Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Friday, September 22, 2017.
Actually, there are 14 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.
14. M&A: Digital Realty Trust Inc., a global provider of data centers and co-location services, will rely on acquisitions, partnerships and the expansion of its own network in Asia as it seeks to boost its presence in the region, Bloomberg reported.
13. Data Center Spending: On-premises data center spending for hardware and software plummeted nearly 20 percent between mid-2015 and mid-2017, according to Synergy Research. During the same period, cloud spending grew 35 percent.
12. Careful of the HPE Hype: The so-called HPE Next restructuring is set to take HP Enterprise's channel partner program to new heights, according to CRN. Overall, I believe HPE has become more channel friendly. But let's be careful of the hype. HPE Next also is the company's polite way of saying "we need to cut 5,000 people," according to Bloomberg. Also, some of HPE's channel talent -- particularly in the SMB sector -- exited ahead of the Next restructuring.
11. Storage Market Share: Dell EMC apparently is taking market storage share from NetApp, and the flash storage market is showing signs of slowing growth, according to Morgan Stanley. Rumors about Cisco potentially acquiring NetApp popped up this week, though we doubt Cisco will explore that opportunity.
10. Database IPO: MongoDB, a fast-growing provider of database software, has filed for a potential $100 million IPO. The company's revenues were $68 million for the six months ended July 2017. Also, sales are growing 50 percent year over year. But the company had a $46 million net loss for that six-month period, Barron's noted.
9. Business Continuity: Druva has extended its data protection platform to support Microsoft Hyper-V. Druva Phoenix already supports VMware vSphere and Nutanix.
8. Ransomware Costs: Small businesses paid more than $300 million to ransomware hackers in 2016, a Datto study finds. Moreover, 99 percent of MSPs predict ransomware attacks will continue to escalate over the next two years, the study said. We'll share more details soon.
7. Talent: Kimble Applications, a growing provider of professional services automation (PSA) software, has hired Gerry De Bruijn as VP of customer success. Kimble, a Salesforce.com partner, saw annual sales rise about 50.6 percent over the past three years to US$7.1 million in 2016.
6. Network Monitoring: Smart City Networks has embraced the SolarWinds Orion Platform to monitor and analyze the performance of its convention industry networks. Smart City's network operations center (NOC) previously scanned for errors every 10 to 15 minutes. The new system reduces that time by 300 percent, which will allow the NOC team to intervene immediately – something that's critical during large, high-profile events, Smart City claims.
5. Oracle IT Management: The RackWare RMM Cloud Management Platform is now available in the Oracle Cloud Marketplace. RackWare RMM enables cloud migration, image mobility, disaster recovery, backup, intelligent provisioning, auto-scaling, and cloud governance, the company claims. And in this particular case, RMM stands for RackWare Management Module.
4. Cisco IT Management: Cisco has launched a new management and automation platform for the companies Unified Computing System (UCS) and HyperFlex Systems. The offering, called Cisco Intersight, is a SaaS-based system. A base monitoring and inventory system is available for free. A paid Essentials edition adds such features as policy-based configuration with service profiles, firmware management with scheduled updates, Hardware Compatibility Listing (HCL) compliance checks and upgrade recommendations, and other features. We're checking to see there's a multi-tenant version of Cisco Intersight for service providers to manage multiple customers.
3. Microsoft Application Monitoring: eG Innovations has launched eG Enterprise 6.3, which features full-stack performance monitoring and diagnostic support for Microsoft .NET packaged and custom applications. The platform allows IT managers to monitor cloud, physical or hybrid infrastructure from a single web-based console.
2. Office 365 User Experience & MSPs: GSX Solutions, a provider of monitoring and management solutions for Office 365, has launched Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) Analysis for Office 365 and cloud/hybrid environments. Enterprises can now "drastically minimize end-user performance complaints and support tickets, as well as reduce the time for response and resolution," the company claims. The company apparently has multi-tenant capabilities for MSPs. We'll share more details soon.
1. Microsoft Ignite Conference: Got partner- and service provider-centric news to share at Microsoft Ignite 2017? Email me your tips and updates ([email protected]) for possible coverage on ChannelE2E.
