5 Channel Partner Updates: Thursday 30 August 2018

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Thursday, August 30, 2018. Actually, there are 18 timely updates (yowzers...) 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: 18. Dell IoT Solutions: Dell Technologies unveiled a range of IoT solutions that channel partners can offer to end-customers. 17. HCI and SAP Applications: Nutanix's AHV hypervisor and Enterprise Cloud OS platform hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solution (um, that all just rolls of the tongue...) has met SAP's criteria for running production SAP HANA deployments. 16. HCI and Smart City Solutions: Lenovo and Pivot3 have inked a global strategic partnership to develop, market and sell a new set of edge computing solutions optimized for mission-critical smart city security. The integrated appliances feature Lenovo Data Center Group (DCG) ultra-reliable ThinkSystem servers powered by Pivot3 HCI software. 15. SAP for AWS Consultant: SAP HANA consulting firm Symmetry has achieved Advanced Consulting Partner level in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Network (APN). 14. AWS Migrations: nClouds, a provider of AWS and DevOps consulting and implementation services, has achieved AWS Migration Competency status. The company can manage complex AWS migration projects -- from discovery and planning to migration and operations, nClouds asserts. 13. Box Integrations: Box has unveiled a "unified activity stream" for files stored on Box. The stream allows users to see how their content is connected to the other SaaS applications they use every day, such as Slack, Salesforce and DocuSign, Box says. The news surfaced at the BoxWorks18 conference in San Francisco. 12. SUSE Linux Momentum: SUSE's revenues reached $182.9 million for the six months ended April 30, up 17 percent from the corresponding quarter last year. Adjusted EBITDA for that period was $56 million, nearly 23 percent year-over-year growth, the company says. EQT Partners acquired SUSE Linux from struggling Micro Focus International for $2.535 billion in July 2018. 11. Business Continuity: Asigra and iXsystems at VMworld 2018 demonstrated the new TrueNAS Backup Appliance. The appliance combines Asigra Cloud Backup V14 software with iXsystems’ TrueNAS storage. It features the OpenZFS open source file system and volume management.  Continue to page two of two for the stunning conclusion of this blog. Welcome to page two of two, featuring the stunning conclusion of this blog. 10. Salesforce Momentum: Salesforce revenue grew 27 percent to almost $3.3 billion in the company's second quarter, according to new Co-CEO Keith Block. The company is on track to reach a target $23 billion in revenue for Fiscal Year 2022, he indicated. Still, shares fell slightly in pre-market trading on Thursday morning amid investor questions about the company's profits and marketing costs. 9. Zendesk Conference: Zendesk Relate 2018, the help desk and IT service management software company's annual user conference, is confirmed for November. 8. Tech Data Quarterly Results: Tech Data's net sales were $8.9 billion for fiscal Q2 2019, up 10 percent compared to the prior-year quarter, the distributor disclosed this morning. Net income was $75.9 million, compared to $47.5 million in the prior-year quarter. Tech Data's stock fell about 12 percent on the news because the earnings fell a bit short of Wall Street's expectations. Still, revenues were about $160 million ahead of Wall Street's predictions, SeekingAlpha says. 7. Funding - Enterprise Storage: Distributed file system and object storage provider Cloudian has raised $94 million in a Series E funding. Key investors include Digital Alpha, Eight Roads Ventures, Goldman Sachs, INCJ, JPIC (Japan Post Investment Corporation), NTT DOCOMO Ventures and WS (Wilson Sonsini) Investments. 6. M&A - Sage Partners: BCS ProSoft is acquiring Steward Consulting Inc. (SCI); the deal unites two of Sage’s top U.S. consulting partners. 5. M&A - MSPs Part One: AdEPT has acquired Shift F7 Group, uniting two MSPs in the United Kingdom. AdEPT is an MSP that specializes n unified communications, connectivity and voice solution. Shift F7 Group specializes in IT services for the commercial sector. We'll share more details later today. 4. M&A - MSPs Part Two: Full-service technology provider Powernet and managed IT services provider Maxis360 are merging. The company are very familiar with one another, and have had a cross-selling relationship since 2016. The combined company will continue as Powernet under the leadership of CEO Alli Stevens. Key focus areas include voice, data, WiFi and IT managed services. We'll share more details soon. 3. M&A - Rural Broadband, Voice Services: Mega Broadband Investments (MBI) has acquired Northland Communications, a Seattle-based provider of broadband, television and voice services to residential and business customers in rural markets in the Southeast, Texas, and the Northwest. MBI is backed by private equity firm GTCR in partnership with CEO Phil Spencer. 2. Small Business Health Insurance: How will the small business health insurance market evolve? Here are some potential clues. 1. Top 50 MSPs for AWS/Top 50 MSPs for Azure: Participate in the survey here and potentially earn honors for your MSPs. Plus: Get the honoree lists and see the research by attending our next ChannelE2E webcast. Register now.