Content, 5 things

5 Channel Partner Updates: Wednesday 22 May 2019

Here are technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Wednesday, May 22, 2019.

A. Our Daily Brew

  • What We Serve: Content for managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs), IT consulting firms, systems integrators, VARs, independent software vendors (ISVs), and any other partner acronym that further caffeinates our already stellar SEO.
  • Frequency: Every business morning.
  • Reaching the Barista: Send news, tips and rumors to [email protected].

B. Freshly Brewed News

1. Join Us - How to Make Money From Managed Security Services: We’ll cover that and more during our ChannelE2E webcast this Thursday. Register now to join us.

2. New - State of the MSP Market: The latest annual research findings from Datto are here. We'll share more perspectives soon.

3. ConnectWise Automate - Third-Party Security Add On?: What exactly is Third Wall? We're checking in for more details.

4. M&A and Rebrand: BC in the Cloud has rebranded as Infinite Blue and acquired Rollbase, a low-code development platform that helps customers to rapidly deliver new applications.

5. M&A and CRM Partnerships - Zendesk: The company has acquired Smooch -- a technology provider that allows businesses to communicate with customers across web, mobile, and social messaging. Also AWS partner ClearScale has committed to building a Zendesk practice and leveraging its team of engineers and developers to deploy ZenDesk Sunshine CRM solutions. Plus, new integrations and partnerships with multiple companies have surfaced. Names to know include Narvar, Domo, Qualtrics, Okta, PagerDuty, Atlassian Opsgenie, Zaius, Envoy, and Magento.

6. CRM on Microsoft Azure Cloud: Nimble has migrated its CRM platform from AWS to Microsoft Azure. market-leading SaaS CRM from AWS to Microsoft Azure. The migration, completed in less than four weeks without a hitch, aligns with Nimble's business model. Indeed, Microsoft is a global Nimble reseller, and Nimble is positioning itself as a simple CRM for Office 365 and small workgroups.

7. Managed AWS Services: Mission, a Top 100 Public Cloud MSP focused on AWS, has launched Mission Enterprise Support. The support is designed for businesses of any size, and includes access to CloudCheckr, a cloud management platform for security, compliance, cost optimization, and automation.

8. Startup - AWS Consulting: Adastra Group has launched a new company -- named Aroa -- focused exclusively on Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud solutions. This latest addition to Adastra Group’s suite of Information Management offerings, the company says. Aroa offers end-to-end data services, from Acquisition to Analytics, Master Data Management (MDM) and Managing Services, the company says.

9. Managed Desktop as a Service: IGEL, which develops an edge OS for cloud workspaces, has partnered with IT monitoring specialist ControlUp. Under terms of the relationship, IGEL will integrate with ControlUp’s real-time monitoring and analytics capabilities. IGEL customers and partners will gain real-time access to the health of their virtual and physical endpoints to improve user experience and productivity, the companies claim.

10. Managed Database Services: RDX, a provider of managed database and cloud services, has  announced that its G5 database-as-a-service (DBaaS) software platform is now available for direct purchase online from the Azure Marketplace or the RDX website.

11. Data Protection: The Boston Red Sox selected Acronis as the baseball franchise's cyber protection partner.

12. Financial Results - Pure Storage: The flash storage provider's Q1 fiscal 2020 financial results, disclosed yesterday, included:

  • Revenue of $326.7 million, up 28 percent from Q1 of fiscal 2019.
  • Net loss of $100.3 million, larger than the $64.3 million net loss from Q1 of fiscal 2019.

The results disappointed investors, and Pure Storage's stock (NYSE: PSTG) fell 18 percent in after-hours trading. Still, CEO Charles Giancarlo sounded an upbeat tone in a prepared statement, asserting:

"Pure continues to gain market share with innovation, a differentiated business model and our laser focus on customer delight. As enterprises embark on their hybrid cloud journeys, Pure is excited to play a role in modernizing their business."

C. Partner Program Updates

1. Data Protection - Part One: Veeam has made multiple product and partner moves at this week's VeeamOn 2019 conference. Here's the live blog -- including a new relationship with Pax8.

2. Data Protection - Part Two: NAKIVO, a VM backup and site recovery software specialist, has introduced a new MSP partner program. A new monthly subscription program allows MSPs to provide their customers with VM backup, VM replication, granular restore, and site recovery, with NAKIVO Backup & Replication. Pricing starts at $1.60 per VM/per month.

D. Next Five Technology Conferences

Got news to share for our morning update? Email me: [email protected].

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.