Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Friday, December 23, 2016.
Actually, there are seven timely 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…
7. Big Data on AWS: Hortonworks, which has a close working relationship with the Microsoft Azure team, has extended its Hadoop platform to run on Amazon Web Services. Sort of like Google Android vs. Apple iOS, developers are increasingly choosing "both" AWS and Azure in the cloud...
6. M&A: Data Center Sale: British billionaire brothers David and Simon Reuben sold a 49 percent stake in data center operator Global Switch Holdings Ltd to Chinese investors, despite security concerns surrounding the deal, Bloomberg noted. The deal values Global Switch at nearly $6 billion.
5. IT Service Providers Fined: A Florida-based IT service provider and associated companies were fined $10 million for high-pressure, fraudulent sales tactics, according to the FTC.
4. HPE Europe Channel Changes: Mark Armstrong will lead HP Enterprise's SME channel efforts int he UK and Ireland going forward, succeeding Lee Hughes -- who resigned to join a security and digital startup, according to The Register.
3. Channel Partner Programs Database: Greenlink Networks, Thom Infotech and Tier3MD are now listed in the ChannelE2E Partner Programs Database. More than 130 companies are in the free, searchable database. Is yours?
2. January Partner Summits: What channel conferences are set for January 2017? Hmmm... Citrix Summit 2016 Partner Conference kicks things off on January 9. But that's not all. Check the ChannelE2E Technology Events Calendar, which lists hundreds of partner summits and conferences set for 2017 and beyond.
1. Thankful for So Much: Happy Hanukkah to my business partner, Amy Katz, and to everyone who celebrates the Festival of Lights, which begins on Saturday. And Merry Christmas to our readers who are preparing for Sunday's celebration. We'll be working a bit ahead of the New Year -- but mostly spending time with our respective families and reflecting on the many gifts in our lives. Thank you for your support in 2016, and best wishes for a healthy, happy New Year.
More: Read all of our daily 5 Channel Partner Updates. Plus: Subscribe to our daily enewsletter. Thanks to those who already have.
