5 things

5 Channel Partner Updates: 20 April 2016

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to sip on for Wednesday, April 20, 2016.

Actually, there are 15 entries for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) to sip on.

15. Security in the IT Channel: How are VARs and MSPs addressing and monetizing the security opportunity? A new report from CompTIA offers business model analysis and workforce perspectives on the topic.

14. Done Deal: LANDESK has finalized its buyout of AppSense, a move that could bolster unified endpoint management for channel partners.

13. VMware's Big Hit: The virtualization company delivered stronger-than-expected Q1 results yesterday, lifted by newer offerings like NSX and vSAN. Overall revenues rose 5.2 percent to $1.59 billion -- slightly ahead of Wall Street's expectations.

12. EMC's Slight Miss: The storage giant this morning announced quarterly revenue of $5.5 billion, slightly below Wall Street's expectations of  $5.64 billion. Earnings were also slightly below analyst expectations. Still, CEO Joe Tucci positioned the results as a "solid" first quarter, and said Dell's buyout of the company is proceeding as planned. Dell has previously said that it expects to complete the EMC acquisition between May and October 2016. BTW: Michael Dell is set to keynote EMC World 2016 in early May...

11. Unified Communications: Westcon-Comstor, the value-added technology distributor, has added the Viavi Observer Platform to its Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) portfolio. The platform is a full-service IT solution for optimizing application and network performance management, the companies said.

10. Quiet RMM Growth: LogicMonitor has quietly won some platform deals with key MSPs. The platform's adopters now include mindSHIFT, Agio, The IT Company, R2 Unified Technologies, Network Solutions Inc., Marcum Technology, Zenconnect, and several other well-known service providers...

9. Partner Program: ZyXEL Communications, focused on secure broadband networking, Internet access and connected home products, has launched the ZyXEL Freedom Program with Advocate and Ally membership levels. Find details here.

8. Cloud PSA: Avaza has updated its SMB business management platform to support recurring invoicing -- a key move if the company wants to attract more MSPs and IT service providers onto the platform. Avaza includes modules for invoicing, project management & collaboration, expense management & time tracking, More than 5,000 companies in 120 countries use the platform, Avaza claims.

Microsoft Channel Chief Gavriella Schuster
Gavriella Schuster

7. Microsoft Cloud Partner Program: Microsoft has updated its FastTrack programs to help partners move customers more rapidly to the cloud. GM Gavriella Schuster provides details here.

6. Amazon Cloud Updates: Amazon unveiled a range of cloud updates during the company's AWS Conference yesterday in Chicago. Highlights include Amazon Inspector for improved cloud security; storage enhancements; AWS Snowball & S3 Transfer Acceleration for faster data migrations to the cloud; and plenty more.

5. HIPAA Compliance in AWS: So, can customers maintain HIPAA compliance if they run workloads in Amazon's cloud? This FAQ from Chad Woolf, director of risk and compliance for AWS, offers some insights.

4. Amazon Cloud Summits: Amazon remains on the road evangelizing its cloud services to enterprises and channel partners. Among the dates to watch: AWS Summit stops in Washington, D.C.; New York; and Santa Clara. Check the ChannelE2E Technology Event Calendar for ongoing updates.

3. MSP Cloud Outage?: A major MSP platform provider allegedly had an outage in Europe in recent days. We're checking the facts to see what allegedly went wrong, corrective actions, etc.

2. Dell IoT Partner Program: Say hello to the Dell IoT Solutions Partner Program, which seeks to advance Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and solutions. Key participants include GE, Microsoft, OSIsoft, PTC, SAP, Software AG and Others to Advance the Internet of Things

Joe Tucci

1. Meet Us: ChannelE2E will be attending EMC World 2016 and Lenovo Accelerate 2016 over the next few weeks. To potentially meet us at a conference please email [email protected]. Also, track all upcoming technology and partner events using the ChannelE2E Technology Event Calendar.

More: Read all of our daily 5 Channel Partner UpdatesPlus: Subscribe to our daily enewsletter. Thanks to those who already have.

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.