Content, 5 things

5 Channel Partner Updates: Tuesday 26 June 2018

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Tuesday, June 26, 2018.

Actually, there are 13 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:

13. Breaking: SonicWall is unveiling a major midmarket push today. Check the MSSP Alert homepage for extensive details and thoughts from CEO Bill Conner before noon ET today.

12. Ugly Divorce?: Xerox said on Monday it would start sourcing products from new vendors to lower its dependency on Fujifilm and may not renew its technology agreement with the 56-year-old joint venture Fuji Xerox, Reuters notes. Xerox recently changed its CEO and abandoned a Fujifilm merger amid activist shareholder pushback.

11. Oracle Cloud Education: Oracle has unveiled Oracle LaunchPad, a free digital learning platform designed to help customers quickly and easily take advantage oOracle Cloud Applications.  

10. Microsoft Azure vs Amazon AWS: Microsoft Azure cloud revenues could reach $115 billion annually a decade from now, up from roughly $7.2 billion this year, according an Atlantic Equities cloud market forecast. Sounds impressive -- though AWS will likely reach about $185 billion per year in that time, the firm estimates. Together, Azure and AWS will dominate about 70 percent of the cloud infrastructure market, the forecast says.

9. Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS): US Signal, an IT solutions provider, has installed a managed Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) solution for Baystate Health Service (BHS) -- a not-for-profit, integrated healthcare system serving more than 1 million people each year in western New England. The solution is powered by the Zerto IT Resilience Platform and provides BHS with reserve compute on demand, near synchronous replication and instant managed recovery to protect and quickly recover critical patient data, according to a spokesperson familiar with the engagement.

8. First Responder NetworkFirstNet has launched, giving police and firefighters a dedicated wireless network designed to improve public safety.

7. Secure Cloud Access: Pulse Secure's Virtual Application Delivery Controller (ADC) products are now available on the Google Cloud Platform.

6. Partners - SD-WANs: Zscaler's expanded SD-WAN partner ecosystem now includes Aruba, CloudGenix, LANCOM Systems, and 128 Technology.

5. Partners - Data Protection: IBM Business Resiliency Services is introducing a managed service based on the Commvault software portfolio of data management and protection. The move counters Veeam's growing relationships with such enterprise partners as HP Enterprise and Cisco Systems. Commvault has been in evolution mode amid a search for a new CEO.

4. Converged Data Insights: MapR Technologies continues to blend the worlds of data, AI and analytics. The MapR Data Platform now features: (1) Core Data Service Innovations to Speed AI & Analytics and lower TCO; (2) Simplified Development and Deployment of AI and Analytic Applications; and (3) Streamlined Security and Critical Data Asset Protection, the company says. True believers include Hackett Group, a solutions provider that leverages MapR to help customers make data-driven decisions.

3. M&A - Software: Splunk it has closed the acquisition of VictorOps, which specializes in DevOps incident management.

2. M&A - Legal IT Services: Ankura Consulting Group is acquiring certain assets from Navigant for roughly $370 million. The deal includes Navigant's Disputes, Forensics and Legal Technology (DFLT) segment and its Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) practice. We'll share more details soon.

1. M&A - Major MSP Acquired: C Spire has acquired TekLinks, combining the largest privately held U.S. wireless carrier with a Top 100 Vertical Market MSP that boasts extensive cloud services know-how.

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.