Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Wednesday, August 15, 2018.
Actually, there are 15 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:
15. Cisco Earnings: The networking giant is expected to announce quarterly results later today. Keep a close eye on CEO Chuck Robbins' statements about recurring revenues, subscription services, and security services.
14. Microsoft Cortana vs. Amazon Alexa: It sounds like Microsoft is preparing to decouple Cortana from Windows, and offer the digital assistant on third-party platforms to compete more effectively against Alexa. What's at stake? As consumers and business users increasingly "speak" with computers, Microsoft knows it needs to push beyond the classic mouse- and keyboard-driven user interfaces.
13. Enterprise Storage: Qumulo File Fabric (QF2) is now available on Dell EMC PowerEdge servers, providing enterprises "unprecedented choice and flexibility for storing and managing billions of files," the company asserts.
12. Alibaba Cloud Expansion: Alibaba Cloud Elasticsearch, available in China since October 2017, is extending into new regions. Users gain real-time search, ingestion, analytical capabilities and commercial features, the two companies say. It's part of Alibaba's multi-step strategy to expand the company's cloud services appeal worldwide. The effort includes a potential partnership with BT in Europe. Alibaba, unbeknownst to many U.S. channel partners, is a Top 5 cloud services provider worldwide.
11. Remote Support: TeamViewer has deepened its integration for IBM MaaS360 with Watson. The connection now supports secure unattended access, allowing administrators to configure permanent access to remote Android devices without requiring any end user intervention, the companies say.
10. MSP Security: Qualys has launched a Consulting Edition designed for MSPs and IT consulting firms seeking cloud-centric security and compliance solutions. We'll share more thoughts soon.
9. Talent: Telarus has promoted Kelly Hoyle to director of account management. He now leads a team of account managers to maximize retention, enable the sales of up-market cloud products, and evangelize the unique service to Telarus’ community of over 4,000 independent sales partners, the company says.
8. FedRamp: Zscaler's Private Access-Government (ZPA-Government) application access platform now meets the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Moderate security requirements.
7. Partnership: Endace and Gigamon are partnering to improve visibility into network traffic for SecOps, NetOps and DevOps teams, the two companies say.
6. Professional Services Automation: Mavenlink has launched M-Bridge, a platform that allows service-centric organizations to integrate CRM, ERP, HCM, office productivity, collaboration, and document sharing apps with Mavenlink's operational system of record.
5. Diversity in the Channel: Companies with strong female leadership see a 36% higher return on equity than those without, yet only 3.6% of organizations in the channel are spearheaded by women, IT Glue notes. With those factoids in mind, the company is calling on MSPs to leverage female leadership in their companies to drive even more success.
To drive home those points, the GlueCon 2018 conference will feature a panel of the channel's top-performing women. The lineup (announced this morning) includes:
- Jennifer Bodell, VP of channel, Pax8
- Christine Gassman, director of global channel engagement, Datto
- Dana Liedholm, VP of global channel programs, ID Agent
- Jacqui Murphy, VP of marketing, Auvik Networks
- Moderator: Holly Pateman, VP of marketing, IT Glue
Side note: ChannelE2E will be blogging live from GlueCon. Want to potentially meet? Email me: [email protected].
4. M&A - Hosting & Managed Services: Dutch hosting provider TransIP has acquired Netherlands MSP IT-Ernity. VSS, a private equity firm, exited its IT-Ernity investment as part of the deal. We'll share more thoughts soon.
3. M&A - European Cloud Services: Orange has completed its $410 million acquisition of Europe's Basefarm for cloud infrastructure and application services. Basefarm also is a major HP Enterprise partner.
2. Inc. 5000 List & IT Service Providers: The 2018 Inc. 5000 List includes dozens of IT service providers and technology companies. The list honors the fastest-growing privately held companies in the United States. Key honorees include cloud distributor Pax8 (No. 68), security awareness training expert KnowBe4 (96), IT marketing experts Marketopia (232) and dozens of MSPs. We'll share more thoughts soon.
1. Benchmark Your MSP: How is your business performing compared to the overall MSP and IT services market? Join our next ChannelE2E webcast to find out.
