Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to sip on for Wednesday, June 15, 2016.
Actually, there are 13 entries for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) to sip on. Take a look…
13. Dell Exits?: Rumors about Dell potentially selling Quest Software and SonicWall have returned. Such moves would potentially help Dell to strengthen its balance sheet before closing the $67 billion buyout of EMC Corp. later this year.
12. CenturyLink Buys Hybrid Cloud Management: CenturyLink has acquired ElasticBox, a hybrid cloud management tool that allows users and partners to deploy and manage workloads across Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, IBM SoftLayer, VMware, OpenStack and more. The move comes as CenturyLink also explores the potential sale of 60 data centers...
11. Workspace as a Service (WaaS): IBM and VMware are expanding their strategic partnership. The latest move enables VMware Horizon Air customers to leverage cloud-hosted desktop and application services via the IBM Cloud. VMware Horizon Air on IBM Cloud is expected to be available in Q3 2016. ChannelE2E doesn't know if an associated partner program will emerge...
10. IBM and SugarCRM: IBM has worked with SugarCRM -- a Salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics CRM alternative -- for several years now. And the two companies are now expanding their relationship. The big question: Will IBM ever actually acquired SugarCRM -- or is that market already too mature for such a deal? Hmmm...
9. HIPAA-Compliant Clouds: Wowrack, a managed cloud hosting solutions and colocation provider, has launched three HIPAA Compliant Private Cloud offerings for the healthcare industry, the company claims. Security First Corp. is providing security for the offerings.
8. Post Unicorn Era: Dropbox CEO Drew Houston says he's pushing the file sync and sharing company toward profitability because we've reached the "post-unicorn era," according to Bloomberg. In other words, it's no longer sexy to grow fast and lose money. Hence, the troubles over at Zenefits, WeWork and other unicorns that were worth $1 billion or more -- but had no profits. For its part, Dropbox appears to be building a successful channel partner program.
7. Tech M&A, IPOs Set to Accelerate?: Venture Capitalist and Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen says the tech M&A pipeline is seeing a lot of activity with a lot of acquisitions that should happen -- but haven't yet. The big players have to go shopping, and there will be a run of M&A later this year. We certainly agree.
6. Partner Programs:
- Aerohive Networks has launched an AdvantageMSP program to enable its channel partners to deliver fully managed enterprise wired and wireless services, the company asserts. Find details here.
- Calix has launched PathFinder, a software specialization program designed to for Calix Channel Partners. The program includes service provider tools that improve broadband customer experiences, the company claims. All 85 Calix Channel Partners in 66 countries across six continents are eligible to enroll in this software specialization program, Calix says.
- Netsurion, a provider of remotely-managed data and network security services for multi-location businesses, has named POS Solutions a Gold Partner. The company will resell Netsurion’s Brand Guard services bundled with its own point of sale (POS) packages for retail customers. The move comes as major retailers like Wendy's investigate malware and other security breaches on POS systems.
- Promark Technology, an Ingram Micro company, has agreed to distribute Pivot3 hyperconverged and flash storage solutions.
- RingCentral, which offers cloud-based communication platforms, has inked a Master Agent partnership with TBI, a distributor of data, network, cloud, voice and managed services.
- Thinspace Technology, which develops application delivery, virtualization, and cloud client technology, has launched an enhanced partner program and online partner portal. The company says it has 30 newly signed resellers in strategic markets.
5. Microsoft Office Reorg: Microsoft has reorganized its Office unit to combine products that tackle the same tasks -- putting content creation tools like PowerPoint, Word and Sway under one roof, and Excel and Access for data and analytics under another, for instance. Um, does anybody care about Office anymore?
4. Coming to Dallas: Google Fiber is exploring the possibility of a Dallas broadband network deployment. A quick look at the Fiber deployment map shows no signs of progress in my neck of the woods -- the Northeastern U.S...
3. MSP Pricing: Atera has unveiled benchmark data that suggests MSPs are under-charging for their services. Still, some of the data doesn't quite hit the mark for me. Much of the information covers per-hour fees rather than monthly recurring revenue, per user and per device rates, etc. Here's the data.
2. Navigating Life: All it takes is a great family and a great business partner. Oh, and the wisdom to know when you've got it good.
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