5 things

5 Channel Partner Updates: Monday 28 August 2017

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Monday, August 28, 2017.

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.

8. New Uber CEO: Uber Technologies Inc. will appoint Expedia Inc.’s Dara Khosrowshahi to run the global ride-hailing leviathan, according to the Bloomberg. Uber's board apparently made an 11th-hour push to hire HP Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman, but that hire did not materialize.

7. GE's IoT Problems: General Electric's Industrial IoT platform, called Predix, apparently experienced major problems in recent months. This spring, GE called an unusual, two month “time-out” to tackle the Predix problems, Reuters says. With fixes now in place, new GE CEO John Flannery is looking for ways to improve Predix's profitability and growth -- including potential partnerships and the possible sale of some equity in the unit, Reuters asserted.

Tony Vinayak
Tony Vinayak

6. Talent: CloudNonstop, an Amazon Web Services and Microsoft cloud partner, has hired Tony Vinayak as VP of consulting for North America. Founded in 2012, CloudNonstop helps businesses migrate application systems to cloud, embrace DevOps principles for streamlined software development and deployment, as well as manage ongoing Cloud operations via a 24x7 NOC. The company, headquartered in New Jersey, employees 50 certified cloud consultants and has managed 100+ cloud deployments worldwide.

5. HP-Deloitte Partnership: HP Inc. and Deloitte are partnering to "accelerate the digital reinvention of the US$12 trillion global manufacturing industry," the two companies say. No doubt, 3D printing is a major focus area for the partnership. Related Conference: HP Reinvent Worldwide Partner Forum 2017 is set for September.

4. Finding Co-location Services: Inflect, a San Francisco-based startup that wants to make it easier for businesses to find the right co-location facilities, network service and exchange providers, has added over 30 service providers and information about 2,200 data centers and networking peering locations to its database since its launch two months ago, TechCrunch reported.

3. VMware Cloud on AWS: VMware, as expected, announced limited availability of VMware Cloud on AWS during VMworld today. The company also announced multi-cloud management and security-related tools for partners and customers. We'll share more details soon.

2. M&A - Cloud Services: Fusion Telecommunications International is acquiring the cloud and business services unit of Birch Communications, creating a managed cloud services provider (CSP) with a $950 million valuation, reports suggest.

1. Texas Floods: ChannelE2E continues to closely track Hurricane Harvey's aftermath -- including network and power outages, and business continuity efforts. However, we realize the top priority at this time remains rescue operations across Texas. Special thanks to the first responders and volunteers who continue to answer rescue calls throughout Houston and the surrounding counties.

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.