5 things

5 Channel Partner Updates: 20 October 2016

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Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Thursday, October 20, 2016.

Actually, there are 13 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…

13. Application Performance Monitoring: Dynatrace has made at least two key hires -- including a new CFO and a new GM of digital experience. The hires come amid fast growth -- and intensifying competition -- in the application performance monitoring (APM) market.

12. Dell Isn't Selling RSA: Earlier this year some pundits wondered if EMC would sell RSA ahead of the Dell-EMC business combination. Fast forward to present day and it's clear that Dell Technologies (the combined Dell-EMC business) plans to retain RSA. The security brand is highly visible at Dell EMC World 2016 this week, and Dell also unveiled new endpoint data security management tools at the conference. Yes, the tools are from RSA...

11. Gartner Top 10 2017 Trends: They're right here. At first glance, most of the trends are enterprise-related. But areas like artificial intelligence will definitely redefine the IT services provider market. A key example: Bots that increasingly assist help desks, service desks and IT service management.

10. AI Chatbots: Speaking of AI and service desks... Freshdesk has made yet another acquisition. The company is working overtime to build enterprise-class AI chatbots... But then again: So are Microsoft and Facebook.

9. Losing Security Customers: Shares in NCC Group fell as much as 36 percent on Thursday. The England-based security consultancy revealed that three large customer contracts had been canceled. It was the company's largest one-day stock drop since going public in 2004, Bloomberg reported.

8. Seeking a Buyer?: Tableau Software explored a potential sale in recent months, according to The Wall Street Journal, as technology companies scramble for partners amid a wave of mergers in the industry.

7. New Macs: Apple is set to unveil new Macs during an Oct. 27 event. Yada, yada, yada. These events just ain't the same without The Master Showman on stage...

6. Citrix Cloud Services Providers: Citrix Systems delivered earnings results yesterday. While the overall company is experiencing slow growth take a look at Citrix's CSP-oriented sales. I think they rose roughly 30 percent. Or more...

5. Google Cloud Storage & Cost-Effective Archiving:Google Cloud Storage has expanded from Nearline capabilities to so-called Coldline capabilities. The new Coldline data archiving service costs $0.007 per gigabyte per month (and $0.05 per gigabyte retrieved), according to TechCrunch. Nearline costs $0.01 per month, the site says. Do the math and that's a big potential savings for customers that adopt Coldline for some long-term data needs.

4. Staples Becomes An MSP Again: You may recall that Staples acquired an MSP -- Thrive Networks -- before selling off that business in recent years. Now, the retailer is back in the MSP market (sort of). The latest move involves a different business model and focus. Keep an eye on Staples Records and Cloud Management. What is it? We'll share more details soon...

3. Dell EMC World 2016 Wrap-up: We're wrapping up Dell EMC World 2016 coverage today in Austin, Texas. Keep an eye on that link for more potential updates.

2. Acronis Next Moves: We're also stopping by an Acronis luncheon today before heading home. The executive team will brief partners and customers on Acronis cloud and business continuity offerings. Acronis, now led by former Parallels executives, claims to have serious momentum with CSPs. We'll pursue a reality check...

1. Meet ChannelE2E at Cisco Partner Summit: We're set to attend Cisco Partner Summit (Nov. 1-3) in San Francisco. Want to potentially meet at or near the conference? Please email me: [email protected].

More: Read all of our daily 5 Channel Partner UpdatesPlusSubscribe 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.