Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, gossip and chatter to start your day for Friday, Oct. 2, 2015.
Actually, today's update involves eight items for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs) and cloud service providers (CSPs) to sip on.
8. Somebody Please Buy AMD: Apparently, AMD was hoping to be acquired by Silver Lake Partners -- the private equity firm that owns much of Dell. But the AMD-Silver Lake buyout discussions apparently collapsed. On the one hand, Intel needs a credible rival and competition in the x86 market -- so I'm hoping a deep-pocketed buyer emerges for AMD. But on the other hand, markets tend to sort this stuff out. Maybe ARM processors, for instance, will truly compete with x86 in the data center...
7. Shopping for a Help Desk Platform?: If you're a VAR or MSP shopping for a Help Desk solution (on-premises or cloud), perhaps you should ask these questions about Help Desk capabilities before buying a cloud subscription or on-premises license. (Disclosure: The sample questions are from a Zoho ManageEngine partner.)
6. Distribution Deal for MSPs: Synnex's cloud portfolio now offers MSP licensing for StorageCraft ShadowProtect and ShadowProtect SPX. The move allows MSPs to gain subscription-based pricing for the backup and disaster recovery platform. Memo to Synnex Senior VP Bob Stegner: Sorry I couldn't attend this week's event because of a scheduling conflict. Further complicating matters: My blue jeans were out at the dry cleaners.
4. AWS, Security and MSPs: ChannelE2E has spent recent days telling you that a growing number of ISVs will promote their wares via Amazon Web Services. And those ISV-AWS relationships will plug into VAR and MSP dashboards. One potential example: Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business is now available via the AWS marketplace... Watch for additional ISV-centric moves, designed for VARs and MSPs, to surface at the AWS re: Invent 2015 conference next week.
3. Next Week: We'll be tracking three key events next week. First, the MDM & Data Governance Summit -- a prime opportunity to learn about compliance and overall information management in the enterprise sector. Second, Gartner Symposium ITxpo in Orlando, where some big IT trends will take center stage. And finally, Amazon AWS re: Invent 2015 -- which will include a Partner Day. Track all of the daily event coverage using ChannelE2E's Event Topic Center.
2. ChannelEyes Preps Big Data Analytics: A trusted source says ChannelEyes is developing a big data and analytics-driven system for channel account managers. Think of it this way: Traditional CRM wasn't a great fit for MSPs, so along came PSA (professional services automation) specifically designed for channel partners. ChannelEyes is taking a similar approach for channel leaders and channel account managers -- developing an application stack specifically for that user base. And the next piece will be worth "seeing" -- packed with analytics for those CAMs. Or so I've allegedly heard... Memo to Readers: ChannelEyes CEO Jay McBain didn't leak this to me...
1. Share Your Company Story: ChannelE2E's mission is simple. We track IT service providers through the five stages of their business journeys -- startup, growth, sustained performance, pivot, exit. We're quietly interviewing a range of VAR and MSP leaders, gaining details about their business stages, strategies and next moves. Stay tuned for those profiles to surface on ChannelE2E soon. And if you've got a story to share about your business journey please email me: [email protected].
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