5 Channel Partner and MSP Updates: Wednesday 16 December 2020

Here are five (actually, more) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Wednesday, December 16, 2020. Sip up.

Our Daily Brew

A. What’s Happening Today

1. M&A - IBM Acquires FinTech Company: IBM has acquired Montreal-based fintech company, Expertus Technologies Inc. The acquisition strengthens IBM's portfolio as an "end-to-end digital payments solution provider and further advances IBM's hybrid cloud and AI strategy," the buyer says.

2. M&A - Point of Sale, Payments Processing & E-Commerce: GoDaddy is acquiring Poynt for $320 million in cash plus $45 million in deferred cash payments subject to certain performance and employment conditions over three years. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021. Integrating Poynt with GoDaddy's Websites + Marketing and WordPress commerce services will "enable small businesses to boost sales and customer satisfaction by seamlessly bridging both online and offline shopping experiences," the buyer says.

3. MSP Automation Software Tools:  BitTitan, the developer of MigrationWiz and a managed services automation specialist, now offers expanded PowerShell SDK capabilities within MigrationWiz to "support large-scale data migration for enterprise companies," the company says.

4. MSP Storage Service: iXsystems has expanded the TrueNAS Open Storage platform to include TrueCommand Cloud – a cloud-based service for 24×365 TrueNAS management. This essentially is a cloud/SaaS storage offering for MSPs.

5. SMB IT Management - Software Suite: Devolutions has launched a suite of IT management applications for small businesses. The suite's software allows SMBs to manage remote connections, remote access, passwords and privileged access. Devolutions did not mention whether the suite is multi-tenant for MSPs to leverage.

6. Directory as a Service:  JumpCloud has added Conditional Access policies to its Directory Platform, enabling IT admins to" adopt Zero Trust security from the same cloud platform that they use to manage and securely connect users to IT resources," the company says.

7. Funding - Knowledge Orchestration: Zoomin Software has raised $21 million to date, led by investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Salesforce Ventures and Viola Growth.

B. Channel Chiefs, Partner Programs and Strategic Alliances

1. Government Data Management- AWS: Komprise, a provider of analytics-driven data management, is now available via AWS GovCloud (US). The service also features new security capabilities such as ransomware protection on AWS through object locking.  

2. Partnership - Microsoft Azure Cloud: Mindtree has launched a Microsoft Azure business unit centered on building new public cloud solutions. Mindtree will also expand its Global Azure Experience Center in Redmond, Washington, and will leverage its Microsoft Excellence Academy to "ensure all technical professionals are proficient and certified on Microsoft Azure technologies," the company says.

3. Partner Program: Netlify, which promotes the Jamstack web architecture, has launched an enterprise technology partner directory to promote software vendors that integrate with Netlify and Jamstack. Launch partners include Algolia, Auth0, Contentful, GraphCMS, Kentico Kontent, Magnolia CMS, Prismic, Sentry, Snyk, Storyblok and Uniform.

4. Partner Program: TBI, the a leading technology brokerage firm, has added new providers to the company's master agent’s portfolio. They include Imagit and Everstream.

5. Partner Program - Usage-Based Billing: DigitalRoute has launched a System Integrator (SI) Partner Program designed for SIs that are "leading the next phase of quote-to-cash innovation," the company says. The new program helps SIs to "connect with their clients in new ways by offering consulting and implementation services for DigitalRoute's Usage Data Platform," the firm adds.

6. Partner Program - Juniper Networks: New Juniper Networks 2021 partner program details have surfaced.

7. Valued-Added Distribution (VAD) - Data Protection: Prodata will promote Unitrends backup and disaster recovery (BDR) solutions to channel partners in South Africa. Kaseya owns Unitrends, and also promotes the BDR provider to MSPs. Private equity firm Insight Partners backs Kaseya.

8. Pure Storage for AWS: Pure Storage has introduced Pure as-a-Service in the AWS Marketplace, and a new Cloud Block Store Efficiency Guarantee program backed by Pure's promise to "reduce cloud storage consumption with no feature trade-offs," the company says.

9. ServiceNow Partner - Communications Services:  Viavi Solutions Inc.  is now a ServiceNow Technology Partner Program member. VIAVI will integrate its monitoring and assurance capabilities into ServiceNow service management solutions for communication service providers and enterprises, across the 5G, broadband and cloud domains, the company says.

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