5 Channel Partner Updates: 6 October 2016

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Thursday, October 6, 2016. Actually, there are 19 entries for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs), independent software vendors (ISVs), telco master agents and telco agents to sip on. Take a look… 19. Disaster Recovery: Keep a close eye on Infrascale, which is launching a formalized channel program for DRaaS (disaster recovery as a service) and cloud backup. The move comes one day after StorageCraft launched an overhauled partner program, and eFolder hired a channel chief to drive partner engagements. 18. Backup Appliance: Arcserve has launched its second-generation Unified Data Protection (UDP) appliance. Arcserve positions the appliances for remote offices, primary backups, deduplication, disaster recovery, and cloud gateways. 17. Vertical Market Education: Ingram Micro has launched Ingram Micro Vertical Advantage, a comprehensive portal and related content to help channel partners master healthcare, legal/finance, public sector and retail opportunities, among others. 16. Avaya Cloud-Based Networking: Avaya has launched a cloud networking platform for deploying and managing wired and wireless networks. The move comes as Avaya's owners seek a buyer for the networking company. 15. Migrating From Public to Private Clouds: OneNeck IT Solutions is migrating Luck Stone Corp.'s  Microsoft Dynamics AX environment from the public cloud onto OneNeck's private hosted cloud. OneNeck will continue providing Luck Stone with enterprise application, network, security and infrastructure management, along with database and operating system administration as well. 14. Salesforce Partner Ecosystem: Cloud Software LLC (quite the valuable name, eh?) and Radial Spark have inked a strategic alliance to offer consulting and application development expertise for Salesforce customers. 13. Point of Sale Chip Readers and Small Business Lawsuits: Small business owners are suing major credit card companies over chip reader deployment requirements. The lawsuits could eventually gain class-action status. Several tech companies and distributors -- including ScanSource and VeriFone, have stumbled amid chip reader transition. 12. Another Edward Snowden?: The FBI has arrested Harold Thomas Martin, an NSA contractor who allegedly stole highly classified information. Booz Allen Hamilton, the contractor's employer, fired Hamilton on the spot. Hamilton faces more than 10 years in jail if convicted of the alleged charges. Some pundits compare the case to that of Edward Snowden, another former Booz Allen Hamilton contractor who leaked U.S. government spying secrets to the media and then fled to Russia. The Martin case, however, appears far more limited in scope. 11. Stating the Obvious: Spending on cloud services and cloud hardware infrastructure is growing faster than traditional enterprise IT infrastructure spending, according to IDC. Thanks for the heads up. Jump to page two and you'll see items 10 to 1, and perhaps even some wit mixed in. Welcome to page two, where we list items 10 to 1 for today. 10. CIOs vs. CDOs: Companies are struggling to coordinate CIO and Chief Data Officer/Chief Digital Officer relationships, according to The Wall Street Journal. Hmmm... Maybe businesses should follow Target's lead. When the retailer's Chief Digital Officer exited the company in September, Target eliminated the position and divided the responsibilities between its CIO and its Chief Merchandising Officer. Hmmm... I suspect many companies will merely lean on their CIOs and Chief Marketing Officers for digital strategies... 9. Surprise Transition: Hostway has named Emil Sayegh as CEO and president, succeeding Robert Boles. Hmmm... Boles had only been CEO since February 2014, which begs the question: Why the short tenure? (Alas, we don't have the answer.) Sayegh previously was CEO at Codero Hosting. Earlier, he held cloud computing positions at HP and Rackspace. 8. Say Goodbye, Neighbor: Cisco Chairman John Chambers says 40 percent of businesses will disappear in a decade. Sounds about right... 7. Compensation Plan Management: Need to create and manage compensation plans? Perhaps CallidusCloud can help. The company has launched new features for CallidusCloud Commissions that will "make it easier than ever to create and administer compensation plans, and stay compliant with regulations." Nearly 5,000 customers leverage CallidusCloud's software. 6. Hiring Bankrupt Employees?: You're a small business owner. Can you consider an applicant's personal bankruptcy as part of an overall hiring decision? Hmmm... 5. IoT Networks, Part I:  AT&T is working with technology partners to demonstrate how new LTE-M technology will bring the Internet of Things (IoT) to a new generation of devices and markets. AT&T plans to pilot the LTE-M network in the San Francisco market starting in November 2016. The company will launch the technology across its commercial LTE network in 2017. 4. IoT Networks, Part II: Comcast has unveiled machineQ, a trial venture focused on building B2B solutions and a platform for IoT. As part of the test stage, Comcast will work with select commercial partners to help them gather, transmit, and analyze data from connected devices distributed throughout their organizations. 3. PSA Upgrade: Upland Software Inc. will deliver its latest Tenrox PSA release in mid-October. The release features updated integration features powered by Dell Boomi and key UX enhancements to speed adoption, the company claims. 2. VMware and Amazon to Partner: VMware will partner with Amazon Web Services as part of the virtualization company's multi-cloud management strategy. The deal will make it easier to run VMware virtualization on AWS's cloud, according to Fortune. VMware has retreated from head-on competition with AWS and Microsoft Azure, preferring instead to push its multi-cloud management initiative. That effort leans heavily on VMware's NSX network virtualization software. 1. Top Remaining Channel Partner Conferences of 2016: You'll find them listed here. Plus, check the overall ChannelE2E Technology Event Calendar for our fast-growing list of 2017 partner conferences. More: Read all of our daily 5 Channel Partner Updates. Plus: Subscribe to our daily enewsletter. Thanks to those who already have.