Content, 5 things

5 Channel Partner Updates: Wednesday 03 April 2019

Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Wednesday, April 3, 2019. Actually, there are 19 timely updates designed for managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs), IT consulting firms, systems integrators, VARs, independent software vendors (ISVs), and telco agents to sip on. 19. Careers and Training - Artificial Intelligence: Microsoft and OpenClassrooms are partnering to train and prepare students for artificial intelligence (AI) jobs in the workplace. As part of the effort, OpenClassrooms will recruit 1,000 promising candidates throughout France, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. for training... 18. Channel Partner Management: Zift Solutions has launched ZiftONE, a channel partner program management platform for technology companies. 17. Partner Program - Project Management: KeyedIn has launched a new worldwide channel partner program and portal called PartnerUp. 16. Huawei 5G Networks - U.S. Perspectives: United States national security officials are planning for a future in which the Chinese firm Huawei Technologies will have a major share of the advanced global telecommunications market, and have begun to think about how to thwart potential espionage and disruptive cyberattacks enabled by interconnected networks, according to The Washington Post. 15. Dell EMC Servers: The technology giant has launched a range of new products. 14. Lenovo Server Launches: Lenovo has launched multiple products and services for data center customers. Among the highlights, according to the company:
  • Lenovo’s ThinkSystem SR950 claims to be the market's first eight socket server with Intel Optane DC Persistent Memory;
  • Lenovo claims to be the first vendor to leverage Optane memory on a SAP HANA workload;
  • Lenovo ThinkShield security solutions now extend to all dimensions of data center products – from development, to supply chain and through the full lifecycle of the device, the company says.
  • Lenovo, Intel and Kx together are promoting solutions for the financial services market.Kx develops a high-performance database for analytics and other use cases.
  • Partners and customers can leverage Lenovo TruScale, a consumption-based, as-a-service offering.
13. Linux - SUSE Upgrades: During this week's SUSECON conference, the Linux provider announced several new offerings. The key developments include: 12. Linux - Training and Certification: CompTIA has introduced a new version of the CompTIA Linux+ exam. 11. Cloud Revenue Growth: Public cloud revenues are growing about 17.5 percent globally, Gartner says. Still, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure seem to be extending their lead over established and upstart rivals... Continue to page two of two for today's items 10 to 1. Welcome to page two of two for today's items 10 to 1. 10. Data Protection - Office 365 Backup: Veeam Software has launched Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 v3. The upgrade offers faster backup, improved security, enhanced visibility and improved analytics, the data protection company claims. 9. Data Protection - Upgrade: Acronis has delivered Backup 12.5 Update 4, which doubles the number of protected devices that can be managed from a single management server. Additional capabilities include physical data shipping, cross-platform virtual machine conversion, protection from cryptomining malware, and localization to seven additional languages, the company says. Acronis grew its net billing 20 percent in 2018 vs. 2017, though the company did not disclose actual revenue or profit figures. 8. Data Protection - Cohesity vs. Commvault: Vita Group, a major Australian retailer, is replacing Commvault with Cohesity secondary storage as part of a major data protection strategy. The migration is expected to save the company $500,000 over five years, according to a prepared statement. The move comes as Commvault overhauls its executive team to compete more effectively in the data protection market. 7. Remote IoT Support: TeamViewer has unveiled an IoT Starter Kit. With this do-it-yourself solution, businesses of any size can get started with IoT immediately, the remote support software company claims. 6. Research - Help Desk Trends: What do customers expect from help desks and call centers? This Zendesk research offers some answers. 5. Bankruptcy - Sungard Availability Services: The data protection company is set to file for a pre-packaged bankruptcy on or about May 1, but CEO Sungard AS Andrew Stern is assuring customers that the company will continue to meet customers' needs throughout the process. 4. What Comes After Venture Capital?: Andreessen Horowitz, one of the world's best-known venture capital firms, apparently is moving to completely reinvent its business... 3. M&A - Broadband & SMB Services: Cable One is acquiring Missouri-based cable operator Fidelity Communications Co. for $525.9 million. 2. Funding - MSP: Faction, an MSP for VMware Cloud on AWS, has secured $14 million of new financing to fund continued growth. The investment will be used to broaden Faction’s Hybrid Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (HDRaaS) across public clouds, enable multi-cloud storage via deeper integrations with leading storage portfolio solutions, and expand their global data center footprint, the MSP says. 1. Top 100 Vertical Market MSPs 2019: We’ll unveil the complete list — yes, all honorees — and associated research during our April 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.