5 Channel Partner Updates: 14 December 2016

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Wednesday, December 14, 2016. Actually, there are 24 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…

24. Trump Tech CEO Meeting: President-elect Donald Trump will meet roughly a dozen tech industry CEOs today at Trump Tower in Manhattan. Everyone Elon Musk to IBM CEO Ginni Rometty will be on hand for the gathering. IBM, for one, tried to put a positive spin on U.S. jobs creation a day before the Trump meeting. But the move is raising more questions than it answers... 23. New AMD Chips: AMD is set to ship Zen processors in Q1 2017. The Zen product family launch is particularly critical to AMD, which has faced a double-whammy in recent years. Indeed, the company has struggled to maintain market share in the shrinking PC microprocessor market. Initial Zen processors will target gamers who build their own PCs. 22. Google, Privacy & National Security: How does the FBI pursue data and user information from Google? And how does Google respond? Here are some clues directly from Richard Salgado, director of law enforcement and information security at Google. 21. Secure Messaging's High Value: Symphony, a secure messaging service backed by 14 of Wall Street's biggest banks, is raising up to $200 million in a new round of funding, TechCrunch says. The pre-money valuation is more than $1 billion, the media site reported. 20. Multi-Cloud Management: Jamcracker's cloud services brokerage (CSB) platform now supports multi-cloud management across SaaS, PaaS and IaaS, the company says. Jamcracker's CSB software competes with Ingram Micro's Odin platform for telcos and other types of CSPs. 19. Microsoft Azure Cloud Management: Seen this? 18. Workspace as a Service: Revenues for independenceIT 's Cloud Workspace Suite (SWS) grew 70 percent year over year in 2016 vs. 2015, the company says. Demand among CSPs, ISVs and MSPs has been particularly strong, the company said. However, independenceIT didn't disclose actual revenue figures. 17. Manage Your IT Contractors: SAP Fieldglass has launched SAP Fieldglass Flex, a workforce management solution that helps midmarket firms to find and manage external workers. We're curious to know how SAP Fieldglass Flex compares to community platforms like WorkMarket. 16. ESOP Business Ownership: Want to potentially sell or transition your business ownership to employees? One potential solution could be an ESOP (employee stock ownership plan). This quick overview describes practical steps to setting up an ESOP. The overview is written for construction companies but many of the types can be applied to all types of businesses.

Dave Hauser

15. Cloud Talent: PlumChoice has promoted Dave Hauser to VP, cloud. Hauser, a channel-centric leader, previously held key partner-centric positions at Carbonite. 14. Dell EMC World 2017 Conference: The next Dell EMC World conference is set for May 8-11 in Las Vegas. Some pundits say Dell is relocating the conference from Austin to Las Vegas. Not exactly. Dell is actually rebranding the old EMC World conference (always held in Vegas) as Dell EMC World. Potential Date Conflicts: By the way, ServiceNow Knowledge17, Kaseya Connect 2017 and Microsoft Build 2017 are the same weeks as Dell EMC World. Note: Check the ChannelE2E Technology Event Calendar to track hundreds of partner-oriented conferences, dates and locations. 13. Dell Sells PCs to Iran?: Oops. 12. Docker on Azure Beta: Docker for Microsoft Azure has reached public beta testing. Docker, the fast-growing software container company, launched a more formalized partner program in mid-2016. True believers include Synnex. 11. DockerCon 2017 Conference: The DockerCon 2017 conference is now confirmed for April 17-20 in Austin, Texas. Potential Date Conflicts: Additional conferences that week include NY TechDay 2017, Ingram Micro Cloud Summit 2017 and SMB TechFest Q2 2017. By now, you're starting to realize: Loyal ChannelE2E Technology Event Calendar readers already knew those conference dates and locations...

Wait. You're not done reading. Visit page two for the thrilling conclusion to this blog entry.

Welcome to page two of today's update. We're confident the page load time was worth your wait. Take a look...

10. Office 365 vs Google G Suite in EMEA: Microsoft's Office 365 suite and Google's G Suite are deployed in 66 percent of organizations across EMEA (Europe Middle East and Africa). The twist? Two-thirds of the deployments involve Office 365 vs. one-third for G Suite, according to Bitglass. 9. RMM Alternative: Pulseway, which specializes in cloud- and mobile-first RMM (remote monitoring and management) software, appears to be in rapid growth mode. Pulseway signed up more than 1,200 new customers in 2016 -- though they weren't all MSPs. Additional adopters include organizations within higher education, legal, supply chain and logistics. 8. Top 6 Outages of 2016: Zetta identifies and explores the top six outages of 2016 -- including their apparent causes and ways to potentially mitigate such massive setbacks. 7. Network Security: Infoblox, which specializes in Actionable Network Intelligence, has launched the Infoblox Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) Program, which is building an ecosystem of technology partnerships to optimize network automation and better defend against cyber threats. 6. Ransomware Payments: Fully 70 percent of businesses infected with ransomware have paid ransom to regain access to business data and systems, according to IBM Security survey results on Ransomware. In comparison, over 50 percent of consumers surveyed said they would not pay to regain access back to personal data or devices aside from financial data. Still, the consumer data point could be a bit misleading. After all, consumers were predicting how they would react -- rather than stating how the did react -- to ransomware. 5. Managed Security Services, Part I: Seceon, a threat detection and management company, has launched a channel partner program for managed security services providers (MSSPs). 4. Managed Security Services, Part II: EventTracker, which specializes in security information and event management (SIEM), has launched a managed security service called SIEMphonic. The service includes SIEM, intrusion detection, vulnerability scanning, threat intelligence, and HoneyNet technology, implemented either on-premises or in the cloud. EventTracker has also launched a 24x7 security operations center (SOC) to back the service. 3. The Force Is With You: Sign up for our MSP Pricing webcast (set for this Thursday, Dec. 15) and attend the event, and you could win a Star Wars X-Wing Quad Copter. Plus, the webcast ends in time for you to see Rogue One's premiere Thursday night... 2. Free MSP Marketing Tools: Continuum has launched Continuum Content Creator, a free web-based tool that allows MSPs to generate custom-branded marketing and sales collateral to support their lead generation and prospecting efforts. The Continuum Content Creator is designed for Continuum’s MSP partners.

Gary Pica

1. MSP Pricing for 2017: Just in case you ignored the link in item 3 above, don't forget to join our MSP Pricing webcast on Thursday. TruMethods CEO Gary Pica will share MSP Pricing guidance and profitability formulas for 2017... More: Read all of our daily 5 Channel Partner Updates. Plus: Subscribe to our daily enewsletter. Thanks to those who already have.