Content, 5 things

5 Channel Partner Updates: Tuesday 09 July 2019

Here are five (actually, far more…) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Tuesday, July 9, 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. Funding - MSP: Avatara, an MSP focused on outsourced IT, private cloud-based infrastructure and application solutions, has received a $10 million growth investment from an investor group led by Bank Street Capital Partners and Post Road Group.

2. M&A - MSPs: Logicalis Group, a global MSP with $1.7 billion in annual revenue, has has acquired Mars Technologies, a 76-person IT services business in  South Africa.

3. M&A - Cisco Acquires Acacia: Cisco Systems is acquiring optical networking components specialist Acacia Communications for $2.6 billion. Acacia's technologies support webscale companies, service providers, and data center operators, Cisco asserts.

4. M&A - IBM and Red Hat: IBM has finalized its $34 billion buyout of Red Hat, the provider of popular Linux, virtualization and storage solutions that run on-premises and in third-party clouds.

5. Dynatrace IPO Filing: Details are here...

6. Cloud Migration Services - AWS: 2nd Watch, a Top 100 Public Cloud MSP, has launched a multi-part service designed to help companies more quickly and successfully use Amazon Web Services (AWS) Managed Services (AMS) offering.

7. Office 365 Cloud Management: CloudM's CloudManager product is now available worldwide for Microsoft Office 365.

8. MSPs and Microsoft Teams: BitTitan, which specializes in managed services automation, has introduced new migration capabilities for businesses moving to the Microsoft Teams collaboration platform.

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

1. Microsoft and ServiceNow: The two companies confirmed a "broader strategic partnership intended to significantly enhance the integration and optimization of the companies’ products, platform and cloud capabilities." For the first time, ServiceNow will house its full SaaS experience on Azure in addition to its own private cloud, the companies say.

2. Talent: IGEL, which develops an edge OS for cloud workspaces, has hired Microsoft and Google veteran Casey Cheyne as VP of cloud partnerships. In this newly created role, Cheyne leads IGEL’s strategic alliances and cloud ecosystem partner expansion across Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud.

3. Data Protection - EMEA: Zedsphere, a cloud distributor, has agreed to provide Axcient’s suite of Business Availability solutions to MSPs in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). The move comes as Axcient experiments with new ways to align its data protection solutions with MSP business models. One example involves per-user pricing for Axcient's Office 365 backup and recovery services.

4. Oracle Cloud Services: Epsilon, a privately-owned global communications service provider and a Gold level member of Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), has taken a new step with Oracle. Specifically, Epsilon now offers dedicated and private access to Oracle Cloud through Oracle Cloud FastConnect.

D. Next Five Technology Conferences

  1. Microsoft Inspire (July 14-18, Las Vegas)
  2. IT By Design Build IT (July 14-16, Jersey City, New Jersey)
  3. Datadog Dash (July 16-17, New York)
  4. CompTIA ChannelCon (August 5-9, Las Vegas)
  5. VMware VMworld (August 25-29, 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.