5 things

5 Channel Partner Updates: 29 Feb 2016

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to sip on for Monday, February 29, 2016.

Actually, there are 14 items for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) to sip on…

Wendy Bahr
14. Cisco Partner Summit: Check ChannelE2E daily this week for Cisco Partner Summit 2016 coverage. We'll be sitting down with Cisco Systems CEO Chuck Robbins, Channel Chief Wendy Bahr and more.

13. Cisco Bidding for Samsung's Network Business: Cisco Systems has contacted Samsung several times and bid for the mobile company's networking business, according to the Korea Times. However, Cisco's bid wasn't strong enough, the newspaper said.

12. Dell-EMC Financing: It sounds like several banks will require more time than originally expected to raise funding for Dell's $67 billion buyout of EMC. Tough credit markets have stretched out the process, but lenders sound confident the money will come together, according to The New York Post.

11. Cloud Channel Partner Strategies: Rackspace is leveraging Impartner -- a SaaS-based partner relationship platform (PRM), to strengthen its channel partner program ,the two companies have confirmed. For more details on Impartner's PRM platform visit here.

10. M&A: LOGICnow has acquired iScan Online. The platform will be rebranded as LOGICnow MAX Risk Intelligence. The goal? Enable organizations to understand their total risk exposure by quantifying that risk in actual dollar terms.

9. RSA Conference: The massive security conference kicks off this week in San Francisco. The RSA Conference chatter we're already hearing involves Webroot demonstrating Webroot BrightCloud Threat Investigator at the conference. The new platform provides enterprises, managed service providers (MSPs) and managed security service providers (MSSPs) with "actionable threat intelligence" on individual IPs and URLs for rapid incident investigation and response. We'll be checking in with other security companies to see what else is cooking at the conference.

8. Office 365 Partner Programs: ServicePoint365, a provider of ISV applications for Microsoft Office 365 and Azure, has launched a partner program that helps Office 365 resellers implement ServicePoint365 for their customers. Synnex earlier this month announced a distribution deal with ServicePoint365.

7. Venture Capital Slowdown: How can entrepreneurs potentially survive a venture capital slowdown? Forbes offers some timely tips. As for ChannelE2E and parent company After Nines Inc., we remain bootstrapped (i.e., self-funded).

6. Cloud Application Management ManagedMethods, which focuses on cloud access security, and Ixia are partnering to offer a joint solution that delivers visibility into network traffic and cloud application usage. Together, the companies hope to help customers reduce shadow IT issues -- i.e., unauthorized use of public cloud applications.

5. Office 365 vs Google Apps: Instead of beating around the bush, Microsoft is directly stating 10 reasons why SMBs choose Office 365 over Google Apps. The war of words between Microsoft and Google has escalated in recent weeks. Google recently asserted that jumping from third-party SaaS offerings to Google Apps for Work delivers a big ROI. And earlier, Google introduced a free Office 365 to Google Apps migration offer that rewarded partners for the customer migrations. Microsoft has also been active, promoting an Office 365 FastTrack program to attract smaller Google Apps customers to the Office platform.

4. HIPAA Insurance Payment Denied: A California federal judge last week reversed her ruling that Millennium Laboratories’ insurer owes it $5 million in coverage for a federal HIPAA investigation, saying the insurer was not obligated to cover Millennium’s litigation costs now that the probe has been unsealed. What exactly does that mean? A potential big bill for Millennium Labs -- though we're still poking around for deeper details.

3. Dominating the IoT Market: Still trying to understand potential Internet of Things opportunities? Take a close look at GE Digital, which is emerging as leader for the Industrial Internet of Things. The strategy hinges on Predix, GE's cloud-based platform for Industrial IoT uses. BTW: Here are Gartners' Top 10 Internet of Things Technologies for 2017 and 2018. We'll offer some channel insights on that list soon.

2. HIPAA Compliance Cloud Dashboard: ClearDATA has announced the "first" cloud-based system to monitor actual HIPAA compliance levels throughout an organization's IT environment. The ClearDATA Active Compliance and Security Monitoring Dashboard gives providers, pharma, payers and their business associates "unprecedented" transparency to quickly identify and remediate physical, technical and administrative safeguards that have drifted out of compliance in their IT environments. Hmmm... That sounds very compelling, but I'm always wary when I read claims like "first" and "unprecedented" in the HIPAA market.

1. Top MSPs: Our Top Vertical Market MSPs survey remains open through March 31. Participate now and your company could be honored as one of the world's top vertical market MSPs.

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.