Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Monday, August 7, 2017.
Actually, there are 11 timely updates designed 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:
11. Google Diversity Firestorm: A Google employee has started a firestorm by authoring a 10-page anti-diversity memo. The memo went viral over the weekend. Google Diversity Chief Danielle Brown has slammed the memo, say it does not represent the company's values. The controversy comes less than a week after CompTIA CEO Todd Thibodeaux called on industry members to embrace the critical need for workplace diversity.
10. Talent Training: Dell's CIO is warning employees that no organization can fully reskill its staff. Instead, employees have to pursue training on their own -- or be ready to get left behind at some point...
9. Lenovo Data Centers?: Lenovo's data center push faces a range of questions from partners and customers. Can the desktop and mobile giant gain serious data center momentum? We've reached out to the company for comment...
8. Microsoft 365 Preview: Microsoft has started to preview 365 Business, a bundle that combines Office 365, Windows 10, and Enterprise Mobility+Security. The 365 Business bundle was announced at last month's Inspire conference.
7. HPE Software Spin-Off: HP Enterprise is expected to finalize the spin-off of certain software assets by August 21. As previously announced, the spin-off will merge some HPE software with assets from Micro Focus. Meanwhile, some Micro Focus shareholders are worried the deal will weigh down Micro Focus's overall business... Executives have dismissed those concerns as unwarranted.
6. Veeam Focus: Veeam says it can remain an entrepreneurial-driven company even as it pursues the enterprise market. Frankly, I think the bigger potential concern for partners involves Veeam's enterprise relationships. The company has growing deals with Dell EMC, Cisco Systems, HP Enterprise and more. In theory, those relationships present new partner opportunities. But don't forget, there's the risk that giants like Dell EMC and HPE, in particular, will take Veeam-related deals direct to enterprise customers...
5. Cisco Meraki Data Loss: Cisco concedes that its cloud-based Meraki system has lost some customer data. Ouch.
4. M&A - CSPs: Cloudreach has acquired a majority stake in Philadelphia-based cloud computing analytics and migration automation provider Cloudamize. Financial terms were not disclosed.
3. M&A Rumor: Are CompuCom and Pomeroy planning a $3.1 billion merger? That rumor surfaced on CRN...
2. M&A - Customer Experience: Infosys has acquired Brilliant Basics, a London-based design and customer experience studio. Financial terms were not disclosed.
1. M&A - IT Consulting: Accenture has acquired consulting firms Search Technologies and Brand Learning. The deals should help Accenture to expand its consulting services for analytics and sales, ZDnet suggested. We'll share our own spin soon.
