5 things

5 Channel Partner Updates: 13 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 Friday, May 13, 2016.

Actually, there are 10 entries for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) to sip on. Take a look…

10. Symantec Layoffs: Here they come.

9. Sorry, You Can't Come: A major PSA company has allegedly barred a major backup and disaster recovery (BDR) company from its partner conference. Nope, this has nothing to do with ConnectWise and IT Nation 2016... Stay tuned. We're investigating the alleged details now...

8. How to Choose Your Child's First Computer: Mac or PC? Chromebook or iPad. I rather enjoyed this tutorial from The Wall Street Journal.

7. Big Tech Salaries: If you've got Blockchain expertise, it sounds like you can demand a big salary -- and receive it. Indeed, Blockchain experts are receiving $250,000 job offers on Wall Street -- about 150 percent higher than the typical software developer salary, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Journal reports.

6. Software Defined Challenges: So, you want to get into software defined networking (SDN), storage (SDS) or data center (SDDC). Most major technology companies are evangelizing solutions in those areas. But big customers that are moving to software defined infrastructure say the journey involves plenty of major challenges...

5. Donald Trump vs Jeff Bezos: Clash of the titans... Is it safe to assume the Donald and Melania aren't Amazon Prime members?

Kathy Gregory
Kathy Gregory

4. Channel Talent: Palo Alto Software, which specializes in small business planning and financial management software, hired Kathy Gregory as accountant strategic advisor channel manager. The strategic hire of a dedicated advisor comes as the company is placing a greater emphasis on supporting this channel, increasing focus on accountants looking to expand their offerings to small business clients, the company said.

3. Sold Out: DattoCon16 (June 20-22, Nashville, Tenn.) is sold out. The 2015 event attracted about 500 attendees. This year's event sounds like it will be closer to 730 attendees or so -- the bulk of which will be managed services providers (MSPs). Also, DattoCon17 apparently is confirmed for June 5-7 in Denver.

2. Office 365 Backup: Speaking of Datto, the data protection company is gaining momentum in the Office 365 backup market, sources say. Instead of turning over Office 365 customers to Microsoft, MSPs see backup as a way to control customer data -- and therefore, the customer relationship. Datto in 2014 acquired Backupify for SaaS-oriented backup.

1. Upcoming Conferences: We'll be closely tracking several IT and channel conferences next week -- including ServiceNow Knowledge 2016, NetSuite SuiteWorld 2016 and SAP Sapphire Now 2016. Is your company hosting a channel partner conference or summit in 2016, 2017, 2018 and beyond? Submit it to us for possible listing on the ChannelE2E Technology Event Calendar.

More: Read all of our daily 5 Channel Partner UpdatesPlus:Subscribe 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.