Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter and plenty more to start your day for Wednesday, December 23, 2015.
Actually, today's update involves nine items for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) to sip on.
9. IT Industry Outlook: CompTIA has released a forward-looking thought piece on 2016 IT industry trends. You can find CompTIA's 2016 predictions here.
8. Cybersecurity on Planes: Amid the race to legislate how drones are used, a big concern about traditional flight has emerged. Apparently, U.S. and European aviation leaders can't agree on how to safeguard smaller airplanes -- and their electronics -- from cyberattacks. Um, let's all put our heads together and get this one right...
7. Women Leading Startups: I've often blogged about Golden Seeds, an angel investor group that only invests in women-owned startups. Next up, keep a close eye on Female Founders Fund (aka F Cubed) -- which invests in women-led startups across e-commerce, media, web-enabled products and services, marketplaces and platforms. The group, which already has $5.8 million fund, in January apparently plans to launch another fund -- with $30 million to invest -- The Wall Street Journal reports.
6. That's Ironic: The numbers show 2015 was a lousy year to be a unicorn -- a privately held startup valued at $1 billion or more. Only five unicorns -- out of 156 companies -- launched IPOs this year, a small number, according to CrunchBase. Still, there are signs of hope. A case in point: Frequent ChannelE2E readers know that Datto is an extremely rare unicorn -- generating profits even before pursuing an IPO.
5. Freshly Funded: Siteimprove (Minneapolis, Minn.), which develops web governance software for corporate compliance, raised a $55 million minority investment led by Summit Partners.
4. Raising the Caution Flag: During the dot-com boom, then Fed Leader Alan Greenspan warned of irrational exuberance. Then, the dot-com boom went bust. Fast forward to the current Silicon Valley mindset, where extravagant holiday parties are making headlines. Hmmm... Is the tech economy ready for another rest?
3. Channel Partner Summits in 2016: ChannelE2E expects to attend multiple partner conferences in 2016. In fact, our first flight is already booked. Our destination: IBM PartnerWorld Leadership Conference 2016. For everything you need to know about partner conferences and summits in 2016, check out ChannelE2E's Technology Event Calendar -- the most complete listing available for channel partners.
2. ChannelE2E Podcasts: Tune in every Tuesday night at 9:01 p.m. ET (and sometimes in between) for the latest ChannelE2E Podcast. Our latest conversation (Episode 056) features MapR Technologies Chief Marketing Officer Jack Norris describing big data, Hadoop and real-time data streaming opportunities for channel partners. You can find all of the ChannelE2E Podcasts on our homepage and here.
1. Channel Conversations Continue: Plenty of folks are scaling back work or unplugging completely for the holidays. But we're fortunate to be speaking with key leaders and emerging experts across the IT channel. Assuming our schedules remain aligned, stay tuned for coverage involving Carbonite, IT Glue, Rivetz and Oracle (among others) in the hours and days ahead.
More: Read all of our daily 5 Channel Partner Updates. Plus: Subscribe to our daily enewsletter. Thanks to those who already have.
