5 Channel Partner Updates: 28 February 2017 -

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Tuesday, February 28, 2017.

Actually, there are 10 must-read updates 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…

10. IoT Partner Program: Davra Networks has launched ConnecThing.io, an Internet of Things (IoT) platform exclusively for solutions providers and channel partners.

9. Cisco IoT Push: Keep a close eye on Cisco's Jasper platform at this week's Mobile World Congress 2017 conference in Barcelona. Cisco acquired Jasper in February 2016, and the IoT platform's customer base has expanded to 9,000 customers -- up 157 percent from March 2016.

8. New ServiceNow CEO: In a surprise move, eBay veteran John Donahoe will succeed Frank Slootman as ServiceNow's CEO in April. ServiceNow's stock dipped a bit amid the unexpected news. The company makes a wildly popular cloud-based ticketing system for IT service management. But ServiceNow wants to extend its platform into additional departments -- particularly HR, finance and more... Upcoming Partner Summit: ServiceNow Knowledge 17, set for May in Orlando.

7. Remote Network Management: D-Link and a sister business named TeamF1 Networks have launched mydlink Business, a cloud-based device management platform for channel partners, telcos and ISPs in the SMB market. Ironically, D-Link didn't mention MSPs -- the most obvious user base -- as a potential target for the platform...

6. Ingram Cloud Platform: Ingram Micro has unveiled its latest Odin Automation Premium release -- which is designed for service providers that want to launch and manage their own cloud services. Ingram acquired Odin from Parallels in 2015. It's not to be confused with Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace, a dashboard and online mall that allows partners to source and activate third-party cloud services for customers. Upcoming Partner Summit: Ingram Micro Cloud Summit, set for April in Phoenix.

5. Huawei Layoffs?: Huawei Technologies employees are bracing for possible jobs cuts after internal memos highlighted intense pressure to improve earnings and an executive said the flagship smartphone business had missed internal profit targets, Reuters reported. Many of Huawei's major rivals have had layoffs in the past year.

4. M&A - IT Services: DWS is acquiring SMS Management and Technology for $124 million. The deal seeks to create a "leading Australian IT services provider." We'll take a closer look at the two companies and their business combination soon...

3. Disaster Recovery as a Service: StoneFly has introduced a Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) platform for new and existing Veeam customers. StoneFly and Veeam previously partnered in 2016 to developStoneFly Scale Out Cloud Storage for Veeam Cloud Connect, which is now deployed in Microsoft Azure data centers across the globe. Upcoming Partner Summit: VeeamOn Conference 2017, set for May in New Orleans.

2. Datto Seeks CFO: Datto is seeking a CFO to help drive the company's next stage of growth. Former CFO Michelle McComb and Datto parted ways this year. McComb is credited for helping Datto build out its financial systems as the company marched toward a $1 billion "unicorn" valuation by late 2015. More recently, the company has been expanding globally across Europe, Australia and more. Datto's next CFO will play a key role in managing the company's next stage of growth -- particularly amid all that international expansion. The CFO will also need to manage finances across an increasingly diverse product lineup -- including the new Datto Networking business, which features home-grown Unified Threat Management (UTM) appliances and the recently acquired Open Mesh networking lineup. And what about IPO experience for the next CFO? That's certainly valuable but not necessarily required, notes Chief Marketing Officer Pete Rawlinson. Upcoming Partner Summit: DattoCon17, set for June in Denver.