Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to sip on for Tuesday, May 31, 2016.
Actually, there are 10 entries for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) to sip on. Take a look…
10. Government Cloud Services: The FedRAMP standard for federal agency use of cloud services has too many complications in its operations and lacks the assurance of security, according to the results of a MeriTalk survey, as covered by InformationWeek. FedRAMP is short for Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program. Overall, the U.S. federal government has shifted about 8 percent of its IT spend toward cloud services, up from 5 percent last year, market researchers estimate. But the "cloud first" focus has stumbled from time to time because of incomplete or confusing standards guidance.
9. DBA as a Service: WARDY IT Solutions, a fast-growing IT service provider in Australia, has built a virtual DBA service that customers are embracing. True believers include Covermore Travel Insurance, which has outsourced its SQL Server database administration to WARDY, the two companies confirm.
8. IT Outsourcing M&A: Tech Mahindra, an India-based IT services firm, has acquired Target Group -- a business outsourcing firm with offices in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Tech Mahindra has $4 billion in revenues and 107,000 employees. Target Group has 800 employees.
7. Partner Programs: Channel partner program updates and hires include...
- AppFormix, a cloud service optimization startup, has launched the AppFormix Channel Partner Program. It's led by George Youhana.
- Barracuda Networks has hired Ezra Hookano as VP of channels. Hookana returns to Barracuda after holding channel-related executive posts at Exablox and Fusion-io.
- Dropsuite has hired David Mason to develop the SaaS company's North American channel base -- working closely with hosting providers and distributors.
- Semafone has promoted Margie Frasier to senior vice president, global partnerships and alliances. Semafone provides secure payment software for contact centers.
6 Oracle vs Which HP?: The trial between Oracle and Hewlett Packard is set to open this week. As you'll recall, HP sued Oracle after the database giant stopped porting its software to Itanium -- the 64-bit HP/Intel processor that never quite lived up to its promise. Oracle says it dropped Itanium support because the platform was a loser. HP says Oracle's move was anti-competitive and undermined its business. Opening arguments in the case start this week. But which HP is battling Oracle: HP Inc. or Hewlett Packard Enterprise? The answer is likely "both."
5. Speaking of HP Enterprise: CEO Meg Whitman and the HP Enterprise team will meet 10,000 customers and partners next week at the HP Enterprise Discover conference in Las Vegas. The event arrives only a few weeks after HPE delivered better-than-expected quarterly results, driven by server and networking momentum.
4. More M&A: Keep your eyes and ears open. More M&A coming in the MSP software market. Or so we've allegedly heard...
3. Thank You: May isn't quite over, but it marks ChannelE2E's eighth consecutive month of audience and traffic growth since we launched the site in September 2015. We'll share more detail soon. But in the meantime: Thanks for visiting, reading and engaging with ChannelE2E.
2. Top 100 Vertical Market MSPs: Get the research and the list by attending our June 16 Webcast.
1. Condolences: To the family of Jean Alexander, a channel champion and ASCII veteran who died last week. GetChanneled's Brian Sherman offers this tribute and Amy Katz offers thoughts here. A memorial service is planned at her home in Texas on Wednesday, June 1. Anyone who would like to send flowers or attend can private message her daughter Jessica Schroder on Facebook.
More: Read all of our daily 5 Channel Partner Updates. Plus: Subscribe to our daily enewsletter. Thanks to those who already have.
