5 things

5 Channel Partner Updates: 14 March 2017

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Tuesday, March 14, 2017.

Actually, there are 15 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. Take a look…

Marissa Mayer
Marissa Mayer

15. Keeping Score: Verizon pursued a $925 million discount for the Yahoo buyout, based on multiple Yahoo security breaches. The actual discount was $350 million. Plus, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's severance package will potentially be $23 million severance package if/when she leaves Yahoo...

14. Citrix Up for Sale?: Citrix Systems has hired Goldman Sachs to pursue potential buyers for the software company, according to Bloomberg. The company already spun off its GoTo business. Citrix's current valuation -- about $13.3 billion -- likely makes the company too big for most suitors to afford. Still, Citrix's strong reputation in the virtualization, security and mobile markets could make the company a tempting buy.

13. Security IPO: Okta, the identity and access management (IAM) specialist, has filed to pursue an IPO. Okta apparently has a $1.2 billion pre0-IPO valuation...

12. DDoS Protection: Hawaiian Telcom has bolstered its Managed Network Security Services with a new cloud-based solution called Secure Internet Protection. It safeguards businesses against distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. The launch is part of a larger trend in the cloud and IT services market, where telecom and data center providers are striving to mitigate DDoS attacks.

11. Enterprise Social Networks: IBM has launched Connections 6.0, an enterprise social network platform that supports blogs, wikis, activity streams and more. It competes with Workplace by Facebook, Microsoft Yammer, Salesforce Chatter, Slack and Microsoft Teams.

10. Staples Shrinkage: Staples has sold its Australia- and New Zealand-based businesses. The company in 2016 sold off its European operations. The office retailer has been shifting aggressively toward midmarket & cloud services, but revenues in that area haven't grown rapidly enough to offset weakness in its traditional retail business.

9. New Owner, New Name: CenturyLink’s former data center business, now owned by an investment group, bas been renamed Cyxtera Technologies. Alas, search engine optimization (SEO) for the new name's website hasn't quite kicked in...

8. NOC Launch: MCSA Group, an MSP in the United Kingdom, has launched a new NOC (network operations center) to accelerate its managed services push.

7. NCR Ownership: Blackstone Group, the private-equity firm, plans to sell nearly half of its NCR common stock and a portion of its preferred stock in the ATM maker, MarketWatch says.

Mark Mathews

6. Talent - Channel Chief: Epson America Inc. has named Mark Mathews as vice president of North American commercial marketing. In that role, Mathews is responsible for enhancing Epson’s commercial reseller program and strengthening the company’s strategic direction for commercial business solutions.

Forrester Analyst Jay McBain explains the future of channel sales

5. Talent - Channel Guidance: Channel Mechanics,which develops a cloud-based channel enablement SaaS solution, has hired former ChannelEyes CEO Jay McBain as strategic advisor. McBain exited ChannelEyes in December. He previously held marketing and channel roles at Autotask, IBM and Lenovo. ChannelEyes, meanwhile, is still pursuing a new CEO.

Russell Reeder

4. Talent - Cloud Services: OVH US, a new subsidiary of the France-based OVH Group, has hired Russell Reeder as CEO. It's the latest step in a larger plan to gain market share in the U.S. cloud market. OVH is one of the largest hosting companies in the world.



Jonathan Davidson

3. Talent - Networking: Cisco has hired Juniper veteran Jonathan Davidson as senior VP and GM, service provider networking. The move comes amid a reorganization and some layoffs at Juniper. Both Cisco and Juniper have faced pressure in the service provider market, where many large customers have cut their IT spending or shifted budgets toward cloud- and software-defined projects.

2. Talent - CompTIA: Tracy Pound, founder and managing director of MaximITy, a technology training, consultancy and project management company, will be recognized as CompTIA Member of the Year at the association’s Annual Member Meeting next week. Pound has more than three decades of experience in the technology industry, starting out as a programmer before moving into consultancy, training and project management roles.

1. Top 50 Cloud Management & Monitoring Tools: We've updated the list for 2017. What did we miss?

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.