Content, 5 things

5 Channel Partner Updates: Tuesday 06 February 2018

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Tuesday, February 6, 2018.

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. IT Fraud: Former Dell employee Kelly Burton Nunn has been sentenced to more than three years in federal prison and $10.8 million in restitution for defrauding the hardware company. An accomplice, Bryan Dale Wallace, has been sentence to 26 months in prison and $849,000 in restitution. Both convicts pled guilty in 2017 to conspiring to submit fraudulent invoices to Dell, according to Law 360.

13. Multi-Cloud Data Replication: Zerto Virtual Replication (ZVR) 6.0, a new IT Resilience platform, has surfaced to support multi-cloud environments.  ZVR 6.0 provides inter-cloud and intra-cloud workload mobility and protection between Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, Amazon Web Services and more than 350 cloud service providers (CSPs), the company claims.

12. MSP Storage Services: Infused Innovations, an MSP and technology consulting firm, has implemented Tintri all-flash storage and software to deliver predictable performance for its customers, the company says.

11. AWS Desktop as a Service: Teradici Cloud Access Software is now available in the AWS Marketplace. The software allow enterprise customers to access graphics-intensive Windows and Linux applications from AWS.

Roy Labrador
Roy Labrador
Tina Gravel

10. Talent: Names to know include...

  • Cyxtera SVP of Global Channels Tina Gravel has joined the Women in the Channel (WiC) Advisory Council. WiC is a not-for-profit organization focused on accelerating the growth of female channel leaders in technology.
  • Frontier Communications has named Roy Labrador as national VP of its channel partners program. He previously was VP, commercial sales-southeast.

9. Network Automation: Pensa has released Maestro NFV, which allows enterprises to automate Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) services. Maestro NFV is Pensa's second major product introduction in the past five months, following the company's formal launch in October 2017, Pensa notes.

8. Distribution: Key deals include...

  • Pax8 has confirmed plans to offer Symantec Cloud Workload Protection (CWP) -- a SaaS service -- to MSPs. The solution protects both cloud-resident and on-premises workloads.
  • TPx, a national managed services carrier, has signed Converged Network Services Group (CNSG) as a national master agent. CNSG had been distributing TPx services through its agreement with DSCI, which TPx acquired in 2016. The new contract gives CNSG and its partners access to TPx’ portfolio of unified communications, managed IT, continuity and connectivity solutions nationwide, the companies say.

7. Sold Off - Data Center Consultants: A group of private investors has bought out Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s U.S. data center design and engineering consulting practice, Datacenter Knowledge reports. HPE originally acquired the practice over a decade ago. Last week, eight former senior EYP principals and other investors bought the practice back from HPE and launched it as an independent business, Data Center Knowledge says.

6. M&A - Business Continuity: Rubrik has acquired Datos IO, which specializes in backup and recovery for NoSQL databases and big data file systems. The deal gives Rubrik deeper reach into application and DevOps teams at Fortune 500 companies, the company claims. For Google Cloud Platform VP of Worldwide Channels 
Bertrand Yansouni recently joined Rubrik to drive the company's partner efforts.

5. M&A - Chips: High-flying Austrian chipmaker AMS is looking for more acquisitions to accelerate growth and increase its leading position in sensors used in phones, automobiles and industrial gear, Reuters says. Meanwhile, Broadcom has unveiled a $121 billion "best and final offer" for Qualcomm...

4. M&A - Data Center Experts: Global real estate and facility management service provider Brookfield Global Integrated Solutions (BGIS) has acquired data center services specialists Critical Solutions Group and Critical Power Testing and Maintenance (CSG), Data Center Dynamics reports.

Karl Bickmore
Shane Swanson

3. Talent -- IT Services: CharTec and ARRC Technology veteran Shane Swanson has joined Snap Tech IT, a highly respected MSP, as director of service delivery. Swanson now oversees the IT service provider's technical staff. He and Snap Tech IT CEO Karl Bickmore met through HTG back in 2010. The duo has kept in touch ever since. Snap Tech IT, meanwhile, completed its second major acquisition last year. We'll share more details about Swanson's move soon.

Dana Epp

2. Startup: Former Kaseya CTO Dana Epp has launched Wildrook Software, which focuses on "securing your cloud infrastructure, one bit at a time." We've reached out to Epp for more details about the launch. He previously launched, built and sold Scorpion Software, which Kaseya acquired in 2014.

1. MSP M&A Discussion: ChannelE2E will be blogging live from an MSP M&A forum this Thursday near Miami. If you're attending the event, hosted by Kaseya, feel free to email me for a potential meeting or at least a quick hello.

Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.