Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Monday, March 26, 2018.
Actually, there are eight 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. Momentum: The Dropbox IPO on Friday performed extremely well -- at least for day one. Shares in the company rose nearly 40 percent. We're curious to see if that strong performance inspires new file sync and sharing initiatives from MSP-friendly options like Datto's Autotask Workplace and eFolder Anchor, among others.
10. Google Breakup?: The European Union holds “grave suspicions” about the dominance of Internet giant Google and has not ruled out breaking it up, according to a warning by the EU’s antitrust chief, Britain’s Telegraph reported on Sunday.
9. Government Cloud Services Controversy: Congress is questioning the US Defense Department’s decision to award its Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract to a single cloud provider, according to DatacenterDynamics. Over 10 years, the deal could be worth as much as $10 billion - a huge contract that could otherwise have been split between multiple vendors, the report notes. Amazon Web Services (AWS) apparently is in the lead to win the deal...
8. Funding: Enterprise Internet of Things (IoT) specialist Samsara has raised $50 million in growth funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst. The company apparently is valued at... wait for it... $1.4 billion.
7. Earnings: Watch for Red Hat to announce quarterly results later today...
6. Funding - Service Management Platform: ServiceTitan, a provider of workflow and field service management software, has raised $62 million in Series C funding in a round led by Battery Ventures. So far, ServiceTitan focuses mainly on home-service businesses, including residential plumbing, HVAC, electrical service providers, and garage door installers. But we're watching to see if the platform expands toward smart home IT service providers...
5. Smart Home as a Service: Seriously? Hmmm...
4. Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) Progress: The Omnibus Appropriations Bill offers "powerful language supporting ESOPs, and clearly directs the Small Business Administration (SBA) to become more active in supporting ESOPs and assisting small companies that are interested in becoming employee owned," according to the ESOP Association.
3. M&A - Data Centers: IPI Data Center Partners Management (also known as IPI Partners) has acquired three Infomart Data Centers. The deal includes data centers in San Jose, California; Hillsboro, Oregon; and Ashburn, Virginia. The three data centers have a combined 665,000 square feet with 27.2 megawatts of total in-place capacity and 29.7 megawatts of additional expansion potential. IPI Partners is an investor in data centers and other technology and connectivity-related real assets. Financial terms were not disclosed.
2. M&A - Oracle Cloud Partner: Evosys, a Global Oracle Cloud Premier Partner, has acquired Newbury Taleo Group, a an Oracle Gold partner specializing in Oracle Cloud talent acquisition solutions. We'll share more details soon.
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