5 things

5 Channel Partner Updates: 10 January 2017

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Tuesday, January 10, 2017.

Actually, there are 11 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…

Lexmark’s Sammy Kinlaw
Sammy Kinlaw

11. Lenovo Partner Program: Lenovo this week will announce specifics for the company's Data Center Group Value Added Partner Program, according to Channel Chief Sammy Kinlaw. Lenovo has been working with multiple data center-focused vendors -- including Red Hat, SAP, Juniper and Nutanix (among many others).  We'll share deeper details about the program updates once Lenovo shares specifics.

10. Yahoo Nearly No More: If Verizon completes the Yahoo buyout, the telecom giant will rebrand Yahoo as Altaba and CEO Marissa Mayer will step down from the company's board, Reuters reports. Verizon, however, is closely scrutinizing two massive Yahoo hacks (and the potential implications) before potentially finalizing the deal.

Blackhall
Ruskin

9. Flash Storage Funding: Kaminario, an all-flash storage startup, has raised $75 million -- bringing total funding to date to $218 million, the company says. Kaminario also has a growing partner program led by such folks as VP of North American Channels Rick Ruskin and Director of EMEA Channel Sales Vince Blackhall.

8. Financial Services CIO: Goldman Sachs Group named Elisha Wiesel as its new CIO. Wiesel had been chief risk officer for the company's securities division. He succeeds R. Martin Chavez, who becomes CFO this spring, The Wall Street Journal reported.

7. Axcient Trade-Up Program: Axcient, which specializes in disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS), has launched a Fusion trade-up program for channel partners. The program allows Axcient MSPs and VARs to transition customers from existing existing physical and virtual Axcient appliances to the appliance-less Fusion disaster recovery and data protection service. Partners are eligible to receive up to a 100 percent trade-up credit based on environment size, retention requirements and recovery time objectives (RTOs), the company says. Axcient launched Fusion in June 2016.

Barracuda CEO BJ Jenkins

6. Barracuda Momentum: Barracuda Networks announced stronger-than-expected quarterly revenues and profits yesterday. Some of the credit goes to Intronis MSP Solutions, the company's business continuity platform for MSPs. Barracuda, led by CEO BJ Jenkins, has been blurring the line between security and business continuity solutions over the past year. Revenue rose nearly 11 percent and subscription revenue increased 17 percent, to $68.3M, making up 77 percent of total revenue, SeekingAlpha noted. We'll share more analysis soon.

5. Automation & IT Management Software: TDB Fusion has launched Federos Product Suite 3.6. The business management and automation platform now integrates with ServiceNow, CA Service Desk and Autotask Service Management. Federos helps organizations to integrate information from IT, network, data center and cloud management systems.

4. Distributor Acquired: Hong Kong business investor Harry Cheung has acquired Hemisphere Technologies, in a deal the distributor says provides it with a ‘huge’ injection of capital and its partners with access to increased market opportunities, ChannelLife New Zealand reports. Cheung also has a range of investments in the IT security sector...

3. All Channel Acquisitions: Dozens of VARs, MSPs and CSPs have been acquired since the start of the New Year. Track all the deals by visiting the ChannelE2E Milestones section.

2. Partner Financing: Lifeboat Distribution has introduced new efforts to make financing more accessible for channel partners. Key offerings include traditional net term payment options; flooring programs with Wells Fargo, GE Wells Fargo, De Lange Landen (DLL) and IBM; blind and visible escrow programs; and an extended 2-year financing option program.

1. Angel Funding: If you're looking for business funding or financing from angel investors, incubators, private equity firms, etc., then check out the ChannelE2E Funding and Financing Database.

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.