Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to sip on for Thursday, June 23, 2016.
Actually, there are 19 entries for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) to sip on. Take a look…
19. ConnectWise CEO: What is Arnie Bellini thinking -- right now? I don't know the answer. But I know what he was thinking as of 10:00 a.m. ET yesterday. We'll share more details soon.
18. Mixed BlackBerry News: BlackBerry's software and services revenue climbed in Q1 fiscal 2017 results (released today), and CEO John Chen still insists that the company can fix its smartphone business -- eliminating losses and achieving "operating profitability in the short term." However, shrinking smartphone sales and an inventory writedown show the journey won't be easy. BlackBerry has been building a new channel strategy for the money-losing smartphone business. Some Wall Street pundits want the company to exit that business, but Chen and channel recruits from Cisco Systems are pushing forward with the mobile device strategy.
17. Google Broadband M&A: Google Fiber plans to buy Webpass, a broadband fiber internet provider serving five cities. The twist? Webpass's customers tend to be apartment buildings and business complexes -- though the service provider's total customer reach is undisclosed. Webpass also blends wired and wireless broadband...
16. More Broadband M&A: Communications Sales & Leasing Inc. is buying Tower Cloud, a communications infrastructure company based in St. Petersburg, Florida, for $230 million in cash and stock. Tower Cloud's fiber network spans 6,000 miles across the Southeastern U.S.
15. Datacenter M&A: St. Louis-based data center operator Ascent is making its development foray in North Texas after buying a former Capital One data center, which the developer plans to invest $90 million in the property to attract Fortune 1000 companies, notes BizJournals.
14. Mailprotector Momentum: It sounds like Mailprotector, an email security company, is gaining momentum with MSPs and channel partners. While I can't reveal percentage growth rates, let's just say they're "significant." Ted Roller is driving the effort while CEO David Setzer continues to focus on R&D. The overall goal? Make sure MSPs understand email security is a universal need rather than a commodity conversation...
13. Application Performance Monitoring: NGINX Inc. has launched a public beta of NGINX Amplify, which "complements and extends existing Application Performance Management (APM) and monitoring tools."
12. AWS Cloud Goes Local: Virtually every major country will have an Amazon Web Services region -- meaning that localized cloud infrastructure will be available everywhere, according to AWS CEO Andy Jassy. Also, AWS will launch nearly 1,000 new features and services this year, he told an audience in Washington, D.C., this week.
11. Cloud Management: SkyKick has evolved its cloud management platform to offer syndicated applications and application program interfaces (APIs) for channel partners.
10. Fresh Funding: SecurityScorecard, which develops a platform that monitors and assesses companies’ cybersecurity strength, has raised $20 million in Series B funding from led by GV (basically, the venture capital arm of Google).
9. Government IoT Contract: The State Department has awarded C3 IoT a contract to build an analytics platform to manage energy use and sensor health in real time across 22,000 buildings in more than 190 countries, according to The Wall Street Journal. Siebel Systems founder Tom Siebel launched C3IoT (formerly C3 Energy) in 2009.
8. Backup and RMM: Acronis and ConnectWise's LabTech platform are now integrated, providing MSPs with a single pane of glass across Acronis Backup Cloud and RMM (remote monitoring and management) software.
7. Cloud Services Talent: DSM Technology Consultants, which develops enterprise and government cloud solutions , has hired John "JT" Tomljanovic to lead the growth and development of its cloud services business. Tomljanovic is a veteran of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Verizon and Terremark.
6. SolarWinds MSP: LogicNow, recently acquired by SolarWinds and merged into the SolarWinds MSP business, has launched improved MAX Remote Management mobile apps for the Android and iOS platforms.
5. Managed Security Services Talent: InteliSecure, a managed security services provider, has named Steven Drew as CEO. Drew is a veteran of USConnect and Dell SecureWorks.
4. Cloud, Security Projects Boost Accenture: Accenture's Q3 2016 revenues rose 9 percent to $8.4 billion. CEO Pierre Nanterme pointed to strong momentum in the cloud security services market. “Our excellent results reflect the investments we have made to differentiate Accenture in the marketplace as well as our successful rotation to digital, cloud and security services, which now account for approximately 40 percent of our total revenues."
3. Partner Programs:
- Jazz, a provider of small business HR solutions, has launched the Jazz Channel Program.
- MapR, the big data software company, is launching a formalized channel partner program today. More details soon.
- ProtectWise, a cloud network security provider, has launched a 100 percent channel program (i.e., no direct sales conflict) with Fishtech Labs, GuidePoint Security and Optiv as tier-1 anchor partners.
- SnapLogic, which promotes a unified data and application integration platform as a service (iPaaS), has launched the SnapLogic Partner Connect partner program.
- Check the ChannelE2E Partner Programs Database to easily search more than 100 channel partner programs.
2. Dropbox Corporate Strategy: Dropbox has unveiled tools for scanning documents using a smartphone camera and for creating new Microsoft Office documents with the click of a button, Bloomberg notes. The moves come as Dropbox also builds out its channel partner program while committing to cash-flow-positive growth. By the way: Dropbox has been gaining momentum in the Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace, according to Jason Bystrak, executive director of for Ingram Micro Cloud. Still, channel-centric players like Autotask Workplace, Datto Drive and eFolder Anchor are working closely with MSPs on Box and Dropbox alternatives.
1. Thank You: It's only June 23, and this is already ChannelE2E's biggest traffic month since launching in September 2015. In fact, traffic -- visitors, visits, page views -- has climbed every month since launch. Thanks for your role in making that happen. And keep the feedback/constructive criticism coming.
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