5 Channel Partner Updates: 26 January 2017

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Thursday, January 26, 2017. In an unplanned tribute to Doug Flutie, there are 22 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… 22. Microsoft Security: Microsoft says it will continue to invest more than $1 billion annually on security. The statement made headlines -- but it's meaningless since there's no real context for the figure... By "maintaining" the $1 billion figure is Microsoft suggesting that's enough to win the cybersecurity war? Hmmm... 21. Sage Asset Sale?: Sage may sell its global payments business... ChannelE2E doesn't expect to bid for the asset. 20. Open Your Books: A former employee has won a major legal feud against a startup. The net result: Will startups be forced to open their books wider? Hmmm... 19. Amazon Valuation: Amazon is now worth more than America's eight largest retailers -- combined. 18. Data Center Expansion: GoodData has opened a second international data center. The latest location is in Toronto, where M&A activity involving MSPs and CSPs has been hot. 17. Microsoft Cloud Partner: Competitive Computing (C2, www.competitive.com), a Vermont-based digital solutions company, has earned Microsoft's Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions competency. C2, which has partnered with Microsoft since 1993, has focused heavily on Office 365 over the past year to earn  the competency. 16. Office 365 Updates: Microsoft has unveiled Office 365 updates for January. Paul Thurrott has the details... 15. Partner Programs, Part I: Information Builders, which focuses on business intelligence and analytics, has launched Analytics Accelerator, a partner program that makes it easier and more lucrative for system integrators and infrastructure companies to sell Information Builders' WebFOCUS BI and analytics software worldwide, the company asserts. 14. Partner Programs, Part II: Novarad has launched a partner program to promote its medical imaging products. 13. Partner Programs, Part III: PlanetOne Communications, an IT and telecom connectivity partner, has embraced RapidScale (managed cloud services) as a preferred provider.

12. IoT Momentum: PTC’s IoT bookings grew 115% in 2016 vs. 2015, the company says. Moreover, PTC’s IoT business concluded calendar 2016 with revenue of approximately $100 million. Kevin O'Brien, an Oracle veteran, is driving PTC's IoT channel partner business. 11. IoT Partner Program:  Great Bay Software, focused on endpoint and IoT connection security, has joined the Dell IoT Solutions Partner Program as an Associate Partner. Dell has been building out the IoT partner program  for more than a year. 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. MSSP Security Dashboard: RiskSense has launched RiskSense Platform 7.0. The new release includes a Multi-Client Dashboard for MSSPs, the company says. 9. Trump vs. IT Outsourcing?: Amid concerns that President Donald Trump may tax offshore IT outsourcing engagements, American Banker suggests the concerns may be overblown. Hmmm... 8. Accenture Buys ServiceNow Consultancy: Accenture has acquired Solid Servision, one of Europe's largest ServiceNow consultancies. Accenture has been buying up cloud- and SaaS-focused consulting firms. We'll share more details soon. 7. ServiceNow Earnings: ServiceNow is still growing fast and still losing money. But the company's continued growth has impressed some pundits. 6. Most Trusted Brands in Small Business: Amazon and WordPress rank among the most trusted brands with small businesses, according to Alignable. Yelp and Web.com are ranked among the least trusted. Hmmm... WordPress. We used it (awesome). Then we didn't use it (don't ask about that...). Then we used it again (awesome). 5. VMware User Group Controversy: Hmmm.... And you thought tensions were running high in Washington, D.C. 4. Earnings: We're 90 percent sure the latest quarterly results arrive today from Alphabet (Google's parent), Avnet, Comcast, Juniper, ShoreTel, Microsoft and VMware. We'll provide updates as they pertain to channel partner ecosystems...

Scott Barlow

3. Another Way to Fight Phishing, Ransomware: Sophos has unveiled a rather interesting way to help MSPs mitigate phishing and ransomware attacks. We'll share some details from Sophos VP Scott Barlow later today... 2. Most Infected U.S. States: Webroot research has identified the 10 most infected U.S. states. Taken one step further, those 10 states are at the greatest risk of a cyberattack -- though attacks will certainly stretch across physical and virtual borders...

Paul Dippell

1. ChannelE2E 100 -- Join Us: We'll unveil the Top 100 VAR, MSP and CSP mergers and acquisitions of 2016 during our Webcast at 2pm ET today. Service Leadership CEO Paul Dippell will discuss valuation metrics from across the IT service provider ecosystem. More: Read all of our daily 5 Channel Partner Updates. Plus: Subscribe to our daily enewsletter. Thanks to those who already have.