5 Channel Partner Updates: 21 September 2016

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Wednesday, September 21, 2016. Actually, there are 21 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… 21. Application Performance Management: Keep an eye on this space. AppDynamics and New Relic are the well-known players. But a new rival might be emerging -- as soon as sometime today. Check our homepage for updates soon. 20. Women in Technology: CompTIA has launched Make Tech Her Story, an ebook, website and awareness campaign to inspire tech industry leaders, educators, parents and girls to make the industry more gender inclusive. 19. MSP M&A Advisor: When TelePacific recently acquired DSCI -- a managed IT specialist in Southern California -- the buyer leaned heavily on third-party expertise to shape the deal. Among the names to know: Q Advisors, which acted as the exclusive financial advisor to TelePacific on the deal. Q Advisors positions itself as a global investment banking boutique with expertise in the cloud communications space -- along with telecom, media and technology (TMT). 18. Free Office 365 Migrations: Cenetric, an MSP in Kansas City, is offering free migrations to Microsoft Office 365 until January 1, 2017. The offer, Cenetric says, includes includes expert support in moving to the Cloud; full migration services including data transfer; and a guarantee that the transition will be seamless. 17. Adobe Cloud Revenues: Adobe Systems Inc. reported a better-than-expected 20 percent jump in quarterly revenue as its Creative Cloud package of software tools attracted more users, Reuters noted. Revenue from the company's digital media business rose 28.6 percent to $990 million in the latest quarter, the report said. 16. Four types of CIOs: There are four types of CIOs -- commercial, innovative, tech and transformational. Understanding each of those four characteristics could help IT services providers to align more closely with their CIO counterparts... 15. European vs. U.S. Privacy Views: Why do Europeans care more about data privacy than their American counterparts? The answer to that question, delivered by Europe’s Commissioner for Competition, could help U.S. companies to better design their cloud services for European consumption. 14. European BDR Services: Continuum's Continuity247 is now generally available to MSPs across Europe. The offering is a fully managed backup and disaster recovery (BDR) platform. Several BDR players -- particularly Datto and Intronis MSP Solutions -- have been expanding their European footprints in recent quarters. 13. Network Performance Monitoring: Kentik has launched Kentik NPM -- a network performance monitoring platform for distributed applications that run on-premises and across the cloud. The offering builds on Kentik Detect, a big data-based, SaaS network analytics platform. Kentik NPM also includes nProbe host-based and sensor monitoring agent software offered in partnership with ntop. 11. Google Counters Amazon Echo: With what? The answer will likely arrive on Oct. 4. Congratulations. You've consumed items 21 to 11. Head back to the buffet, proceed to page 2, and consume items 10 to 1.  Welcome to page 2 of today's update. Here's the rest of our lineup: 10. Cyber Security Insurance Tax Credit?: Imagine if your business earned tax credits for purchasing  data breach insurance and implementing a widely respected cybersecurity framework. A House of Representatives member is piecing together that type of proposal, though it's unclear if law makers will fully embrace the idea, Law360 reports. 9. Cyber Security Report: The latest Webroot Quarterly Threat Trends report surfaced today. Although the number of overall malware encounters is decreasing, malware attacks are more sophisticated and short-lived than ever before, the report says. 8. Security Partner Program:  ReSec Technologies, a security specialist has launched a North America partner program. The company has an established partner network in EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa). Tomer Eisner, VP of global sales and business development, is driving the international partner initiative. 7. HP Innovation: HP Labs, owned by HP Inc., turns 50 this year. The company is hosting a celebration on Sept. 27 to mark the anniversary -- and potentially unveil some new innovations. 6. Facebook Hardware Strategy: Facebook has acquired Nascent Objects, a small hardware startup that will help the social media giant to more rapidly prototype hardware products... 5. SMB Payment Processing: HeroPay, a Los Angeles-based startup, has launched a portal that allows small businesses to shop for and compare multiple payment processing options. 4. Massive Service Desk Contract: ASM Research, an Accenture Federal Services Company, has won a contract from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to support the National Service Desk (NSD). The NSD is a key component of the Department’s MyVA strategy for improving VA employee experience across the enterprise, ASM says. The contract has a nine-month, $36.5 million base period with three, one-year options. The contract value is capped at $286 million. 3. Growth: We're hearing some chatter about Autotask growth figures. We'll share some details sometime around the Autotask Community Live conference next week. 2. Five Years?: Has it really been five years since Summit Partners acquired Continuum? Yes indeed. We'll retrace some of the milestones ahead of the company's Navigate 2016 conference next week. Stay tuned.

Paul Dippell

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