5 Channel Partner Program and MSP News Updates: 12 January 2022

Here are five (actually, more) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Wednesday, January 12, 2022. Sip up.

What’s In Our Daily Brew?

A. Today’s Technology, Channel Chief and Partner Program News

1. M&A - 60 Acquisitions So Far: M&A activity in the MSP and IT services provider market remains strong. Indeed, .ChannelE2E has covered 60 M&A deals -- most of which involve MSPs & IT consulting firms -- during the first 12 days of 2022...

2. Funding - MSP Data Protection: Bregal Milestone has invested in Redstor, a data management and SaaS protection. The funding amount and valuation were not disclosed. Redstor will use the funding to expand U.S. operations. Redstor lets MSPs and channel partners serving the mid-market "discover, manage and protect customer data across the broadest range of environments from a single, cloud-based application. The system protects data on-premises, in Kubernetes, and in SaaS applications such as  Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Salesforce and Xero, Redstor asserts.

3. Funding - Cloud Data Store Security: Eureka has raised $8 million in seed funding led by YL Ventures. Founded by Palo Alto Networks veterans Liat Hayun (CEO), former VP of Product Management, and Asaf Weiss (CTO), former Senior Director of Engineering, Eureka "enables security teams to mitigate the risk of data loss and theft in multi-cloud environments by gaining control over their organization’s entire cloud data security posture and compliance," the company said.

4. MSP - Executive Leadership: Netrix, backed by private equity firm OceanSound Partners, has hired Infrascale and OVHcloud veteran Russell P. Reeder as CEO. Reeder succeeds Rob Dang, who shifts to vice chairman -- where he will focus on strategic acquisitions, product strategy, and supporting key customer and partner relationships. Netrix has been in acquisition mode -- buying PSC Group in September 2021, the MSP business unit of Contegix in July 2021, and the Microsoft Consulting & Managed Services business unit of Prosum in December 2020.

5. MSP Software - Distribution: Brigantia has agreed to distribute Action1's cloud-based RMM (remote monitoring and management) software to MSPs in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

6. MSP - Packaged Google Cloud Services: SADA, a Top 250 Public Cloud MSP and Google Cloud partner, has launched SADA Power. The packaged services, SADA says, so far include:

7. Partnership - MSP and Healthcare IoT Security: Aspire Technology Partners and CyberMDX have partnered to protect IoT systems in the healthcare vertical.

8. Partnership - Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in Google Cloud: TELUS International is collaborating with Automation Anywhere to "simplify the delivery and migration of automation solutions on Google Cloud,"

9. Partnership - Palo Alto Networks and Microsoft: Palo Alto Networks has joined the Microsoft 365 Networking Partner Program to provide direct connectivity for Microsoft 365 users through the Prisma Access service.

10. Partner Program - Security Analytics: Devo Technology, a cloud-native logging and security analytics company, has launched a Technology Alliance Partner program, the latest addition to the Devo Drive Partner Program. Inaugural members include Check Point, Cybereason, Corelight, Cribl, CyCognito and Cyware.

11. Partnership - End User Security: SentryBay, a UK-based cybersecurity software company, and Stratodesk, a provider of end-user computing (EUC) management and OS software, have inked a alliance partnership. This partnership delivers "advanced security options to prevent keylogging and screen capture on Stratodesk’s operating system layer, rather than just a connected Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) session," the companies said.

12. Data Center Colocation Services: Cyxtera has extended its on-demand IT infrastructure resources to OEMs and technology service providers. Key partners include Dell Technologies and PacketFabric, the company indicated.

13. Multi-Cloud Migrations & VMware Data Protection: RiverMeadow Software Inc., a provider of Multi-Cloud Migration Software and Services, is expanding its portfolio to include Disaster Recovery (DR) Platform capability. The solution protects VMware vSphere workloads that run on-premises, in VMware or in any public cloud, RiverMeadow said.

14. Quarterly Results - IT Consulting & Software Development: Wipro's gross revenue was $203.1 billion for the quarter ended December 31, 2021 -- up 29.6% compared to the corresponding quarter in 2020. Still, the results were slightly below Wall Street's expectations and Wipro's stock fell about 1.5 percent on the earnings news.

15. Talent - Application Relationship Management: vArmour has named Corey Williams as SVP of marketing.

16. Research - Small Business and Cryptocurrency Payments: Almost a quarter of small businesses in nine countries around the world plan to accept digital currencies as a form of payment in 2022, while 13% of consumers in those countries expect retail stores to begin offering crypto payments this year and beyond, according to a survey by Visa, Reuters reported. The survey of 2,250 small business owners across nine countries including the United States, Brazil, Singapore and Canada suggests cryptocurrencies may be starting to go mainstream as a means of payment, Reuters added.

B. Channel Partner Summits, MSP Conferences and Virtual Events Calendar