Content, 5 things

5 Channel Partner Updates: Wednesday 13 February 2019

Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Wednesday, February 13, 2019.

Actually, there are 13 timely updates designed for managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs), IT consulting firms, systems integrators, VARs, independent software vendors (ISVs), and telco agents to sip on.

13. Talent - Data Center Services: DataBank, a provider of data center, connectivity and managed services, has hired William Pratt as VP, channel and managed services sales.

12. Talent - Data Protection: Commvault has hired Cisco veteran Anthony Faustini as vice president of sales for the Americas. In this role, Faustini will work closely with sales leadership to drive Commvault’s go-to-market (GTM) strategy and revenue growth in the Americas, with and through the company’s global partners, the company said. Faustini joins the company amid Commvault's planned CEO transition to Sanjay Mirchandani from Bob Hammer.

11. IBM Watson Opens Up: IBM will finally make Watson portable across any cloud. The move is long overdue.

10. IBM Multi-Cloud Options: The company's latest efforts span multi-cloud management, cloud strategy and design, and crypto services. The deep details are here.

9. IoT Jumps the Shark?: Google is scaling back its IoT push on at least one front...

8. Multi-Cloud & IT Monitoring: Sensu Inc. has announced the general availability of Sensu Go, a user-centric monitoring event pipeline. Sensu can monitor everything from containers (Kubernetes, Docker, Cloud Foundry) to cloud compute instances (Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure), to bare metal. The company is positioning itself as an alternative to Nagios.

7. MSP Turned PSA Provider: ServiceTree is the latest PSA (professional services automation) software provider to focus on MSPs. And like many software companies in this sector, the company's roots extend back to an actual MSP. Here are the details.

6. MSP Expands: AHEAD, a provider of enterprise cloud migrations and managed services, has relocated its Minneapolis office to the Edina Tech Center in Edina, Minnesota. The newly renovated 3,000 square-foot space features collaborative work areas and a state-of-the-art conference center for AHEAD’s partners and clients. Established in February 2017 as a five-person team, the Minneapolis office expanded to include 31 members by the end of 2018. Key customers in the region include medical device, healthcare and environmental companies.

5. M&A - Cloud Monitoring & Application Testing: Cloud monitoring platform provider Datadog has acquired Madumbo, an AI-based automated application testing platform.

4. M&A - SMB & Carriers: Lingo Communications, a cloud & managed service provider (MSP) focused on SMB customers, continues to roll up carriers through customer & asset buyouts. The latest acquisition involves 4,000 Fusion Connect SMB customers.

3. M&A - Service Management Software: Norway-based service management software provider Asolvi has acquired the UK-based Vantage Computing, which develops service management solutions, TechEU reports. This is Asolvi’s fourth acquisition in the past three years, the report says.

2. M&A - MSPs: Abacus Group has acquired Proactive Technologies. The deal unites two highly respected MSPs that have deep expertise in the financial services vertical market.

1. Your Most Profitable MSP Service: That’s the topic of ChannelE2E’s February webcast. Register now to join us.

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.