5 things, Content

5 Channel Partner Updates: Tuesday 23 January 2018

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Tuesday, January 23, 2018.

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…

Melinda Gates
Melinda Gates

8. Venture Funding: Melinda Gates is backing Aspect Ventures - the largest venture capital firm created and run by women. Aspect's second fund has raised more than $181 million.

7. Microsoft Partner Competition: As if the Microsoft partner ecosystem wasn't crowded enough. Now there's evidence that Microsoft customers are increasingly acting like go-to-market partners for the cloud and software giant...

6. Oracle Cloud Momentum?: Digital Realty has introduced direct Oracle Cloud infrastructure connections in 14 metro areas. At first glance that's not a huge deal. But take a closer look and perhaps it suggests Oracle's cloud is becoming more relevant as it attempts to compete against Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

5. M&A Disconnect: Deutsche Telekom and France’s Orange held merger talks last year that fizzled out because it was not feasible to put the companies on an equal footing, a source close to the situation said, adding the matter was now closed, according to Reuters.

4. WAE (Worst Acronym Ever): Unified Office Inc.., an MSP offering hybrid cloud-based virtual communications services and business analytics, has launched Total Connect Now Operations Performance Suite 2.0 -- or TCNOPSTM 2.0 for short (seriously). The acronym attempts to describe an IoT- based operational performance service. SpecificallyTCNOPSTM 2.0 monitors and analyzes IoT data  -- and  adds the ability to automatically or dynamically control thermostats and other components such as air conditioners, refrigeration equipment, make tables, stove exhaust vents, heaters, security and video systems, safe doors and other devices, Unified Office says. Hmmm... How about just calling it Industrial IoT Managed Services?

3. BDR Upgrade: Vembu, one of the early backup software providers in the MSP market, continues to upgrade its platform. The latest offering, BDR Suite v3.9.0, features native tape storage support; advanced backup-level encryption; instant recovery on VMware ESXi; and the ability to run custom scripts and logic on a centralized wizard, Vembu says.

2. BDR: Frontier Communications, a U.S. communications service provider that blankets 29 states, has launched Total360 -- a business continuity and disaster recovery service powered by Datto.

1. Top 100 Vertical Market MSPs for 2018: We’ll unveil the list and research during our February 15 webcast. Register now to join us.

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.