Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Thursday, April 12, 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. Distribution: ScanSource has unveiled Vault, a training program designed to help resellers develop network security practices, while utilizing Cisco Security solutions. Vault is a component of ScanSource’s FASTPATH partner enablement program.
11. Conference - ZertoCON 2018: Zerto has confirmed leaders from Wired and Gartner to keynote the company's ZertoCON 2018 conference, which is set for May.
10. Competitive Offer: OpsRamp has introduced a 30% discount and fixed migration services if they switch from certain Micro Focus products the next 30 days. OpsRamp doesn't mention Micro Focus's recent business challenges, but the free offer comes only a few weeks after Micro Focus announced surprisingly weak financial results and a surprise CEO change.
9. Talent: Microsoft's Phil Sorgen has joined Fusion Agiletech Partners' board of directors. Fusion acquired Quisitive, a Microsoft National Solution Provider, in January 2018 with the intent to build the Dallas-based national digital technology consulting firm into the industry’s premier Microsoft Consulting Services firm over the next two years, the company says.
8. Partner Program - Software Development: Future Processing, a Polish offshore software development service provider, working mostly with European companies located in the UK and Scandinavia, has launched its Partner Channel membership program to recruit European channel partners.
7. HP Printing: At HP Executive Forum 2018, the hardware giant showcased its new print portfolio. The offerings arm partners with "compelling products, services and solutions in cloud, security and mobility that accelerate growth through smart printing," the company claims. Among the key offerings: An expanded A3 multifunction printer line, now including new PageWide A3 SKUs for both transactional and contractual channels with external finishing. HP has onboarded more than 600 A3 premier partners, the company says.
6. Funding: OwnBackup has raised $15.5 million from Vertex Ventures and existing investor Insight Venture Partners. Existing investors Innovation Endeavors, Oryzn Capital and Salesforce Ventures also participated in the round. OwnBackup CEO Sam Gutmann previously was co-founder and CEO of Intronis, a cloud backup provider later acquired by Barracuda Networks.
5. SD-WANs: PLDT Enterprise, a digital services provider in the Philippines has partnered with Zenlayer and plans to offer various SD-WAN capabilities to global enterprises sometime this quarter. Also, Silver Peak and KDDI Europe have inked a global partnership agreement to offer managed SD-WAN services powered by the Unity EdgeConnect SD-WAN solution.
4. Project Management: Mavenlink has updated its project management platform with new capabilities -- including Project Pulse, Project Health Report and Project Health Dashboard. Project Pulse centralizes project details, including budget burn rates, margin information, resources, and project status. Project managers can generate a Project Health Report that details the health of a project’s schedule, scope, budget and client sentiment, the company says. Also, a Project Health Dashboard is now available in Mavenlink Insights, the business intelligence feature.
3. Field Service Management: OnProcess Technology has launched IntelliForce, a field service management solution that includes an on-demand digital marketplace. IntelliForce provides a variable field labor service, which sounds a bit like the classic OnForce business model...
2. M&A - MSPs: As part of its continued expansion across North America, Operational Technology Integrators (OTI) has acquired managed IT service provider Ontai. We'll share more details at 4:00 p.m. ET or sooner.
1. RSA Conference Live Blog: Track all of RSA Conference 2018 news coverage and analysis on our sister site, MSSP Alert.
