5 Channel Partner Program and MSP News Updates: 13 July 2021

Here are five (actually more) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Tuesday, July 13, 2021. Sip up.

What’s In Our Daily Brew?

A. What’s Brewing Today: Technology News

1. Talent - MSP Software: ConnectWise has hired Regina Marrow as chief information officer (CIO).

2. Talent - M&A Expert: JEGI CLARITY, an M&A advisory firm that serves the information and technology industries, has hired Chris Karl as chief business development officer. The company has closed more than 800 transactions during its 30+ year history, for an average of nearly 27 M&A deals per year.

3. M&A - SOC for MSPs: Barracuda Networks, backed by private equity firm Thoma Bravo, has completed the Skout Cybersecurity acquisition. Skout develops SOC and XDR services that allow MSPs to protect end-customer systems. Barracuda announced the Skout Cybersecurity acquisition less than one month ago. Financial terms were not disclosed.

4. Funding - Partner Relationship Management (PRM): Impact has raised $150 million in funding at a $1.5 billion valuation. The company has also exceeded $100 million in annual recurring revenue, Impact says.

5. Funding: TriggerMesh, a cloud-native integration platform provider, has received a strategic investment led by Cisco Investments with the participation of existing investors and others. TriggerMesh in 2020 raised $3 million in seed funding to build a production-ready integration platform on Kubernetes.

6. Investment - Machine Learning: Government IT consulting giant Booz Allen Hamilton has invested in Latent AI, a software maker focused on enabling artificial intelligence and machine learning functions, Washington Technology reports.

7. Telecom Equipment Rebound: Finland's Nokia plans to raise its full-year outlook as business picked up pace in the second quarter, sending the telecom equipment maker's shares up more than 6%, Reuters reports. Nokia's surprising momentum comes as the company makes 10,000 staff cuts through 2022 while doubling down on 5G network R&D.

8. Business Intelligence Cloud Services: Zoho as launched a Business Intelligence (BI) Platform. The self-service BI Platform "enables organizations to cleanse, unify, and analyze cross-departmental data...and ultimately move toward a more competitive business strategy based on real-time insights," the company says.

B. Channel Chiefs, Partner Programs and Strategic Alliances

1. Partner Program - Cloud-based Infrastructure Monitoring: LogicMonitor has added 13 new VAR partners to the LogicMonitor Partner Network.

2. Partner Program - Microsoft 365: AvePoint, a data management ISV for Microsoft 365, has announced its first global partner program for all new and existing partners. The global effort expands on previous regional programs, the company says.

3. Partnership - Data Protection: iland, a VMware-focused application hosting provider, now supports Veeam Backup & Replication v11.

4. Partnership - Cloud Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR): SoftwareONE is the first MSP global design partner for delivering Commvault's SaaS-based Metallic data protection solutions. SoftwareONE has branded the cloud-based managed service as BackupSimple powered by Metallic.

5. Partner Program - Risk Management: Reciprocity has expanded the Reciprocity Partner Program. The goal is to "enable InfoSec solution providers and Value Added Resellers (VARs) to develop and deliver innovative products and services" supported by the company's ZenGRC platform. Synnex is assisting Reciprocity to "simplify the onboarding and ordering process for partners," the company says.

6. Partnership - Database as a Service: OVHcloud is accelerating the development of its Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) offer by partnering with Aiven, a European software company that combines open source technologies with cloud infrastructure, the companies say.

7. Partnership - Managed Detection and Response (MDR): IT consulting firm Tecala has selected eSentire as the company's exclusive MDR solution provider in Australia and New Zealand.

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