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5 Channel Partner Updates: Wednesday 04 April 2018

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Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Wednesday, April 4, 2018. Actually, there are 19 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… 19. Talent: Lots of folks on the move. Key folks in new positions include:
  • Addigy, the provider of cloud-based Apple Mac management software, has hired Mark Petrie as head of product. He previously held key posts at Kronos, Tripwire, Epicor, Planar Systems and Compli. 
  • Broadvoice, a provider of hosted voice, unified communications (UC) and SIP Trunking services, has named Eric Brooker as director of channel. Brooker previously was channel chief for Ecessa, an SD-WAN manufacturer.
  • Gigamon has hired Michelle Hodges as VP of worldwide partner sales, reporting to SVP of Worldwide Sales Burney Barker. Hodges previously held key partner-related posts at Riverbed Technologies, Apptio, Microsoft, Business Objects and SAP, and VMware.
  • Riverbed has named Paul Mountford as CEO, succeeding Jerry Kennelly -- who is retiring after serving as CEO since co-founding the company sixteen years ago in 2002. Mountford joined Riverbed nearly four years ago as SVP and chief sales officer.
  • VMware has hired Microsoft veteran Jenni Flinders as VP of worldwide channels.
18. Partnership - Managed Cloud Services: Switch and Rackspace are partnering to deliver Rackspace private cloud solutions and connectivity to managed public cloud solutions on Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. The effort involves Switch's Tier 5 Platinum data center PRIME locations, the companies say. 17. Partnership - Oracle Cloud Services: Hitachi Consulting has been named an OPN Cloud Elite partner -- joining a small number of Oracle partners who have attained this designation, 16. Managed Print ServicesCynergisTek has earned a multi-million-dollar, five-year managed print services (MPS) contract with a Northwestern U.S. healthcare customer. The company name and exact financial terms were not disclosed. 15. Managed Services: ConvergeOne has launched ConvergeOne Operate, a managed service that offers predictable and scalable cost structure in support of customers' collaboration environments, the company claims. With Operate, powered by OnGuard, ConvergeOne assumes overall responsibility for their customers' system availability and performance to meet agreed-upon Service Level Agreements (SLAs), freeing their team to focus on innovation and business transformation, the company says. 14. Government IT Services Contract:  The National Institutes of Health has chosen 38 service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses to participate in its $20 billion CIO-SP3 Small Business contract, a government-wide deal to provide a range of information technology support services, according to Law360. 13. Disaster Recovery: ClearSky Data, provider of on-demand primary storage with built-in offsite backup and DR as a single service, has partnered with Faction, a Denver-based company that architects, implements and supports cloud solutions for enterprises across multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environments. Together, ClearSky Data and Faction will deliver disaster recovery (DR) on demand with VMware, allowing customers to eliminate their secondary data centers and the expenses they incur, the companies say. 12. Data Management: Rubrik has launched Polaris, a SaaS platform for data management applications. The platform "delivers a unified system of record across all business applications and data for seamless security, compliance, and governance," Rubrik says. 11. Exit: Intel has sold its Wind River embedded software business to TPG for an undisclosed sum. It's the latest in a growing list of Intel product exits or business unit sales, designed to focus the company on core cloud and mobile opportunities. Go to page two of two for this blog's exciting conclusion, featuring items 10 to 1 for today. Welcome to page two of two. Here are the remaining 10 items for your easy consumption. 10. Private Equity & Bomgar: Francisco Partners is acquiring Bomgar from Thoma Bravo. Bomgar develops privileged access and identity management solutions. Financial details were not disclosed. 9. Venture Capital & Puerto Rico: The Community Development Venture Capital Alliance, a New York-based nonprofit, is investing $45 million in Puerto Rico's "entrepreneurial ecosystem," according to Forbes. 8. M&A - Healthcare IT: General Electric's healthcare is selling its information technology business to private equity firm Veritas Capital for $1.05 billion in cash as it sharpens its focus on smart diagnostics and connected devices, Reuters says. 7. M&A - Salesforce EcosystemConga, a key Salesforce partner that serves 40 percent of the Fortune 500, has acquired Counselytics in a move to bolster its document automation capabilities. This is Conga’s third acquisition in just one month, and sixth in just three years, the company says. 6. M&A - IT Services: Converge Technology Partners has acquired Key Information Systems. The acquisition provides Converge a strong footprint within the Western United States, the companies say. KeyInfo provides managed hybrid cloud services involving unstructured data -- including an Object Storage as a Service (STaaS) offering. 5. M&A - Q1 Momentum: 2018 is off to a strong start for mergers and acquisitions across media, information, marketing, software and tech-enabled services, with more than 500 announced transactions in the first quarter totaling $71.1 billion, a 124% increase over Q1 2017, according to Jegi. 4. PSA for Microsoft Dynamics: Velosio has launched multiple services and programs for clients and prospects interested in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, a new solution for SMB management and automation. The Velosio offerings include the Progressus Software Partner Program -- for partners interested in a providing a Professional Services Automation solution built on Microsoft Dynamics Business Central. 3. SMB Confidence: CEOs of small and mid-sized businesses are optimistic about their future financial prospects and plan to invest and hire more this year, according to the Q1 2018 Vistage CEO Confidence Index. The index declined slightly to 105.8 from its decade-high peak of 110.3 at the end of 2017 and was also slightly below last year's first-quarter reading of 106.9. 2. Top 50 Cloud Monitoring and Management Tools: Complete the survey and your company’s cloud monitoring/cloud management platform could get honored in May… 1. MSP Revenue Plan: How can your MSP reach $1 million in annual recurring revenues? Register now for our next webcast to get specific guidance from our guest MSP speakers.
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.