Content, 5 things

5 Channel Partner Updates: Monday 26 November 2018

Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to end your day for Monday, November 26, 2018.

Actually, there are 14 timely updates designed for managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs), IT consulting firms, systems integrators, VARs, independent software vendors (ISVs), telco master agents, and telco agents to sip on. Take a look:

14. Noncompete Lawsuit: SHI International Inc. was hit with a lawsuit last week in California federal court by a rival software seller that claims SHI unlawfully bound its California employees to restrictive noncompete agreements, Law360 reports. Non-compete agreements are notoriously difficult to enforce in California, where courts typically favor employees over employers on such matters.

13. Lawsuit - Data Center Outage: British Airways is suing property specialist CBRE over last year's data center failure which forced the airline to cancel 672 flights during a three-day Bank Holiday weekend, at an estimated cost of £58 million ($75m), DCD reports.

12. Talent Loss - IBM Watson: IBM's David Kenny is leaving its cognitive solutions business to accept the role of CEO at ratings and data firm Nielsen, according to Becker's Health IT & CIO Report. Kenny departs IBM in a turbulent time, the report notes. Revenue for the cognitive solutions division was down 6 percent in the third quarter of 2018.

11. Ask IBM's CEO Anything?: Perhaps so...

10. Cloud Rightsizing: ParkMyCloud, a provider public cloud cost control tools, now supports “rightsizing" technology. Rightsizing is a way to reduce wasted cloud spend by resizing cloud resources, and can provide significant saving, the company claims.

9. Help Desks and Password Resets: The State of Kentucky is evaluating artificial intelligence technology to help manage, automate and solve many of the state's 16,000 trouble tickets per month, according to State Scoop. Fully 42 percent of those trouble tickets involve employees seeking help with password resets, the report says. Not by coincidence, password management and automation have been major focus areas for MSPs this year -- with thousands of partners embracing solutions like Passportal and IT Glue to help solve customers' password headaches.

8. PSA Integration - LivePerson & Datto Autotask: LivePerson, a provider of conversational commerce solutions, now integrates with Datto's Autotask PSA.

7. IT Services Expansion: vCORE Technology Partners, an IT solutions provider, has tripled the size of its Scottsdale, Arizona headquarters amid rapidly growing headcount. Nearly 70 Scottsdale-based employees work out of the new 9,300-square-foot office, which includes positions in systems engineering, IT operations and support, delivery services, project management, sales, finance and executive leadership, the company says.

6. M&A - Company For Sale?: A10 Networks is exploring options that include a potential sale of the company, Reuters reports.

5. M&A - Management BuyoutCAE Technology Services has been acquired by Caerus Assets Limited, a holding company owned by two CAE executives. We'll share more details soon.

4. M&A - MSPs: PS&C has sold its Allcom Networks business to Sydney managed services provider Crosspoint Telecommunications for $3.2 million, CRN Australia reports.

3. M&A Rumor Ends - Logictech, Plantronics: Logitech International and Plantronics held merger discussions, but the conversations have ended and it sounds like no deal is expected.

2. AWS re:Invent 2018 News: It’s all right here.

1. Top 100 Vertical Market MSPs 2019Complete the survey and potentially have your MSP honored for its vertical-market momentum.

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.