5 things

5 Channel Partner Updates: 26 May 2016

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Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to sip on for Thursday, May 26, 2016.

Actually, there are 18 entries for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) to sip on. Take a look…

Dion Weisler
Dion Weisler

18. HP Inc. Earnings: The PC and printer-centric company cut its full-year guidance yesterday, basically confirming that the company's core market remains weak. Still, CEO Dion Weisler said channel partners are praising HP's 3D printer buildup. Meanwhile, sister company Hewlett Packard Enterprise earlier this week announced better-than-expected quarterly earnings and the move to shed its IT services business (ahem, just like Dell...).

17. HPE Can Keep a Secret: What's the most impressive thing about HP Enterprise's decision to spin off and merge its IT services business with CSC? The answer involves secrecy. For the first time in a long time, news about a major HPE or HP Inc. move didn't spill into the media before the official announcement was made. Apparently, HPE's current board of directors knows how to keep a secret... far different than the situation a decade ago.

16. Networking: Juniper Networks has launched two new switches: The EX2300 is an entry-level switch, and the EX3400 is a mid-level offering...

15. Security: Roaring Penguin has launched CanIt 10.0.0, an antispam platform upgrade that includes a new ConnectWise integration for MSPs.

14. CSC Challenges: When CSC merges with the HPE IT services spin-off, the combined company will have a new name (undisclosed so far) and a big revenue stream. Only IBM and Accenture will have larger IT services revenues. But is bigger better, especially when so many customers are defecting to public clouds? Reuters is asking that very question...

13. Lenovo's Loss: Lenovo reported its first loss in six years today. Acquisition and restructuring costs, weak PC sales and softer-than-expected smartphone sales combined to undermine the company's performance, the company said. Still, Lenovo is pushing hard beyond the mobile and PC markets, introducing channel-centric hyperconverged data center solutions with Nutanix, Juniper, SAP and Red Hat.

12. Brazil Crisis Equals MSP Opportunity?: A few years back, Autotask and several other MSP-centric software companies took a close look at business opportunities in Brazil. Between the 2014 World Cup and Rio 2016 Olympics, service providers would surely cash in on infrastructure build-outs. Or so the theory went. Alas, Brazil is facing multiple crises -- including a corruption probe. Still, the market could be fertile for IT security pros. Why? Brazilian companies rank worst among major economies on cyber security, according to BitSight.

11. Managed Network Services: Auvik's RMM (remote monitoring and management) software for MSPs now supports Kentik for analyzing and managing network traffic. As we've stated before, Auvik is striving to differentiate in the RMM market at the network level.

10. Follow the (Disappearing) Money: The SEC is probing Alibaba's accounting methods. Shares are falling in the news. Among the big potential losers: Yahoo, already up for sale, has a big stake in Alibaba. That means Yahoo's own valuation could tumble -- even as AT&T and Verizon bid to buy Yahoo.

9. Choosing Cloud Favorites: First, Citrix said Microsoft Azure would be that company's preferred cloud. Now, Salesforce says Amazon is the CRM company's preferred cloud infrastructure provider. Is it really wise to align so closely with a specific CSP? I'm betting the answer is... yes.

8. Ingram and Microsoft Azure: Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace is now offering Microsoft Azure to channel partners -- a major move considering most partners have focused mainly on SaaS offerings. The move to monetize IaaS workloads could be under way...

7. Privacy and User Agreements: A Norway watchdog group wants App developers to include fewer words in their terms of service. Hmmm... Maybe they can use ChannelE2E's Privacy Statement as a starting point.

6. What's Your Pre-IPO Stock Worth?: So, you've got stock in a privately held company -- perhaps it's your employer. How much are your shares worth? That's impossible to say since the business is privately held. Or is there a way to force your employer to open up their books to you? Hmmm... More on this later today.

5. Office Apps: Three million people now use Slack every day, and the company is adding one million new users every five months, Slack says. In a world filed with email systems and shared docs, Slack created a nifty messaging app for teams...

4. Paging Uncle Sam. Paging Uncle Sam: State CIOs are urging the federal government to finalize a cyberattack response plan. A draft plan delivered to the White House in the fall of 2009 – and later released as an interim draft, in March 2010 – has yet to be approved by the administration, The Wall Street Journal says. I suspect we'll all be sitting in the dark when we hear about the plan over our transistor radios...

3. SMB, Consumer WiFi Routers: Eero sounds hot, and just raised $50 million to prove it. But Linksys is back with some surprises. And Datto Network Appliance (DNA) is finally set for launch at DattoCon 2016, as we've reported previously. Are we finally about to see a new generation of WiFi router innovation?

2. Freshly Funded: Tech startups raising money include...

  • Dashlane (New York), which specializes in identity management, raised $22.5 million in Series C funding.
  • Seismic (San Diego, Calif.), focused on enterprise software, raised $40 million in Series C funding. Check out our podcast with Seismic CEO Doug Winter from 2015 for a back story on the company.
  • Viptela (San Jose, Calif.), which focuses on software-defined WAN technology, raised $75 million in Series C funding.
ConnectWise VP Arlin Sorensen

1. Preparing for the 4 D's: When you look back on your life, what will be your business legacy? HTG's Arlin Sorensen raises some tough issues -- pushing IT service providers and entrepreneurs to tackle legacy planning before the four D's come along (death, divorce, disability, disagreement). This is required reading.

More: Read all of our daily 5 Channel Partner UpdatesPlusSubscribe to our daily 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.