Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Wednesday, April 18, 2018.
Actually, there are 12 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…
12. GDPR Goes Global?: Facebook plans to adopt GDPR-type compliance rules worldwide. I suspect that will become a major business trend...
11. Big Pentagon Cloud Contract: The Pentagon has revised its request for cloud computing services, but the massive government organization still plans to award the deal to a single cloud services provider. IBM, Microsoft and Oracle have been pushing back against the single-vendor model -- apparently amid concern that Amazon Web Services will win the entire engagement,
10. IBM Earnings: IBM revenues grew for the second consecutive quarter, but storage sales and profit margins were weaker than expected... During yesterday's earnings call, IBM mentioned channel partners just once...
9. VMware Activist Investor: Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has acquired a stake in VMware, CNBC reported on Tuesday... Does a showdown with VMware parent Dell Technologies -- particularly, Michael Dell -- loom? Rumor has it, Mr. Dell has abandoned a Dell-VMware reverse merger plan amid VMW shareholder concerns. Now, Icahn looms...
8. Partner Program: Dell Boomi, the provider of cloud integration software, has announced a "major" channel partner program evolution.
7. StorageCraft Expansion: StorageCraft has opened offices in the Middle East and India, expanding the data protection company's global presence.
6. M&A - MSPs: For the third time in recent months, Evergreen Services Group has invested in an MSP. This time the deal involves Jenlor Integrations.
5. M&A - UCaaS: Evolve IP, a blended MSP and CSP, has acquired thevoicefactory, a cloud communications provider based in Cardiff, United Kingdom (UK). The deal, confirmed this morning, provides Evolve IP with additional distribution channels in the UK and Europe, a significant client base, and greater penetration of the hospitality, automotive, finance and legal verticals, the companies say.
4. M&A - IT Consulting: MicroCorp., through an equity investment, has acquired Open Spectrum, creating a new Cloud Services Division. We'll share more details soon.
3. MSP Business Hurdles: The top MSP business hurdles are listed here, according to new Datto research. We'll share more thoughts soon.
2. Small Business Valuations: They've never been higher. Does that mean we're in an SMB and MSP valuation bubble? Best guess: Yes.
1. RSA Conference News, Analysis: It's all right here.
