5 things

5 Channel Partner Updates: 11 October 2016

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Tuesday, October 11, 2016.

Actually, there are 15 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. Samsung Kills Galaxy Note 7: The Galaxy Note 7 is dead and buried. Forever. Samsung has sent an urgent alert to all Galaxy Note 7 users, instructing them to turn off the smartphones forever because of a design flaw that can trigger fires. The product's death could cost Samsung $17 billion in lost sales, Credit Suisse estimated.

14. IoT IPO?: Greenwave Systems, which makes software for the Internet of Things, has hired Goldman Sachs to explore a potential IPO. The timing could be early 2017, Greenwave indicated.

13. Residential Managed Services: CenturyLink has extended 1 gigabit per second network speeds to more than 14,000 multi-tenant units (MTUs) in more than 600 cities. That's a fancy way to say that CenturyLink is extended broadband, VoIP and managed IT services to apartment buildings. The MTU focus comes as CenturyLink doubles down on network services and attempts to sell its cloud data centers.

12. Cisco Managed Services: Cisco Systems is banging the drum for its Cloud and Managed Services (CMS) efforts. Much of the MSP focus involves Cisco Operational Insights for proactive monitoring, operational ticketing, and more. We'll share more thoughts soon...

11. The Benefits for Managed Services: Still having trouble articulating your value as an MSP? Perhaps this IDC research can help you better position your value to customers. US MSP Outsourcing Benefits

10. Partner Program: Viptela, which specializes in Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN), has launched the vForce Global Partner Program. Members incoude Dimension Data, World Wide Technology (WWT), Forsythe Solutions Group, Logicalis, Fishtech Labs, Teneo, Alphaserve Technologies, Vandis, Daymark Solutions, ProSys and Verizon, among others.

9. Multi-Cloud Management Market: Spending in the multi-cloud management market will reach $3.4 billion by 2021, up from $939.3 million in 2016, according to MarketsandMarkets. That's a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.6 percent. I'm often skeptical of market forecasts, but the opportunity to manage customer workloads across Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and other public clouds seems legitimate. In fact, VMware is betting its business on that trend...

8. Service Management Software ServiceBench has unveiled  a supply chain service that could allow consumer IT shops to better manage supplies for service and support. And we certainly wonder: Could this also assist corporate IT parts management? Hmmm...

7. TalentBig Switch Networks has hired Wendell Laidley as CFO and and Greg Orr as VP of sales for the Americas. Company watchers suggest the moves could (A) move Big Switch toward an IPO while (B) improving the company's partner efforts.

6. Partner Relationship Management: Impartner has launched a new version of the company's partner relationship management (PRM) software. The company claims the Fall '16 release gives channel chiefs  'X-ray' level insights into how a company's channel program is performing.

5. Workspace as a Service Momentum: Itopia, a WaaS specialist, has raised $3.5 million in additional funding. The new funding involves existing angel backers and new investors. ChannelE2E will share more thoughts soon.

4. Hurricane Matthew & Small Business Loans: Florida Governor Rick Scott has activated Florida's small business emergency bridge program to support companies impacted by Hurricane Matthew.

3. Backup and Disaster Recovery: JungleDisk has doubled its employee headcount after being spun off from Rackspace. The company specializes in firewalls, encrypted backup and more.

2. Earnings: Barracuda Networks, which works closely with MSPs, is set to announce quarterly results this evening.

1. Kaseya's Internal PSA Choice: This sounds a bit ironic... Kaseya develops and sells its own PSA software. Yet Kaseya runs Krow -- a third-party PSA platform -- within its own business, according to Krow. Here's why.

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.