5 things

5 Channel Partner Updates: 24 Feb 2016

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to sip on for Wednesday, February 24, 2016.

Actually, there are a whopping 20 items for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) to sip on…

Service Leadership Inc. CEO Paul Dippell
Paul Dippell

20. MSP Profit Margins: What's the typical profit margin for best-in-class MSPs? Service Leadership CEO Paul Dippell shares the answer -- and other financial metrics for MSPs -- in ChannelE2E Podcast Episode 063. (Yes, you can listen now -- and forever.)

19. MSPs and Hosted Workspaces: Roughly 100 TeamLogic IT locations across North America are striving to embrace nGenx -- which specializes in hosted workspaces for applications, data and desktops. The TeamLogic IT-nGenx relationship is expected to be announced today. TeamLogic IT is one of the best-known managed IT services franchises.

18. IT Security Reports: Roughly 100,000 net new malicious IP addresses were created per day in 2015, a significant increase from the 2014 average of 85,000 a day, according to a Webroot report. The potential conclusion: Cybercriminals rely less on the same list of IPs, and are expanding to new IPs to avoid detection. Separately, malware attacks nearly doubled to 8.19 billion with Android ecosystem being prime target, putting a large percent of smartphones at risk globally, according to a Dell security report. We'll share more findings from the reports later today.

17. New Partner Programs: 

  • CentriLogic, which provides managed hosting, cloud and co-location services, has launched the Console Partner Program. Partners can privately connect all client locations to CentriLogic's data centers, the company says.
  • ScienceLogic, which offers hybrid IT monitoring software, has launched the ChannelLogic partner program. Find more details here.

16. MSP Remote Control: NinjaMSP has agreed to resell TeamViewer's remote control technology to NinjaMSP's RMM (remote monitoring and management) customer base. NinjaMSP was launched by several Dell PacketTrap veterans and has been expanding rapidly in recent months.

15. Dell-EMC Buyout Approval: US regulators have approved Dell's buyout of EMC. Next up: Dell is still raising capital to finance the $67 billion deal, but company executives earlier this month said they still expect to complete the buyout between May and October 2016.

14. Gartner Top 10 IoT Considerations: Trying to wrap your arms around the Internet of Things? Garner offers up this Top 10 list of IoT considerations to keep in mind. We'll add some channel spin sometime soon...

13. Small Business Optimism: Roughly 53 percent of entrepreneurs say now is the best time ever to own a small business, according to the Allstate/USA TODAY Small Business Barometer. Nearly nine-in-10 (89 percent) of respondents believe the benefits of owning a small business outweigh the challenges. More than six-in-10 (61 percent) of those surveyed said their business is doing "well" or "very well" these days. Still, a separate survey suggests Obamacare is the fastest-growing threat to small business success. Overall, we'll gladly side with the optimists. Now is a pretty awesome time to be building, running -- and retaining -- a small business.

12. Retaining MSPs?: AVG Technologies is set to announce Q4 2015 earnings sometime today. The financial results could reveal how AVG's Managed Workplace business is performing with MSPs. A quarter earlier, AVG announced layoffs involving Managed Workplace and SMB employees. AVG acquired Managed Workplace in 2013. We'll offer a reality check in the next 24 hours or so.

11. Hey Bud, Let's Keynote: Sean Penn is set to speak at the RSA Conference. This is ChannelE2E's second Sean Penn reference in two days. We're not sure how to keep the string going...

10. Hey Big (Blue) Spender: IBM spent $1.3 billion to acquired Cleversafe last year -- the company's biggest buyout of 2015, according to an SEC filing. Cleversafe is one of many moves IBM has made to tackle the hybrid cloud market.

9. WiFi Router Innovations: Sources say Datto now expects to ship its SMB router -- called the Datto Network Appliance -- in June. Meanwhile, the new Eero home WiFi router is set to hit the market this week -- and pundits say the device is pretty darn innovative.

8. BlackBerry Expands IT Services: BlackBerry continues to push far beyond its hardware heritage, this time acquiring a cyber security consulting firm in the UK. The buyout, involving a company called Encription, involves 40 cyber security professionals who offer penetration testing to government agencies and large businesses.

7. IT Security Funding Dries Up: If you're a startup in the cyber security market, easy money is getting harder and harder find. It now takes six to eight months to close funding deals, up from three to four months a couple of years ago, Reuters says. Plus, the valuations are under pressure. Some of those cyber security startups are running out of cash and exploring potential company sales...

6. AWS for Big Banks: Amazon Web Services is now turning its attention to big banks -- pursuing AWS cloud workloads from financial services firms. Key discussions have involved Citibank and JP Morgan, according to Fox. If mission-critical banks begin to trust AWS, it will be the clearest signal yet that public clouds now match -- or exceed -- on-premises security, reliability, scalability... and the list goes on.

5. AWS Consulting Army: Capgemini is training more than 1,000 professionals to support Amazon Web Services across India, the UK, the U.S., Netherlands and France by the end of 2016.

4. SMBs and Docker Container Management: Docker has launched an end-to-end container management platform called Docker Datacenter. This is more than an enterprise management platform. Docker stresses that SMB customers also can leverage Docker Datacenter to ship and maintain all applications in software containers. The system runs on-premises behind the customer's firewall.

3. IT Service Management on Azure: Cherwell Service Management is now available in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace. The IT service management platform helps customers and partners to maintain on-premises and cloud solutions. It also integrates with IT Operations Management platforms from Microsoft.

2. ChannelE2E Webcasts: We're launching quarterly webcasts starting March 2016. We've already confirmed a world-class speaker lineup for the first event. Details are coming really, really soon. Keep an eye on www.ChannelE2E.com/webcasts for our forthcoming schedule. Got questions about our webcasts? Contact ChannelE2E CEO Amy Katz ([email protected]).

1. Top Vertical Market MSPs: Are you one of them? Prove it, earn some free recognition and celebrate your success. Complete the ChannelE2E Top Vertical Market MSPs survey. We'll announce results and honorees in Q2 2016.

More: Read all of our daily 5 Channel Partner UpdatesPlus: Subscribe 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.