Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Tuesday, January 24, 2017.
Actually, there are 15 timely 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…
15. Microsoft Office Subscriptions: Amid Microsoft's Office 365 and Office 2016 initiatives, keep a close eye on your customers' license agreements and/or subscription services. In particular, support for some versions of Office 2013 ends on February 28.
14. Is Brexit A Wage Killer?: Britain's pending exit from the European Union -- aka Brexit -- will be good for plenty of businesses but it could also be a wage killer, according to Terra Firma Chairman Guy Hands, one of the biggest names in the European private equity market. Microsoft, Apple and other tech firms have announced plans to increase prices in Britain to offset Brexit's apparent impact on margins.
13. Verizon Data Centers Sale: Verizon is set to announce quarterly results this morning. The company confirmed plans to sell roughly 29 data centers to Equinix in December 2016. We'll be seeking an update on that deal status.
12. ManageEngine Data Centers: ManageEngine has opened two ISO 27001-certified data centers in the EU — one in Amsterdam, Netherlands and another in Dublin, Ireland. The data centers will help IT service providers to move operations to the cloud while adhering to the data privacy and security standards of the EU, ManageEngine asserts.
11. Oracle Startup Accelerator: Oracle has expanded its Startup Cloud Accelerator program. The company is opening new startup accelerators in Bristol, Delhi–NCR, Mumbai, Paris, São Paulo, Singapore and Tel Aviv. Run by Oracle R&D team members, the program provides six months of mentoring from technical and business experts, a co-working space, access to Oracle customers, partners and investors, and free Oracle Cloud credits. It's unclear if or how President Trump's proposed offshoring tax would impact international accelerator programs such as this.
10. SAP Growth: SAP says new cloud bookings rose 40 percent in Q4 2016, and full-year cloud subscription and support revenue grew 31 percent. The quarterly earnings results surfaced earlier today. Generally speaking, the company's overall software business has been growing more quickly than rivals IBM and Oracle. SAP will pursue "tuck in" acquisitions valued at up to $1 billion, according to CEO Bill McDermott. SAP VP Meaghan Sullivan explained the company's cloud-oriented partner initiatives in this podcast last year.
9. CA's MSP, CSP Momentum?: CA Technologies is expected to announce quarterly results sometime today. Among the areas that interest us: CA's potential momentum with Unified Infrastructure Management (UIM), a monitoring platform for MSPs and hybrid cloud services. We're also tracking CA's Application Performance Management platform, which competes with AppDynamics, Dynatrace and New Relic.
8. LANDESK, HEAT Software Become Ivanti: The merger of LANDESK and HEAT Software is now official, and the combined company is now called Ivanti. Clearlake Capital Group owns the combined business. LANDESK CEO Steve Daly is now CEO of Ivanti, which focuses on IT asset management software.
7. Kaseya VSA Upgrade: Kaseya today launched VSA 9.4, an upgrade to the company's RMM (remote monitoring and management) software platform for MSPs. The platform features Live Connect On Demand -- an improved remote control capability for PCs, printers, switches and routers. Also, cloud backup -- which leverages Acronis software -- is core to the upgrade. Here are more details.
6. Datto Expansion: Datto is expected to create 200 jobs in Rochester, N.Y., according to USA Today. Although the company is headquartered in Connecticut, CEO Austin McChord is a Rochester Institute of Technology graduate. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is expected to visit Rochester on Tuesday to announce a $2.1 million capital grant to assist Datto, USA Today reported. Datto specializes in data protection platforms for MSPs. The company is pushing beyond storage to develop a unified threat management (UTM) solution as well.
5. Auvik Networks Growth: Auvik, which develops network-centric RMM for MSPs, grew its monthly recurring revenue nearly 500 percent in 2016 vs. 2015. Moreover, Auvik's customer base grew 374 percent in 2016 vs. 2015. No doubt, those are big growth stats -- but the actual revenue figures were not disclosed so it's difficult to pinpoint just how well the company is performing.
4. AWS and Cloud-based Backup: Commvault, a cloud backup specialist, has launched new reference architectures for Amazon Web Services (AWS). They're designed to enable customers to simplify data protection and management with a pre-optimized, easy to deploy, and validated solution.
3. Azure, AWS Cloud Spending Management: ParkMyCloud now supports auto-scheduling for Microsoft Azure in addition to Amazon Web Services (AWS). ParkMyCloud launched its “Nest for the cloud” platform in September 2015 to enable AWS customers to automatically turn off idle instances, saving 20-60% on their cloud bills every month, the company claims. Early adopters include McDonald's, Sage Software, Neustar, Avid and Wolters Kluwer, ParkMyCloud says.
2. HPE Acquires Cloud Cruiser: HP Enterprise has acquired Cloud Cruiser, a tool that allows businesses to manage cloud costs and consumption across AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform and more. Yes, Cloud Cruiser has a channel partner strategy in place. HPE was Cloud Cruiser's first partner and customer in 2010.
1. How Much Is Your Business Worth?: Get the answer. Register now and attend ChannelE2E's webcast this Thursday, January 26 at 2:00 p.m. ET. Service Leadership CEO Paul Dippell will describe business valuation metrics for IT service providers. He'll describe how much your company is worth based on real-world metrics across product sales, managed services, IT consulting revenues and more. Plus, we'll unveil the top 100 mergers and acquisitions involving VARs & MSPs from 2016.
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