Content, 5 things

5 Channel Partner Updates: Tuesday 06 August 2019

Here are five (actually, far more…) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Tuesday, August 6, 2019.

A. Our Daily Brew

  • Who We Serve: Content for managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs), IT consulting firms, systems integrators, VARs, independent software vendors (ISVs), and any other partner acronym that further caffeinates our already stellar SEO.
  • Frequency: Every business morning.
  • Reaching the Barista: Send news, tips and rumors to [email protected].

B. Freshly Brewed News and Chatter

1. MSPs - Business Continuity Plans: CloudOak has announced the "pre-release" of Plan4Continuity (P4C), an a cloud-based application that allows MSPs to build Business Continuity Plans for small business customers.

2. MSP Software Integration: ConnectBooster and ConnectWise Manage have a new billing portal integration, which allows users to manage their ticketing and billing from their ConnectWise Manage screen.

3. Talent - Datto CTO: Datto has hired Oracle storage veteran and serial entrepreneur Robert Petrocelli as its CTO (chief technology officer), ChannelE2E has confirmed.

4. M&A - Cisco Systems & Web Conferencing: Cisco is acquiring Voicea, which develops a real-time solution for meeting transcription, voice search, and meeting highlights/action items. Cisco will enhance its Webex portfolio Voicea's transcription service, the company says.

5. M&A - Voice and Artificial Intelligence: Vonage is acquiring certain assets from Over.ai, a Tel Aviv-based Voice and Conversational AI provider for enterprise communications. Specifically, Vonage is acquiring Over.ai's technical team and intellectual property from i.am+, an AI technology platform co-founded and co-owned by musician will.i.am.

6. M&A - Network Performance Monitoring: Park Place Technologies is acquiring Entuity, a network performance monitoring software company with offices in Boston and London. This will be Park Place’s first acquisition outside of the third-party maintenance category, the company says.

7. M&A - Bots & Automation: Automation Anywhere has acquired Klevops SAS, a privately held Parisian RPA company that "facilitates better human-to-bot collaboration for increased accuracy, efficiency and ROI of robotic process automation (RPA) deployments, the companies say.

8. M&A - HPE Acquires MapR: HP Enterprise has acquired MapR, the struggling provider of big data software. Financial terms were not disclosed.

9. Funding - Database Management Systems: Cockroach Labs, which develops the distributed SQL database CockroachDB, has raised $55 million in series C funding. The round is led by Altimeter Capital, Tiger Global, and existing investor GV, with participation from existing investors Benchmark, Index Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, FirstMark Capital, and Work-Bench, and brings Cockroach Labs' total funding to $108.5 million.

10. Funding - Network Automation: AppViewX, a provider of automation and orchestration for network infrastructure, has raised $30 million in growth funding from Brighton Park Capital.

11. Network Automation - Launch: Itential has launched Automation Gateway, a purpose-built offering that will "propel enterprise network automaton and further accelerate network programmability," the company says.

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

1. Cloud Partner Guide: Rackspace has launched a cloud services guide to help partners understand and navigate various cloud options.

2. Talent - Data Discovery: Ground Labs, a provider of sensitive data discovery solutions, has hired Jason Stein as head of North American Channel and Partnerships.

3. Talent - Video Conferencing: Zoom has hired Ryan Azus as chief revenue officer.

4. Talent - Network Communications: APX Net, a communications service provider specializing in high-speed data networks, has hired Caroline Rogers and Scott Minor as channel managers. Both Rogers and Minor will recruit and support indirect sales partners nationwide to sell APX Net’s carrier-neutral multilocation high-speed network services, APX Net says.

5. Partnership - Access Management: Skybox Security and Zscaler have partnered to "transform business access and user policies from legacy networks to modern cloud architecture, ensuring secure and compliant environments throughout the enterprise," the companies claim.

6. Partnership - Intel and Lenovo: Intel and Lenovo today announced a multiyear collaboration focused on the rapidly growing opportunity in the convergence of high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) to help "accelerate solutions for the world’s most challenging problems," the companies claim.

7. Partner Program - ITIL: Symphony SummitAI continues to expand its partner program. The AI-powered IT management company currently works with roughly 15 international partners and plans to add another 15 in APAC region by the end of 2019, Symphony SummitAI says.

D. Next Five Technology Conferences

  1. CompTIA ChannelCon (August 5-9, Las Vegas)
  2. VMware VMworld (August 25-29, San Francisco)
  3. Taylor Business Group Big Big 2019 Conference (September 12-14, Chicago)
  4. IT Glue GlueX 2019 (September 15-17, Phoenix)
  5. Oracle OpenWorld 2019 (September 15-19, San Francisco)
  6. BonusChannelE2E’s complete event calendar

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

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.