Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to sip on for Monday, May 2, 2016.
Actually, there are 12 entries for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) to sip on.
12. Oracle M&A: Now, the database giant is buying a cloud services company focused on the utility vertical. Specifically, Oracle has purchased Opower in a $532 million cash deal.
11. Datto Drive: Datto has officially unveiled/released Datto Drive, the file sync and sharing alternative to Dropbox and Box. We'll share more details soon.
10. Dell Partner Program: Arrow ECS veteran Pete Koliopoulos has joined the Dell Systems & Information Management (SIM) team as VP of Global Software Channels and Alliances, the company revealed in a blog. Additionally, three industry veterans have joined the SIM channel leadership team to help drive the SIM channel program in priority regions. They include Jeff McCullough (Americas), Chris Miller (EMEA) and Mary Woo (APJ).
9. Apple Watch Sales: This just in from Business Insider: Apple Watch finished Q1 with a 52.4% share of the global smartwatch market, down from 63% in Q4, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. Apple shipped 2.2 million units of the Watch in Q1, and Apple is by far the dominant player in the nascent market. But a growing field of rivals, building watches based on Google's Android Wear software and on the open-source Tizen system, is catching up, Business Insider noted.
8. Microsoft Cloud Worries?: Microsoft's operating margins in its intelligent cloud division continued their general downward trend, with a particularly acute decline in the most recent quarter, Motley Fool reports. Though still profitable, the segment's 16% decrease in profitability in just one year deserves further investigation, the site says...
7. Data Centers: RagingWire Data Centers, an NTT Communications group company, has opened its second data center in Ashburn, Va. Called VA2, the location has 140,000 square feet of data center space and 14 megawatts of power,. The facility features seven turn-key vaults and colocation configurations tailored for wholesale data center buyers...
6. Tech Slowdown?: Although Ingram Micro's cloud business continues to grow rapidly, the distributor delivered weaker-than-expected earnings for its Q1 2016 on Friday. Pundits are wondering if Ingram stumbled a bit or if a larger IT spending slowdown has started... The earnings miss comes as Ingram strives to finalize its $6 billion company sale to a Chinese logistics giant.
5. Microsoft Intune: Three enhancements have arrived for Microsoft Intune, the company's cloud-based mobile device management (MDM) platform. The enhancements allow admins to better control users' Outlook contacts; Skype for Business Online and Windows Defender on Windows 10 PCs. Also, watch for certain Intune dashboard features to be folded into the Office 365 management portal. Intune has a bit of a following with MSPs, but more traditional RMM (remote monitoring and management) platforms with MDM capabilities tend to be more popular in the MSP sector.
4. Earnings Alerts: Numerous technology companies are set to announce earnings this week. Here's a sampling of what's on tap, along with why you should care...
- Monday: EarthLink will reveal how the company is performing after selling off its IT services business to Synoptek. (FYI: Synoptek CEO Tim Britt describes his M&A strategy in this ChannelE2E Podcast.)
- Tuesday: Carbonite earnings arrive just as the cloud backup company announces a new partner program. Earnings should also reveal how the company's midmarket data protection push is performing.
- Wednesday: A boatload of earnings including CenturyLink (are data centers still for sale?); Equinix (a cloud of clouds provider); GoDaddy (just stared SMB cloud push); and Hortonworks (big data and Hadoop solutions).
- Thursday: FireEye seeks to show strength in the IT security market. And Tableau seeks to recover from a weak forecast earlier this year that tanked big data stocks.
- Friday: Cognizant Technology Solutions, one of the world's top IT outsourcing firms, shares its results.
Note: Check in with each company directly to confirm earning dates, etc.
3. Also On Our Radar: The HTG Peer Groups Q2 gathering is this week in Dallas. Also, Sophos is hosting a partner conference in Las Vegas. We'll be checking in with both events for updates.
2. Kaseya Connect 2016: The MSP-centric gathering kicks off this week in Carlsbad, California. Here's a preview to help MSPs seek out key updates at the conference.
1. EMC World: The EMC World 2016 conference off this morning with CEO Joe Tucci and Michael Dell on stage. Here's a preview and stay tuned for live blogs from the show on Monday and Tuesday.
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