5 things

5 Channel Partner Updates: Wednesday 02 August 2017

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Wednesday, August 2, 2017.

Actually, there are nine timely updates -- many of which come from CompTIA ChannelCon in Austin, Texas. All of our updates are 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:

9. Apple Momentum?: Apple's quarterly profit jumped 12 percent -- driven by stronger-than-expected iPad and Mac sales, the company said yesterday. No doubt that's good news for Apple. But millions of us are still waiting for the company to do something insanely great in the post-Steve Jobs era...

8. Microsoft Surface Plus Financing: Microsoft has launched new Surface Plus financing support programs. We'll share more perspectives soon.

7. Microsoft Azure Partnership: CloudPhysics, a channel automation platform for data center product and service delivery, has joined the Microsoft Enterprise Cloud Alliance. The relationship will help channel partners to build stronger customer relationships, CloudPhysics asserts.

6. Cisco SD-WAN: Cisco has completed the $610 million Viptela buyout, effectively pushing deeper in the SD-WAN market.

5. M&A - Chatbot Support: LogMeIn has acquired Naorep, a provider of chatbots that leverage artificial intelligence. Yes, we're written extensively about how chat bots may influence tomorrow's IT service desks.

4. M&A - Fiber Networks: Crown Castle International has acquired Lightower Fiber Networks for about $7.1 billion.  The deal effectively will double Crown Castle’s fiber footprint with over 60,000 route miles of fiber network, multiple reports suggest.

3. M&A - IT Staffing: AE Industrial Partners LLC, a private equity investor, is acquiring CDI Corp., a Philadelphia-based provider of IT and engineering staffing. The $157.5 million deal is expected to close in the third quarter.

2. Seriously Early Retirement: So you're a millennial and you want to potentially retire early -- like, really early. Here's how one millennial did it. Sure, the link leads to an extreme example. But it also speaks volumes about life's priorities.

1. Dead Help Desk?: Salesforce has apparently killed its low-end Desk.com service desk platform for small businesses, according to CNBC. We haven't independently confirmed the report but we're checking it out.

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.