Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Friday, February 15, 2019.
Actually, there are 14 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.
14. Talent - SugarCRM CEO: Craig Charlton has succeeded Larry Augustin as CEO. Augustin shifts to chairman of the company's board. Charlton most recently was CEO of Oildex, a provider of financial automation software and services for the oil and gas industry. Earlier, he was CEO of Abila, a provider of financial and CRM software and services to associations. Both companies were ultimately acquired... Private equity firm Accel-KKR acquired SugarCRM in August 2018.
13. Talent - Zendesk: The help desk and CRM software provider has hired Microsoft veteran Elisabeth Zornes as chief customer officer; former Adobe executive Colleen Berube as CIO; and former Salesforce executive Shawna Wolverton as senior VP, product management. The announcement comes a few days after Zendesk disclosed accelerating business momentum.
12. Distribution - Cloud Services: Yesterday, we mentioned Tech Data's new Cloud Solutions Factory. And we openly wondered if the new offering somehow replaced or succeeded the existing TDCloud strategy. The answer is no, the two efforts should not be confused with one another. In an update to ChannelE2E, the distributor says Cloud Solutions Factory is a dedicated team of resources within Tech Data that builds and curates a suite of preconfigured, click-to-run solutions that stand ready to remove complexity on the behalf of customers – increasing their agility, effectiveness and speed to market. These solutions are available through the StreamOne Cloud Marketplace, which includes the configuration, access, deployment and billing management, according to Sergio Farache, Tech Data's SVP, Strategy, Innovation, Cloud and M&A.
11. Partnership - Data Protection: Veritas has agreed to distribute and resell Carbonite Endpoint to its customer base. The announcement comes roughly one week after Carbonite acquired Webroot, essentially blending backup, disaster recovery, data protection and endpoint security into one company (similar to Barracuda's long-established strategy and the former Symantec-Veritas strategy).
10. MicroFocus Rebound: The company apparently has stabilized its business after stumbling badly with certain acquired software assets from HP Enterprise.
9. AT&T Partners of the Year: AT&T's 2019 Channel Solutions Provider Champions are listed here.
8. Managed Database Services: DigitalOcean has launched Managed Databases, with PostgreSQL as its first offering.
7. M&A - SDN: Zenlayer, an edge cloud services provider, has acquired DAHO Networks, an SDN (software-defined networking) and SD-WAN (software-defined wide area network) startup.
6. M&A - Accenture: The global system integrator has completed its buyout of Orbium, a management consultancy and technology services provider to the financial services industry. Accenture announced the Orbium acquisition in January 2019.
5. M&A - Managed Cloud Services: RDX, a provider of managed database and cloud services, has acquired clckwrk Limited, a London-based provider of Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud migration, implementation and management services.
4. MSP Benchmark Survey Results: Kaseya's latest annual MSP market benchmark results are available here.
3. PSA Upgrade: Krow Software has upgraded its PSA software with new multi-channel communication, resource planning, and team task planning capabilities. The profession al services automation (PSA) software platform integrates with Salesforce's CRM cloud software.
2. SMB Lending - Mixed News: The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is getting its small business loan program back on track following the recent government shutdown, Forbes says. But January's government shutdown is still affecting small business lending, Benzinga reports. What's the reality? Perhaps the simple answer is "your mileage may vary."
1. Your Most Profitable MSP Service: That’s the topic of ChannelE2E’s February webcast. Register now to join us.
