Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Thursday, April 26, 2018.
Actually, there are 17 timely updates designed 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…
17. Earnings: Watch for Microsoft and Amazon earnings later today...
16. GDPR Compliance Concerns: A full 52 percent of 400 U.S. companies surveyed are either still exploring the applicability of GDPR to their business; have determined that GDPR is not a requirement for their business; or are unsure, according to CompTIA.
15. Huawei Investigation: U.S. prosecutors in New York have been investigating whether Chinese tech company Huawei violated U.S. sanctions in relation to Iran, Reuters says...
14. Bare Metal Services: Rackspace is expanding its managed hosting portfolio to include Bare Metal as a Service (BMaaS) capabilities. The lineup supports access to both physical and virtual firewalls and load balancers, additional storage and advanced networking capabilities. The move comes one day after Rackspace launched Private Cloud as a Service, powered by VMware.
13. Cloud Management Tools: Morpheus Data has updated its cloud management platform to more effectively support cost optimization, secure self-service provisioning, data protection, and day-2 operations such as logging and monitoring. Plus, the company is making an MSP push. True believers include Exponential-E, an MSP that specializes in so-called "peace of mind as a service."
12. Azure Managed Services: Nerdio is introducing new incentives to help CSPs sell Microsoft Azure-related automation services.
11. Momentum: ServiceNow's 1Q 2018 subscription revenues hit $543.3 million, up 40 percent vs. 1Q 2017. We'll share more details later today.
10. IoT Partnerships: Among the relationships we're tracking...
- Deloitte Consulting plans to collaborate with Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Internet of Things (IoT) analytics solutions focused on tracking an organization's most important assets, the companies say.
- IBM and Cisco Systems are partnering on various IoT and data opportunities...
9. Talent - AWS Cloud: Ensono, the hybrid IT services provider, now employees 100 experts who are certified within the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Network (APN). The market for AWS partner talent is both growing and consolidating. Earlier this week, two major MSPs focused on AWS -- Reliam and Stratalux -- merged.
8. Talent - PSA Software: Kimble, the professional services automation software provider, has hired Mike Pilcher as chief revenue officer. Pilcher is a veteran of Oracle, Sybase, LinkedIn, Sand, Comscore and Foundry.
7. Talent - Business Continuity: Commvault has hired NetApp veteran Scott Strubel as vice president of worldwide channels. The company has made a series of moves to strengthen its partner engagements over the past half-year or so. Additional names to know include Owen Taraniuk (Head of Worldwide Partnerships and Market Development) and Andy Vandeveld (Vice President, Worldwide Alliances).
6. Business Continuity & BDR: Veeam has now generated double-digit revenue growth for 39 consecutive quarters, though emerging rivals like Unitrends are counting the company with aggressive deal promotions...
5. Business Continuity & Azure: Zerto and Microsoft have inked a cross-selling agreement, meaning Zerto sales teams and channel partners are incentivized to co-sell and cross-sell Zerto’s IT Resilience Platform and Microsoft Azure, the companies say.
4. Partner Program: Xerox's channel partner program has expanded to include UBEO in Austin, Texas, and Seattle-based Kelley Imaging Systems. Both dealers are focused on Xerox’s ConnectKey portfolio and personalized app-building capabilities.
3. MSP Customer handoff: QTS Realty Trust will transition roughly 200 cloud and managed services customer contracts and support to GDT by the end of 2018, the companies say. GDT will pay QTS a recurring partner channel fee based on revenue that is transitioned, as well as future growth on those accounts. The move is part of QTS Realty's "strategic growth plan" announced in February 2018. The plan spooked investors at the time...
2. Private Equity - Infrastructure Services: Antin Infrastructure Partners, a private equity firm, has acquired CityFibre for $750 million. The company is a well-known provider of wholesale fiber infrastructure in the UK.
1. Private Equity - MSP: Foresight Group, a private equity firm, has invested £3m (roughly US$4.18 million) into Luminet, an MSP in London that supports more than 550 customers. We'll share more details soon.
