5 Channel Partner Updates: Friday 04 October 2019

Here are five (actually, far more…) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Friday, October 4, 2019.

Our Daily Brew

A. What’s Hot Today

1. Honored - AWS MSP: Mission, a Top 100 Public Cloud MSP, has won a 2019 Comparably Award for Best Employee Perks and Benefits.

2. Investment - Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS): RingCentral has invested in Avaya, and the two companies are jointly developing a UCaaS solution that will arrive in early 2020.

3. M&A - Service Provider Network Performance: Ciena is acquiring Centina, a provider of service assurance analytics and network performance management solutions. Centina’s technology will tuck into Ciena's Blue Planet division. The deal will help Communications Service Providers (CSPs) to better manage their networks, Ciena says.

4. M&A - Data Centers: Equinix is acquiring three Mexico-area data centers from AXTELCPO for US$175 million in cash. The three facilities generated approximately $21 million in revenues in 2018. The acquisition is expected to close in Q1 2020, the companies said.

5. Beyond IT Service Desks: Zendesk has launched Gather, which enables companies to provide "trusted and transparent support to customers through online community forums," the company asserts. Zendesk also unveiled Sunshine Conversations, an API-based platform that allows businesses to integrate messaging via social channels and directly interact and transact with customers, the company says.

6. Microsoft Azure Cloud and Government Agencies: Sequoia Holdings, a provider of software engineering solutions for the defense and intelligence communities, now offers cloud emulation services for Azure Government to the classified cloud regions of the Department of Defense and intelligence agencies. The service allows customers and partners to test and identify issues that could prevent an application from running in a classified Azure region, Sequoia says.

7. Microsoft Azure Cloud and IoT Services: Adesto Technologies, which develops application-specific semiconductors , has joined the Microsoft Azure Certified for IoT program.

8. AWS vs. Google Cloud Platform Pricing: ParkMyCloud offers some analysis here.

9. Talent - Enterprise Data Protection: Commvault has named Anthony Faustini as VP of global accounts. Also, EMC veteran David Boyle is joining the company as vice president of sales for the Americas. The moves are designed to push Commvault deeper into global enterprises.

10. Talent - Global IT Consulting: Tata Communications has appointed Amur S Lakshminarayanan (Lakshmi) as managing director and group CEO - Designate of Tata Communications. As MD & CEO – Designate, Lakshmi will advise the Interim Management Committee of Tata Communications.  Upon receipt of the necessary regulatory approvals, the Board of Tata Communications will subsequently appoint Lakshmi as the MD & CEO of Tata Communications, the company says.

B. Help Wanted – ChannelE2E Industry Job Board

C. Partnerships and Strategic Alliances

1. Distribution - Data Center Virtualization: Arrow Electronics has agreed to distribute HiveIO's data center virtualization technology in the North American market. The companies have worked together in the UK market for about a year.

2. Distribution - MSSP Solutions: Synnex has launched a dedicated MSSP support program within the company's SERVICESolv field services expansion strategy. Palo Alto Networks figures prominently in the strategy.

3. All Partner Programs: Search the comprehensive ChannelE2E Partner Program Database here. Also, submit your company information here and your partner program can be listed in the database.

D. Next Five Technology Conferences

Got news to share for our morning update? Email me: [email protected].