5 Channel Partner Updates: 27 March 2017

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Monday, March 27, 2017. Actually, there are 27 timely updates for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs), independent software vendors (ISVs), telco master agents and telco agents to sip on... 24. President Trump's Office of Innovation: Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, will lead a new White House Office of American Innovation, according to The Washington Post reported. Viewed internally as a SWAT team of strategic consultants, the office will be staffed by former business executives and is designed to infuse fresh thinking into Washington, float above the daily political grind and create a lasting legacy for a president still searching for signature achievements, the report said. An official announcement is expected today. 23. Talent, H-1B Visas & Outsourcing: Representatives Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.) and Doug Collins (R-Ga.) have reintroduced a bill to stop employees from leveraging H-1B visas to send U.S. jobs overseas, the duo says. If the bill becomes law, it will add teeth to the ongoing effort in the U.S. to enact stricter anti-outsourcing policies that will hit the $150 billion India IT services sector hardest in their biggest market, Forbes asserted. 22. Talent & H-1B Visa Fraud: The owner of a company that supplied foreign workers to San Francisco Bay Area technology companies is facing visa fraud charges after filing fake documents to bring people to the United States, according to AP. A federal grand jury indicted Jayavel Murugan, CEO of Dynasoft Synergy, Inc., and a second man, Syed Nawaz, last week on charges including conspiracy to commit visa fraud, the report said. 21. Talent & Security MSPs: SNAPI Guard's MSSP partner program helps MSPs and end-customers to close the security talent gap, the company claims. SNAPI Guard offers fully managed Secure Internet Link, Always-On Protection, Hybrid and DDoS scrubbing solutions to MSPs, the company adds.

Amber Rudd

20. Encryption & Terrorism: Technology companies must cooperate more with law enforcement agencies and should stop offering a "secret place for terrorists to communicate" using encrypted messages, British interior minister Amber Rudd said on Sunday, according to Reuters. The statement comes after a terrorist sent an encrypted message moments before last week's attack in London. Technology companies, citing privacy concerns, have hesitated to provide governments with back-doors into secure applications. 19. Google Loses Faith In Symantec: Google is warning customers about Symantec Corp.'s alleged failures to properly validate security certificates. In fact, Google says it has concerns with at least 30,000 certificates that Symantec has issued over the past several years. We're checking to see if Symantec has a response...

Ken Worcester

18. IPO: WOW! Internet, a consumer and corporate broadband Internet provider in Denver, has filed to go public. Related Partner Summit: WOW Channel Chief Ken Worcester is set to attend the Channel Partners conference in Last Vegas in April, we've heard.  17. FireMon's Top Partners: FireMon's top partners of 2016 included... 16. IAM Comparison: Where can you find identity and access management (IAM) solutions? MarketsandMarkets' latest IAM report examines the following companies, solutions and services: Avatier Corp., Beta Systems, Bitium, CA Technologies, Centrify, Covisint, Crossmatch, Dell, ForgeRock, Gemalto, Hitachi ID Systems, IBM, Ilantus Technologies, iWelcome, Microsoft, Micro Focus, Okta, Omada A/S, OneLogin, Oracle, Ping Identity, SailPoint, Simeio Solutions, Salesforce, and UXP Systems...

Kim Stevenson

15. Data Centers - Lenov0: Lenovo has hired former Intel CIO Kim Stevenson to help drive the company's data center push into five market segments: data center infrastructure; the software-defined data center; high-performance computing and artificial intelligence applications; “hyperscale” systems, and data center services. The data center push, though promising, faces several major challenges. Chief among them: Partners in the software-defined and hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) markets keep getting acquired. Related Partner Summit: Lenovo Accelerate Partner Conference 2017 is set for late April. 14. Identity Patent: SailPoint, which specializes in identity management, has earned a patent for the way the company manages network access credentials, even when users are located remotely and locked out of the corporate network. 13. Data Center Partnership: Huawei and Canonical have extended their enterprise and telecom cloud partnership with the integration of CloudFabric Cloud Data Centre Network Solution and Ubuntu OpenStack, according to Silicon UK. 12. Networking - Huawei: Huawei has unveiled an All-Cloud Network architecture, which will "help enterprises accelerate their digital transformation by delivering an ultimate user experience with more agile service innovations and ubiquitous security protection," The company claims... 11. Contact Center Software: Metaswitch Networks has upgraded its Cloud Contact Center (powered by Telax) platform, including white label capabilities that enable service providers to construct custom, trusted brand experiences for their customers, the company claims. Additional enhancements include real-time business intelligence metrics, multi-location management and an enhanced UI, Metaswitch said. But wait. More content awaits you on page 2. Proceed to page two now and chow down the remaining items... Welcome to page two. Enjoy a second serving of channel content -- items 10 to 1 -- here.

Pete Busam

10. PSA and Email Marketing Integration: So, you're an MSP that wants to link your PSA (professional services automation) platform to an email marketing system. Keep an eye on ConnectMyPSA, launched by Pete Busam. 9. Skype for Business Management: IR, a provider of experience management solutions for unified communications and contact centers, today launched Microsoft Skype for Business Online support. The result: Organizations can gain better visibility into call and meeting quality issues and faster troubleshooting, the company claims. 8. M&A - Payment Systems: Accenture is acquiring First Annapolis Consulting, a payments consulting and advisory firm. Financial terms were not disclosed. Accenture has been buying up consulting firms across a range of markets in recent quarters. 7. IoT Management: Oracle has unveiled Oracle Utilities Operational Device Cloud Service (ODCS), a cloud offering that "enables utilities to further automate the management of their grid assets and devices, at a total lower cost of ownership," the company claims.

Joel Abramson

6. Datto Partnerships: Fully Managed has achieved Blue status in Datto’s new partner program, the MSP says. Blue is Datto's highest classification, reserved for the top 5 percent or so of partners worldwide. Fully Managed, led by Joel Abramson, claims to be Western Canada's largest IT managed services provider. 5. Valuations and Term Sheets: How much is your business worth? ChannelE2E's FAQ offers some valuation estimates based on EBITDA and other metrics. But Shanti Mohan, cofounder of LetsVenture, offers these additional valuation metrics and nuances to keep in mind. 4. Fresh Funding, Part I: SparkPost, a cloud email infrastructure provider, has gained a $10.5 million credit facility. The company's partner program features solution, add-on and integration partners. 3. Fresh Funding, Part II: Mashape, which develops API solutions for the enterprise, has raised $18 million in Series B funding. The company provides products to distribute, monetize, manage, analyze and consume APIs. We don't know if the company has formalized its partner program.

Tommy Wald

2. MSP Accelerator, Part II: We told you that MSP veteran Tommy Wald has joined Xcellerate, an MSP accelerator. But now, we're hearing chatter about major Xcellerate technology initiatives. At least one former Kaseya executive is involved. Plus, Xcellerate plans to work closely with ConnectWise and several other tech firms, ChannelE2E has learned. What's the complete story here? We'll share more details soon... 1. This Week's Partner Summits: Red Hat North America Partner Conference 2017 and Synnex Spring Varnex Conference 2017 are both this week. Stay tuned for ChannelE2E updates from both events. Plus, I believe both companies are set to announce quarterly results in the next few days. We'll be sure to offer partner analysis when those financial reports emerge. All Partner Summits: Track all partner summits worldwide by visiting our ChannelE2E Technology Events Calendar.