SAP reported stronger-than-expected earnings this morning. The German software giant's cloud business is gaining momentum. Moreover, 400 new customers adopted the S/4 Hana platform during the quarter, up from 3,700 at the end of June. 17. Wipro Acquires Appirio: Wipro is acquiring Appirio for $500 million, essentially uniting a massive IT consulting firm with a cloud migration specialist. We'll share more channel-centric observations soon. 16. AWS Beats Microsoft for Small Business Clouds?: Pacific Crest survey results suggest Amazon Web Services (51%) easily outpaces Microsoft Azure (4%) as the preferred platform to deliver SaaS applications. Still, some media foils are misrepresenting the data -- suggesting AWS is destroying Azure among small business adopters. No doubt, Microsoft has major momentum with small business customers thanks to Office 365 in particular. 15. AT&T Selling Off Data Centers:? AT&T sold one of its data centers to Carter Validus Mission Critical REIT II earlier this week. Pundits wonder if AT&T will sell off more its data centers once rivals like CenturyLink and Verizon finalize their own efforts to sell off data center assets... 14. Apple Macs Are Cheaper Than PCs: Apple Macs cost far less than PCs to own and operate, according to IBM. The evidence? IBM has been tracking Mac total cost of ownership (TCO) KPIs as part of its own corporate migration to 100,000 Apple desktops and mobile devices. I'm always wary of TCO studies and Mac-vs-PC debates. But it's sort of ironic to think IBM -- creator of the original PC -- has gone Mac... 13. Managed OpenStack: Mirantis and NTT are working closely on managed private cloud services for OpenStack. Mirantis has been the post child for OpenStack consulting and distribution services. 12. Sales Acceleration Tools: Infer Inc., a predictive sales and marketing platform that helps companies win more customers, has launched a new connector for Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales. Infer now supports all of the major customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing automation (MA) platforms, the company claims. Microsoft will launch Dynamics 365 on Nov. 1. 11. Office 365 Protection  Services: GoDaddy has launched encryption and email archiving features for Office 365 users. Meanwhile, Veeam has launched Office 365 backup services. Most of the major backup providers offer or expect to offer Office 365 protection services. Greetings. You're not done. You can now safely proceed to page two for items 10 to 1.  Welcome to page two of today's update. Here are items 10 to 1. 10. Partner Program: Dunbar Security Solutions has expanded its channel partner program. 9. Atera PSA, RMM Gains Collaboration: Atera, which develops a cloud-based PSA and RMM platform, now integrates with Splashtop -- a remote support platform. While many PSA-RMM suites involved mergers and acquisitions, Atera's PSA-RMM platform was built in-house. 8. AWS Managed Services: CloudHesive and TierPoint are the latest MSPs to offer managed services and/or connection services to Amazon Web Services. CloudHesive is now an AWS partner. Also, TierPoint has launched AWS Direct Connect dedicated high-speed connectivity via TierPoint’s Seattle data center. 7. SolarWinds MSP and Risk Intelligence: SolarWinds MSP's remote management and monitoring SaaS platform (I believe that's the former LogicNow offering) now has full "risk intelligence" functionality built-in. Also, the company is hosting a partner gathering this week in Las Vegas, as well as a European MSP gathering in November. It's safe to expect more SolarWinds MSP roadmap details during the European event. 6. Cloud Pricing Info: Need to figure out pricing for the major public cloud providers? This report may help. 5. LANDESK Upgrade: The company's latest IT management platform, LANDESK 2016.3, provides "greater visibility" to help MSPs and their customers avoid failed audits, security threats, inconsistent policies and more, the company asserts. 4. IoT Management Integrations: CANDI's PowerTools software is now integrated with Intel's Building Management Platform (Intel BMP). BMP enables cloud-based smart building applications and services. Separately, Bosch and Software AG are developing new joint services and solutions for IoT, the two companies say. 3. Why Visionary CEOs Never Have Visionary Successors: Fascinating thesis. Here's Harvard Business Review's spin on the topic. 2. Datto Backup Assessment Tool: Datto has partnered up with a very well-known network assessment company to build a backup assessment tool for all MSPs. We'll share deeper details later today. 1. DattoCon Europe 2016: It's set for next week. Roughly 300 MSPs will be on hand. Some product surprises are expected. Stick around. We may preview the event later today... More: Read all of our daily 5 Channel Partner Updates. Plus: Subscribe to our daily enewsletter. Thanks to those who already have.