Here are five (actually, a bit more…) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Tuesday, February 4, 2020. Sip up.
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A. What’s Hot Today
1. M&A - UCaaS: Comcast has acquired Blueface for unified communications as a service.
2. M&A - MSP and Telecom: Lingo Communications, a cloud and managed service provider (MSP) focused on SMB unified communications, has acquired selected customers from Blue Casa Telephone.
3. M&A - Fiber Network Services: Everstream has acquired certain LightBound fiber and telecom assets from DataBank, a managed data center provider. DataBank retains LightBound's data center assets.
4. M&A - Configure-Price-Quote: Cognizant has acquired Code Zero Consulting, a privately-held provider of consulting and implementation services for cloud-based Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) and billing solutions. The acquisition further strengthens Cognizant's cloud solutions portfolio and Salesforce CPQ and billing capabilities, the companies say. Financial details were not disclosed.
5. M&A - Storage Management: Quantum is acquiring the ActiveScale object storage business from Western Digital Technologies, a subsidiary of Western Digital Corp. Financial terms were not disclosed.
6. Talent - IT Services - CEO Change: TSR, an IT staffing and services provider, has named Thomas Salerno as acting CEO. Effective as of January 27, 2020, Christopher Hughes, CEO and treasurer, began a temporary leave of absence, the company says. The announcement comes amid a recent battle for control of the company.
7. Potential IPOs - Business Software, Automation: Work management software startup Asana, launched by a Facebook co-founder, said it confidentially filed to register its shares for a public listing that would avoid a traditional initial public offering, Bloomberg reports. MSP-focused technology provider Datto is rumored to be considering a similar move.
8. eDiscovery - Upgrade: Mimecast has upgraded Mimecast Case Review with a new user interface that's designed to simplify eDiscovery services.
9. eDiscovery Managed Services: Epiq has launched enhanced suite of eDiscovery managed services solutions.
B. Partnerships and Strategic Alliances
1. TPx Managed Network Services: TPx Communications has announced general availability of MSx Networks, a managed service offering for WiFi, security, software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) and switching systems.
2. SMB Loans: Goldman Sachs is in discussions with Amazon to offer small-business loans through Amazon's e-commerce platform, Bloomberg reports.
3. AI, Chatbots & Help Desks: CyberMAK Information Systems is leveraging Kore.ai to develop conversational AI chatbots for enterprise customers' IT service desks and more.
C. Next Five Cybersecurity Conferences
- RSA Conference 2020 (February 24-28, San Francisco)
- Women in CyberSecurity (WiCys) Conference 2020 (March 12-14, Aurora, Colorado)
- OKTA Oktane 2020 Cybersecurity Conference (March 30-April 2, San Francisco, California)
- SANS 2020 Cybersecurity Training Conference (April 3-10, Orlando, Florida)
- VMware Carbon Black Connect 2020 (May 13-14, Chicago).
- Bonus: The complete MSSP Alert calendar