5 Channel Observations: 15 Oct 2015 -

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news observations, insights, gossip, chatter and plenty more to start your day for Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015. Actually, today's update involves 13 items for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs) and cloud services providers (CSPs) to sip on. 13. Small Network Monitoring: Savvius, which focuses on packet analytics for network performance and security incident investigations, has launched a network appliance for small businesses and IT service providers. Savvius Insight costs $1,500. The interesting twist? It's integrated with Splunk Forwarder and Splunk Enterprise... I wonder if traditional RMM (remote monitoring and management) software providers are taking notice... 12. Managed Mac Services: As some MSPs seek to offer managed services for Mac OS and Apple iOS, the security opportunity for Apple-focused channel partners also appears to be growing. Indeed, Apple's growing momentum in business computing has also triggered a rise in Apple Mac OS malware... 11. Big Data Channel Partners: So, you're a VAR, MSP or IT consulting shop that's trying to understand the big data landscape -- key opportunities, challenges and more. Keep an eye on CBIG Consulting, a consulting firm that's expanding from traditional business intelligence into the big data market. CBIG's latest relationship involves MapR, the Hadoop specialist that recently made a key leadership and channel hire... 10. DockerCon 2016: Trying to wrap your arms around container software and Docker? Put DockerCon 2016 (June 20-21, Seattle) on your calendar. And we'll be sure to add it to ChannelE2E's Event Calendar as well. Amazon and Microsoft will be on hand. As will customer adopters like Expedia and Boeing. What about channel partners? Stay tuned...

9. Leading the Dell-EMC Combo: Dell's Rory Read and EMC's Howard Elias will oversee how the two companies are blended together, according to re/code. Dell's $67 billion buyout of EMC isn't expected to close until at least May 2016. But the two executives will surely white board the integration plan starting immediately... while also exploring potential assets that could be sold off... Read, by the way, is a channel-centric executive who built a lot of partner momentum during an earlier career stop at Lenovo. 8. Multiple Devices, One Number: Imagine if your home phone, cell phone and tablet could all share the same phone number? That day is coming. Keep your eyes open for AT&T's NumberSync technology... More: See Items 7 through 1 — including a new online community that connects small businesses with suppliers; how Cisco is countering Dell-EMC; new DaaS offerings; and the next Google Apps business move... Page 2 of 2: Today's top channel partner updates, continued: 7. Small Business Community: Kinnek, an online marketplace that allows small businesses to find suppliers and manage purchases, just raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Thrive Capital. Roughly 20,000 business and 2,000 suppliers are in the marketplace... I'm still waiting for someone in the IT channel to build something like this... 6. Countering Dell-EMC: Cisco and NetApp are trying to put the spotlight onto their five-year-old FlexPod relationship. The relationship has generated $5.6 billion in shared revenues. Some pundits have been wondering which company -- if any -- will acquire NetApp now that Dell is buying EMC for $67 billion...

5. Managed Services Leadership: Denovo added Larry Goldberg to its senior executive team. He's now executive VP, consulting, managed services and inside sales. He'll focus on Denovo's managed services practice across Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne (JDE), Fusion, and E-Business Suite (EBS) Applications. The move comes only a short time after Denovo acquired BizTech -- which has deep Oracle application experience. 4. What's the Platform?: Logicalis, the international MSP, has launched a backup as a service platform. I'm curious to know what software platform the MSP is using... and why. 3. Desktop as a Service Revisited: NaviSite, the hosting and managed services provider now owned by Time Warner Cable, has launched a desktop as a service suite. I keep waiting for Microsoft to dominate this market but it hasn't happened yet. And niche players like independenceIT continue to attract channel-centric loyalty, though I don't have a feel for that company's overall financial performance. 2. Veritas Global Partner Program: The storage vendor, which Symantec is selling to a private equity firm, has launched the Veritas Global Partner Program -- dubbed Veritas Partner Force. Most of the early details involve deal registration, simplified payments to partners and a streamlined approach to Platinum status. I didn't notice details about recurring revenue or MSP-centric approaches... 1. Google Apps Reality Check: How are businesses adopting Google Apps? gOptix -- a new Google Apps monitoring tool from Onix -- may offer the answer. After a strong start a few years ago, I sense that Google Apps for Work has lost some market share to Office 365 -- though I can't say for sure. Also, keep your eyes open for a major Google Apps for Work push on Oct. 20... Read Them All: Did you miss one of our 5 Channel Partner Observations? Find the archive here here. Subscribe: Receive ChannelE2E’s blog headlines, insights and updates in your inbox daily. Subscribe to our enewsletter. Thanks to those who already have.