Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to sip on for Friday, April 22, 2016.
Actually, there are 12 entries for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) to sip on.
12. Expensive Hack: The FBI paid more than $1.3 million to break into that San Bernardino iPhone. Hmmm... Hacking as a service... Gotta be nice margins.
11. Big HIPAA Fine: New York Presbyterian Hospital has agreed to pay a $2.2 million HIPAA violation fine for allowing television crews to film two patients without their consent. It's the latest in a growing list of fines related to HIPAA violations across the U.S. ChannelE2E will share more details soon...
10. UK Managed Services: Network Group, a technology community in the UK, plans to embrace Continuum’s managed IT services platforms. As a result, resellers and MSPs within the group will leverage Continuum's software to manage thousands of endpoints within SMB companies across Europe. ChannelE2E is checking to see how many MSPs and end-customer nodes are involved.
9. Microsoft, Google Misses: Microsoft's Q3 2016 quarterly revenues and profits fell short of Wall Street expectations. Revenue in Microsoft's so-called intelligent cloud business rose only 3 percent, though Azure revenues doubled. Alphabet: Google parent Alphabet also delivered weaker-than-expected revenues and earnings for its Q1 2016 results, which surfaced yesterday. Alphabet's cost-per-click for online ads fell nine percent in the quarter, though paid clicks rose 29 percent overall, TechCrunch noted. Longer-term investors are worried that big bets like NEST (consumer IoT) won't pay off...
8. Datto Q1 2016: Datto recapped its Q1 2016 momentum, basically reinforcing the fact that the company and its partner base remain in expansion mode. A range of surprises are planned for DattoCon16 in June. But the big news involves Datto and its partners on billboards and other marketing materials across North America... Datto's goal is to build SMB brand recognition, and then drive those leads back to partners.
7. Dell SecureWorks IPO: Shares of SecureWorks are expected to start trading today on NASDAQ. But it sounds like demand for the IPO was weaker than Dell had expected...
6. Sticking Around: Intel Mobile leader Aicha Evans has withdrawn her resignation and will remain with the chip giant. Apparently, CEO Brian Krzanich persuaded her to stay, according to Bloomberg. My reaction? People who want to exit usually do so at some point... sooner, rather than later. Intel is cutting 12,000 jobs -- 11 percent of its workforce -- amid weaker-than-expect PC market conditions.
5. AWS Cloud Management: Capital One, the insurance company, has decided to open source a cloud management tool for all to use. The tool, called Cloud Custodian, allows service providers and customers to better manage Amazon Web Services workloads and resources, potentially driving down cloud costs along the way...
4. MSPs and IoT: mindSHIFT, the managed services provider, is deploying SmartCast Power over Ethernet (PoE) LED lighting by Cree. SmartCast PoE is an open platform that enables the Internet of Things (IoT) for buildings through better light, the company claims.
3. IoT Funding: Xaptum, a Chicago-based startup, has raised $2.2 million in seed funding. The company's technology allows connected devices to message each other.
2. Next Week's Channel Partner Events: Keep an eye on ASCII IT SMB Success Summit in Milwaukee, and OpenStack Summit in Austin. Those conferences -- and more -- are featured on the ChannelE2E Technology Event Calendar.
1. Favorite Prince Memory: I was about 14. Purple Rain was atop the charts. I fell for the entire album. And then I discovered Prince had a back-catalog. For You. Prince. Dirty Mind. Controversy. And of course, 1999. Timeless.
More: Read all of our daily 5 Channel Partner Updates. Plus: Subscribe to our daily enewsletter. Thanks to those who already have.
