5 things

5 Channel Partner Updates: 8 August 2016

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Monday, August 8, 2016.

Actually, there are 10 entries for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) and telco master agents and agents to sip on. Take a look…

10. ScanSource Buys Intelisys: In case you missed our breaking coverage, ScanSource is acquiring Intelisys -- a move that converges the IT distribution market across VARs, MSPs and telco agents.

9. Rackspace Buyout?: Rumors about Rackspace getting acquired continue to fly, but as of 8:30 a.m. ET today, no deal has been announced.

8. Potential ShoreTel Buyers: We recently noted that ShoreTel essentially is up for sale. But who are the potential buyers for the company? Here's a list of potential ShoreTel buyers -- along with our views on which firms may or may not bid for for the company.

7. Layoffs at Integra: It looks like Integra Telecom -- which offers Internet and phone services to businesses in the Western U.S. -- is having some staff cuts this month, according to BusinessDen.

6. IBM's Mixed Cloud News: Gartner suggests IBM is falling further behind in the cloud IaaS wars, but Synergy suggests IBM is making major progress with private cloud services. Our spin? Generally speaking, we think Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure are pulling further ahead of IBM in the public cloud sector. But we're open to healthy debate on the topic...

5. Cloud Cost Monitoring: Spiceworks has launched a free Cloud Cost Monitor tool to help partners and customers track their cloud spending. It's part of a growing industry focus on cloud cost management tools.

4. Talent: Sprint has hired Vodafone veteran Jan Geldmacher as president of enterprise. Effective August 22, he will oversee Sprint's B2B sales and business development, supporting enterprise customers with wireless communications solutions and services.

3. Four Times the Momentum: Software development cycles at SAP now four times faster vs a few years ago, according to CFO Luca Mucic. Among the reasons for that momentum: SAP now owns a range of SaaS assets -- including Concur, which recently launched a partner program that targets Office 365 VARs and consultants.

2. Application Performance Management: New Relic is hosting a major customer and partner conference in New York on Aug. 9. ChannelE2E will have a front-row seat for the festivities, and we'll also be interviewing a range of executives from the Application Performance Management (APM) company. As we've stated multiple times, we suspect APM is the next major frontier for VARs and MSPs that want to deliver strong customer experience (CX) to customers. We'll test that thesis during our live coverage of New Relic's conference on Aug. 9. PS: New Relic rival AppDynamics will host its major conference -- AppShere 2016 -- in November.

ScanSource CEO Mike Baur
Mike Baur

1. ScanSource CEO on Intelisys Buyout: Assuming our schedules align, ChannelE2E expects to interview ScanSource CEO Mike Baur about the Intelisys buyout this morning. Stay tuned to our ongoing coverage by visiting our homepage every few hours today.

More: Read all of our daily 5 Channel Partner UpdatesPlusSubscribe 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.