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5 Channel Partner Updates: 26 Oct 2015

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter and rumors to start your day for Monday, Oct. 26, 2015. Actually, today's update involves 14 items for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs) and cloud services providers (CSPs) to sip on. 14. Oracle Managed Services: Trevera, an MSP focused on Oracle solutions, sounds like it's preparing to bolster its managed services offerings. Details could emerge at the company's Oracle OpenWorld meetings... 13. ObamaCare and Small IT Service Providers: Companies with 50 to 99 full-time employees must offer affordable insurance to employees and dependents starting January 1, 2016. ChannelE2E wants to know: Are small IT service providers ready? 12. Who Offers Best Cloud Security?: The answer likely involves public cloud service providers, simply because those companies have ample in-house budget and expertise to tackle the issue, according to U.S. CIO Tony Scott. Ironically, Continuum CEO Michael George told me the same thing last week... Stay tuned for more. 11. More Bashing of Unicorns: For more than a year, I've been warning readers that Unicorns -- startups with valuations of $1 billion or more -- were due for major corrections. Now, some experts suggest some Unicorn funding is like sub-prime debt. And we all remember how the sub-prime mortgage lending crisis played out -- right? Ouch. 10. Security Meets Business Continuity: A global hosting and business continuity company has just signed a $1.5 million contract for Radware cyber security services. The question: Which business continuity company is actually involved? Hmmm... 9. Private Equity Valuation Concerns: This about sums it up... More than one-third of limited partners (39%) and general partners (40%) believe prices for private equity assets are unreasonably high, according to Palico Global Private Equity Compass — a survey of 159 general partners and 92 limited partners. 8. Simplifying Government Help Desks: So, you're an IT service provider trying to understand how governments can potentially simplify their IT environments. If so, check out how the CIO for Nebraska has vastly simplified that state's IT infrastructure and help desk agreements. More: See Items 7 through 1 — including Google Apps for Education momentum; Internet of Thing guru leaves LogMeIn; eFolder's next step this week; and more. Page 2 of 2: Today's top channel partner updates, continued: 7. IT Guru Finds Calling: Lots of IT service providers and MSPs say they specialize in vertical markets like health care or financial services. Joe Axne, owner of IT Guru in Denver, goes a step further. For the past three years, IT Guru has focused on Veterinary Clinics and Hospitals. Working with guides like Ant Farm, Axne is creating a sustainable business serving a sector that's close to his heart. 6. Google Apps for Education - Reality Check: It sounds like Google Apps for Education now supports 50 million students and teachers, and Chromebooks now support 10 million students. But... be careful with those figures. In our school district, a few dozen Chromebooks are shared by hundreds of students. So perhaps the actual number of Chromebooks used by schools is lower than the media realizes.
Sean Lorenz
Sean Lorenz
5. Internet of Things Guru Leaves LogMeIn: Sean Lorenz, formerly director of IoT market strategy for LogMeIn's Xively, has left the company to launch Senter -- a stealth digital health and IoT startup focusing on better health in the home, according to his LinkedIn bio. 4. Small Businesses Too Dependent on Founders: Nearly half of Scotland's small businesses would implode within a year if their founder left, and nearly one-third would not survive more than a month, according to a survey by Network ROI. I suspect the same stats would hold true in the United States. Stay tuned for more reports soon on succession planning. 3. Data Center Availability: How do you take the backup, disaster recovery and business continuity discussion to the next level? Perhaps you should steal a page from Veeam, which will host its VeeamOn conference this week in Las Vegas. The event is positioned as "the world's premier data center availability event." MSP-friendly companies like eFolder will definitely be on hand... 2. Internet of Things and Analytics: The global IoT analytics market is expected to grow from $4.8 billion in 2015 to $16.3 billion by 2020, -- a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.4% percent. 1. Technology Services M&A: Take a close look at the latest data around mergers and acquisitions and you'll discover the hottest sector for M&A is... technology services, according to FactSet. Read Them All: Did you miss one of our 5 Channel Partner Observations? Find the archive here hereSubscribe: Receive ChannelE2E’s blog headlines, insights and updates in your inbox daily. Subscribe to our enewsletter. Thanks to those who already have. 
Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.