5 Channel Partner Updates: 23 January 2017

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Monday, January 23, 2017. Actually, there are 18 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… 18. United Airlines IT Outage: All of United Airlines' domestic flights were grounded for more than two hours Sunday night because of a computer outage, SeekingAlpha said. United said the issue affected a technology that sends text messages to pilots in the cockpit, which provides information like weight and balance calculations, the report stated. 17. Financial Services & Cybersecurity: The European Union is considering testing banks' defenses against cyber attacks, as concerns grow about the industry's vulnerability to hacking, according to Reuters. The key question: How would the stress tests address the weakest link -- unsuspecting employees who fall for social engineering, phishing and other hacker campaigns? 16. Email Privacy: Microsoft effort to halt the FBI’s so-called sneak-and-peak searches of e-mails may ride on whether it’s allowed to defend its customers’ constitutional rights, Bloomberg reports. The judge who will decide whether the case can go ahead told the company’s lawyers to be ready in court Monday to address earlier rulings that undercut their arguments, the report stated. At stake is half of Microsoft’s case to block the U.S. from secretly accessing customer data stored in the cloud, including e-mail, Bloomberg asserts. 15. ServiceNow Partner Momentum: TeamUltra, a ServiceNow Gold Partner, recently celebrated its 10th year in business. The firm, which promotes IT service management expertise to UK customers, has grown to 70 employees. 14. Microsoft Office 365 Integration: Rebus, a SaaS-based analytics platform for the supply chain, has completed integrations with Microsoft Office 365 and Skype. The integrations allow customers to collaborate in real-time using their existing office suite of software, Rebus asserts. 13. AppDynamics IPO: The long-awaited AppDynamics IPO will likely proceed on Thursday, January 26. AppDynamics specializes in application performance monitoring (APM), which many MSPs are exploring or embracing to boost customers' cloud services performance.

12. Cloud & Higher Education Talent: Campus Management Corp., which develops the CampusNexus Cloud for higher education, has hired Emiliano Diez as VP of cloud operations and services. the Vice President of Cloud Operations and Services. Diez previously was VP of operations for the University of Miami Partnership at Laureate Education. He also has more than 20 years experience implementing ERP and CRM solutions. 11. Data Center Regional Growth: North Virginia, Northern California, Chicago and Dallas-Fort Worth were the four fastest growing U.S. regions for data centers in 2016, according to JJL, a commercial real estate firm. But wait. More content awaits you on page 2. Proceed to page two now and sip up the remaining items... Welcome to page two. Enjoy a second serving of channel content -- items 10 to 1 -- here. 10. Data Science Talent: How's this for ironic... The big data analytics boom is creating demand for data scientists. But more than 40 percent of data science tasks will be automated by 2020, Gartner predicts. Which 40 percent? Perhaps the data scientists will figure that out -- before the machines do...

Terry Swanson

9. Data Center Network Connections: OneNeck IT Solutions, a combination MSP and data center provider, has activated OneNeck Connect for businesses in and around Des Moines, Iowa. OneNeck Connect provides area businesses with access to a 1 Gbps broadband pipe into OneNeck's data center in nearby Waukee. The secure data center connectivity costs $995 per month. OneNeck recently transitioned its CEO post from Phil LaForge to Terry Swanson. 8. IBM's Glass Half Full?: Although IBM's overall revenues have fallen 19 consecutive quarters, here's a reason to keep the faith -- or perhaps regain faith in the company... Roughly 50 percent of IBM's revenues could come from "strategic imperatives" like cloud and mobile sometime in 2018, according to BMO Capital Markets. For a closer look at those strategic imperatives, check out IBM PartnerWorld 2017 in February. 7. Oracle Partner Win: IT Convergence, an application services provider, has completed its second successful Oracle ERP Cloud application deployment. The latest engagement involves Payscout, which embraced an Oracle ERP Cloud solution to automate and scale invoice processing, IT Convergence says. 6. Managed SD-WAN Services: Hughes Network Systems has launched managed SD-WAN services, which are delivered as an end-to-end turnkey network. The services target  highly distributed organizations, such as those in the retail, restaurant, financial services and government sectors, Hughes said. The SD-WAN market is growing rapidly as customers attempt to cut their wide-area network costs while boosting performance and reliability.

Jennifer Bodell

5. Cloud Distribution Talent: Pax8, the value-added cloud distributor, has hired Jennifer Bodell as director of emerging channel. Bodell is responsible for the strategic direction and go-to-market efforts of the company’s key IT channel relationships, including new growth opportunities and program development, the company said. Bodell is a StorageCraft veteran. 4. Small Business De-Regulation: Small businesses are hoping to see some high-profile Obama administration regulations scrapped now that Donald Trump has taken office, USA Today reports. Indeed, rules affecting overtime, sick leave and the environment among those that may be taken off the books, the paper notes. On the one hand, those changes could reduce costs for SMB owners. But how will employees benefit? Hmmm... .... ... 3. ESOP Shrinkage: There were roughly 6,717 ESOP companies across the United States in 2014, down 9 percent from 2016, according to the National Center for Employee Ownership. An ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) allows business leaders to transfer company ownership to employees. The dip in ESOP ownership may involve the U.S. Department of Labor's heightened scrutiny of of ESOP valuations. That scrutiny seeks to ensure employees aren't paying inflated prices to essentially "acquire" the company. Care to learn more? Here's how Phacil, a midsize IT services provider, transitioned ownership to an ESOP in recent months. 2. Tech Earnings: A lengthy list of technology companies are set to share quarterly earnings this week. We'll be tracking the latest results from Alphabet (Google's parent), Microsoft and more. 1. Top 100 Vertical Market MSPs: Our call for entries. Participate in our Top 100 Vertical Market MSPs survey, and your business could be honored and ranked when we release research results in April. Deadline for participation is March 31, 2017. Submitting a survey only takes a few minutes. More: Read all of our daily 5 Channel Partner Updates. Plus: Subscribe to our daily enewsletter. Thanks to those who already have.