5 Channel Partner Updates: Thursday 26 September 2019

Here are five (actually, far more…) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Thursday, September 26, 2019.

A. Our Daily Brew

B. Today’s Morning Brew

1. M&A - Presidio Buyout Update: As part of the BC Partners buyout of Presidio, the private equity firm has agreed to pay Presidio shareholders 3.75 percent more than originally announced. The reason: Presidio received an alternative acquisition proposal during a go-shop period that ended on September 23, according to an SEC filing.

2. IT Services and Software Spin-Off: Tata Communications, a global digital infrastructure provider, is spinning off the NetFoundry software networking business. NetFoundry passed the $1 million USD annual recurring revenue (ARR) milestone in less than two years of selling its services, growing ARR by over 50% on a quarter-over-quarter basis for the past three quarters, the company says.

3. Data Center Finances -- Good News, Bad News: Cologix has secured a $500 million investment to expand its North America data center footprint. On the flip side, Global Switch has decided to abandon near-term IPO plans because of economic concerns.

4. Funding - Business Launch Services: ZenBusiness, an Austin, Texas-based online platform to create and run small businesses, has raised $15 million in Series A venture capital financing.

5. Accenture Financial Results: Accenture revenues were $11.1 billion in Q4 fiscal 2019, up 5 percent from Q4 2018. The global systems integrator expects revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2020 to be in the range of $10.9 billion to $11.2 billion, representing 5 percent to 8 percent growth from Q1 of fiscal 2019.

6. Government IT Services Contract: Unisys has won a $152 million contract with the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). The agency provides enterprise IT support to numerous military operations including the Department of Defense IT infrastructure. The $152 million contract, awarded in the second quarter of 2019, will run for approximately five years upon exercise of all available options by DISA. The contract calls for a transition period of two months, followed by a two-month option period, and then up to 19 three-month option periods, Unisys says.

7. Government Cloud Services: Netskope's Security Cloud Platform has achieved FedRAMP Authorization. FedRAMP is a government-wide program that provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services, Netskope says.

8. Outage Simulations: Gremlin, a fully hosted Chaos Engineering service, has launched Scenarios -- which makes it safe and easy for companies to simulate real-world outages that lead to costly downtime, the company says.

9. Talent - Workspace as a Service: CloudJumper has hired Microsoft and Novell veteran Mark Foust as VP of sales.

10. Talent: Nominet has hired Cipher veteran Alex Pitigoi as head of sales for the Americas.

11. Smart Homes - Amazon Alexa: The e-commerce giant's smart home product blitz continues.

C. Channel Partner Programs and Strategic Alliances: MSPs, CSPs, ISVs, VARs

1. Azure Cloud Services: TIBCO Software, a Microsoft Gold Partner, now has over 20 products supported on Azure.

2. All Partner Programs: Search the comprehensive ChannelE2E Partner Program Database here. Also, submit your company information here and your partner program can be listed in the database.

D. Next Five Technology Conferences

Got news to share for our morning update? Email me: [email protected].