5 Channel Partner Updates: Wednesday 17 October 2018

Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Wednesday, October 17, 2018. Actually, there are 17 timely updates designed for managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs), IT consulting firms, systems integrators, VARs, independent software vendors (ISVs), telco master agents, and telco agents to sip on. Take a look: 17. IBM Question Marks: IBM delivered weaker-than-expected revenues for Q3 2018, according to a financial announcement yesterday. Revenues were $18.76 billion, roughly $330 million below Wall Street's expectations, SeekingAlpha estimates. Server revenues (i.e., IBM mainframe sales) were weaker than expected. Perhaps of greater concern, the company's cognitive solutions business fell 6 percent... 16. Partnership - Retail IT Solutions: Lenovo and Scale Computing have partnered to deliver an "edge" solution for global retailers, distributed enterprises and SMB customers. Details are here. 15. Momentum - Software Services: Infosys, Asia’s second-largest exporter of software services, posted a higher-than-expected increase in net income as investments in its high-margin digital services and automation paid off, Bloomberg says. 14. IT Management - Voice Assistant: ManageEngine has launched a voice assistant and geo-fencing features for Desktop Central, a unified endpoint security and management solution. The upgrade allows IT teams to manage endpoints via voice commands from the solution’s mobile app. This version includes a geo-fencing feature that closes IT security gaps by enforcing location-specific IT policies on mobile devices, the company says. 13. Fujitsu Kills Cloud Services: Fujitsu is killing its K5 cloud service in all regions worldwide except for Japan, The Register reports. The company will instead focus on supporting Microsoft Azure in a major way. 12. Compliance - HIPAA Fine: Anthem has agreed to pay the Office of Civil Rights a $16 million fine related after the healthcare firm suffered cyberattacks that led to the largest U.S. health data breach in history, and exposed the electronic protected health information of almost 79 million people, OCR says. It's the largest HIPAA fine in history. 11. Continuum Partner of the Year: Sharp Business Systems, a direct sales division of Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America and Sharp Electronics Corporation, was awarded Continuum's Partner of the Year. Continuum CEO Michael George praised Sharp during the recent Continuum Navigate conference in Boston, predicting that Sharp's managed services model will scale far more effectively than efforts at rival office equipment suppliers. Continue to page two of two for the captivating conclusion to this blog -- featuring items 10 to 1. Welcome to page two of two for today's blog. here's the lineup... 10. Talent - Cloud Security: Zscaler has hired Split Software and Data Bricks veteran Kavitha Mariappan as senior VP of customer experience and transformation. Mariappan is responsible for leading global strategic initiatives that drive a customer-centric experience throughout the Zscaler organization,  the company says. 9. Talent - Healthcare MSP: HCTec, a provider of hospital IT and revenue cycle workforce optimization solutions, has three new senior leaders: CFO Salome Isbell, VP of Professional Services Victor Ayers, and VP of Clinical Solutions Heather Espino. 8. Talent - Microsoft MSP: FlexManage, an MSP and Microsoft partner, has hired Matthew Medici as VP of Managed Services. 7. Cyber Recovery Software: Dell EMC has launched Cyber Recovery software and associated services to protect against ransomeware and safely restore data in the event of an attack. The software includes automation, workflow and security analytics tools to ensure gold copies of critical data are isolated yet available for fast recoveries, Dell EMC asserts. 6. Hurricane Michael Recovery: Verizon is working overtime to restore cell phone service in Florida following Hurricane Michael. Every Verizon customer in Bay and Gulf counties will be automatically credited for three months of mobile service for each line. The free service is for both consumer and business accounts. Verizon's ongoing disaster recovery updates are here. 5. M&A - ESOP Consulting: Ascensus has acquired ESOP Economics, which provides consulting and software solutions related to employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) repurchase obligations. ESOP Economics joins Ascensus' TPA Solutions division. 4. M&A - MSPs: WorkSmart has acquired CDI Managed Services’ small and midsize business (SMB) clientele, including customer engagements in Atlanta, Georgia and the New York Metro Area. 3. MSP Integration - Collabrance & ConnectWise: Collabrance now integrates with ConnectWise Manage. The new integration allows tickets and customer data to replicate information in ConnectWise Manage between Collabrance, a Master MSP, and IT Solution Providers, the companies say. 2. MSP Integration - PSA and Security: ID Agent, a provider of dark web monitoring and identity theft protection solutions, now integrates with Datto's Autotask PSA platform. The result: Datto’s Autotask PSA users can configure their Dark Web ID exposure alerts to create tickets within their PSA console, allowing for faster response directly to the end user customer and less email traffic for the administrator, ID Agent asserts. 1. Top 100 Cloud MSPs for AWS, Azure: See the list when ChannelE2E unveils research results during a webcast this Thursday.