Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Wednesday, September 14, 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. Extreme Networks Buys WiFi Business: Extreme Networks is buying Zebra’s wireless LAN business for $55 million. The deal is expected to close in Q4. Now in his second year at the head of the company, the move highlights CEO Ed Meyercord’s commitment to strengthening Extreme’s position in the enterprise campus market, the company said. Zebra's wireless LAN business has bounced around multiple owners -- first with Symbol Technologies and then to Motorola.
14. Apple Fixes iOS 10 Glitch: Apple Inc. yesterday fixed an iOS 10 upgrade glitch that locked up iPhones and iPads during the upgrade process. I'm still sitting on the sidelines, waiting to do the upgrade until I'm off the road later this week.
13. iOS 10 Security, Management: BlackBerry delivered immediate support for iOS 10 across its enterprise software portfolio, the company said yesterday.
12. Will M&A Robots Replace Lawyers?: Former Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch is investing in Luminance, which makes artificial intelligence software for M&A due diligence tasks. Ironically, HP alleged that it failed to spot accounting irregularities when it acquired Autonomy in 2011. Autonomy always denied the alleged accounting problems, but HP ultimately wrote down the deal's value before selling the assets last week...
11. Cybersecurity Regulations and Financial Services: New York state is proposing new rules requiring banks and insurance companies to establish cybersecurity programs and designate an internal cybersecurity officer, in what Gov. Andrew Cuomo described as a "first-in-the-nation" move to codify cyber safety policies, Bloomberg reported. Similar to how Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA ignited strong demand for data protection solutions, it's a safe bet the New York effort will drive even more demand for such services, ChannelE2E believes.
10. The Digital Divide: New York City alleges that Verizon isn't fulfilling service level agreements that were inked in 2008. Among the examples: The city alleges a massive digital divide between high- and low-income residents. About two-thirds of the more than 300 public-housing developments, which are home to more than 400,000 people, have no access to Fios, The Wall Street Journal reports. In response, Verizon says it has met SLA targets. Verizon began rolling out Fios about a decade ago, and has spent more than $23 billion on construction, the paper said.
9. Cloud Distribution: Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace now offers Symantec Endpoint Protection Cloud. The net result: Ingram becomes the first major global distributor to fully automate the end-to-end service delivery of Symantec Endpoint Protection Cloud in the United States, the company claims. Still, competition has arrived in selected markets. For instance, Pax8 -- a value-added cloud distributor, also is offering the Symantec solution to partners.
8. Security Distribution: AVG Technologies continues to expand its distribution relationships. The latest partners include Sigma Software Distribution in the UK and Dexceo in the Nordics. Both distributors will provide AVG's full line of business solutions. Avast, which is buying AVG for $1.3 billion, has vowed to maintain AVG's SMB partner focus.
7. Global Cloud Services: Evolve IP plans to expand the international presence for its Unified Communicates (UC) and Call Center solutions as well as the expansion to its data center facilities in 2017. The planned expansion includes the United Kingdom and Australia with additional locations in the EU and Asia-Pacific planned shortly thereafter, the company said. Based near Philadelphia, Evolve IP has a $100 million war chest for acquisitions and organic expansion.
6. SDN Managed Services: Masergy Communications Inc. has added Managed Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) capabilities to its global hybrid networking portfolio. The platform supports premise, cloud and virtualized deployments, and can utilize any combination of broadband and high-performance private WAN connections, the company asserts. General availability is scheduled for Q4 2016.
5. Cloud Data Management: Veritas Technologies has unveiled a range of solutions for cloud data management. The new offerings address data protection, data availability and data insight. Veritas is striving to jumpstart its own growth after Symantec sold the company last year.
4. Cloud Management: Egenera, a provider of wholesale cloud services and cloud management software to the channel, has launched a new interface for Xterity, its wholesale managed cloud service. The new downloadable application, called Xterity Cloud Console, is designed to accelerate IaaS and business continuity deployments, the company says.
3. MSP Software Mall: Kaseya has launched AutomationExchange, an online marketplace featuring more than 700 contributors and thousands of downloads per week, the company says.
2. Managed Azure Cloud Services: Hostway has launched hybrid cloud services based on Microsoft Azure. Whether it’s public or private cloud or a combination, all hybrid cloud services are backed by Hostway’s managed support, the company says.
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