Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Friday, May 26, 2017.
Actually, there are 15 updates 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…
15. Cloud Monitoring vs. Server Monitoring: Memo to RMM software providers and MSPs in the SMB sector... How is Cloud Monitoring different than Server Monitoring? Stackify CEO Matt Watson offers six answers here.
14. Cloud Revenues: 8x8 Inc., a cloud-centric communications provider, says its total revenues were $66.5 million in Q4 ended March 31, 2017. Also, total service revenue increased 20 percent year-over-year to $62.7 million. And service revenue from midmarket and enterprise customers increased 32 percent YoY, and represented 56 percent of the Company’s total service revenue, compared with 50% in the same period last year. Rumors about 8x8 potentially exploring a company sale surfaced in February 2017 but have since quieted down...
13. The FBI and Kaspersky Lab: The U.S. Government and FBI continue to study Kaspersky Lab for alleged ties to Russia's government, but no smoking gun has emerged in the mainstream media. Also, Kaspersky Lab says rumors about its Russia government ties are false. Still, some key sources are digging hard on the story...
12. Avaya Bankruptcy: Avaya has received a deadline extension to file the company's reorganization plan. The bankrupt collaboration company apparently needs more time to negotiate with creditors... Avaya pension plan participants, meanwhile, are hoping the new plan doesn't harm their benefits.
11. Open Source Data Centers: Keep an eye on Open19 Foundation, which is striving to create open hardware and software solutions for data centers. We'll share more thoughts soon.
10. Rackspace Buys Major MSP: Rackspace has acquired a major MSP focused on Oracle and SAP applications management for end-customers.
9. Serious Channel Momentum: The CEOs of Pure Storage and Splunk, respectively, each pointed to channel partner momentum during earnings calls this week. Comments from Pure Storage CEO Scott Dietzen are here. And perspectives from Splunk CEO Doug Merritt are here.
8. Mobile Security: Cheetah Mobile Inc. has launched Security Master, the "next generation of CM Security" -- a privacy protection and antivirus app with almost 500 million downloads and a 4.7 rating (out of 5) on Google Play. One of the new features is particularly tailored for the U.S. market in an attempt to protect user privacy following the recent rollback of ISP rules, Cheetah Mobile said.
7. IoT Security: Cisco has launched IoT Threat Defense, which segments devices on the network to protect the overall infrastructure, the company says. We'll share more details on MSSP Alert later today.
6. Merging Office 365 Instances: Let's assume two MSPs merge. Each MSP has its own Office 365 instance. How can you bring those Office 365 deployments together? Binary Tree may have the answer. We'll share more details soon.
5. Tech Data Trade-In Service: Hmmm...
4. Help Desk Tax?: Tax laws are changing in Pennsylvania, and some critics think the changes amount to a help desk tax. We'll take a closer look soon.
3. ConnectWise Next Moves: We've already reported, exclusively, that ConnectWise is ramping up its security-centric business moves. But what about the company's next innovations? I suspect clues could emerge at this URL...
2. Hacker Spotting: Reformed Hacker Kevin Mitnick is set to keynote Continuum Navigate 2017 in October. No doubt, security will be the conference's hot topic. Continuum CEO Michael George has hinted previously that his company may launch a SOC (security operations center) for MSPs. PS: Rewind to the 1990s and I actually spent some time speaking with an FBI informant who was tracking Mitnick at the time...
1. Holiday: After Nines Inc. -- parent of ChannelE2E and MSSP Alert -- will be closed Monday, May 29, to observe Memorial Day. But check our websites regularly because you never know when big M&A and security news is going to break...
