Channel Brief: NinjaOne Launches Channel Program, Thrive Names Steele COO

Happy Friday, folks! It's officially summer, and I hope you have plans to enjoy it this weekend.

First, though, we're congratulating Pax8 and Nerdio on their Microsoft Partner of the Year awards -- Nerdio in the Commercial Market and Pax8 in the Distributor category. You can check out all the winners and nominees here. And we're congratulating Hughes for winning the 2023 Cradlepoint Acceleration Partner of the Year award.

In other news, NinjaOne has a new global channel partner program; Thrive has a new COO, and more. As always, drop me a line at [email protected] if you have news to share or want to say hi! Happy Friday!

Grab your coffee. Here's what you need to know today.

Today’s Tech, Channel and MSP News

1. Nerdio Wins Microsoft Americas Partner of the Year, Commercial Market: Microsoft cloud solutions provider Nerdio has been named the Commercial Marketplace 2024 Microsoft Americas Partner of the Year. The company received recognition among a group of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating innovation and successfully delivering customer solutions using Microsoft technologies. The Microsoft Americas Partner of the Year Awards acknowledge Microsoft partners who have created and delivered exceptional Microsoft-based solutions, services and devices in the past year, according to a statement from the company. The award selections are categorized, with honorees selected from a pool of over 2,000 submitted nominations, Nerdio influences more than $230 million of Microsoft Azure consumption annually, and was recognized for providing outstanding solutions and services in the Commercial Marketplace. In addition to this award, Nerdio CEO Vadim Vladimirskiy was also awarded EY Entrepreneur of the Year in the Midwest region this month.

2. NinjaOne Announces New Channel Program: Endpoint management and security provider NinjaOne has launched NinjaOne Now, its global channel partner program. The program aims to help channel partners manage and secure endpoints at scale. In a statement about the new program, NinjaOne said the program will help partners automate their IT infrastructure, provides integrations with other IT and security solutions and offers sales and marketing resources, partner incentives and training.

3. Thrive Names Scott Steele to COO Role: MSSP Thrive has announced Scott Steele will be the company's new COO. Steele joins Thrive from Hewlett-Packard (HP) where he served as the VP and head of managed services systems within the Digital & Transformation organization. He played a pivotal role in transforming HP’s Managed Services Partner business with rapid global scale and expansion, according to a statement from Thrive. As COO, Steele brings expertise in operations management, digital transformation and business process automation. Steele's new role comes at a time of rapid growth for Thrive, which has completed ten acquisitions over the past two years, as well as double-digit organic growth via widespread adoption of their platform. Congratulations!

4. Pax8 Wins Microsoft Americas Partner of the Year: Cloud commerce marketplace Pax8 also announced it was named the 2024 Microsoft Americas Partner of the Year in the Distributor category. The Microsoft Americas Partner of the Year Awards acknowledge Microsoft partners who have created and delivered exceptional Microsoft-based solutions, services, and devices in the past year, according to a statement from the company. This is a big deal, especially since Pax8 has only been working with Microsoft for the last few years.

5. Hughes Wins 2023 Cradlepoint Acceleration Partner of the Year Award: Hughes, an EchoStar Company, today announced they've won the 2023 Cradlepoint Acceleration Partner of the Year award. Presented at Cradlepoint's recent 2024 Global Partner Summit, the award recognizes significant achievements by Hughes, including introducing a new Hughes Managed Wireless service for wireless-first connectivity options and secure, reliability-focused network infrastructures for enterprises as well as delivering excellent employee and customer experiences. 

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