5 Channel Partner and MSP Updates: Thursday 06 August 2020

Here are five (actually more) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Thursday, August 6, 2020. Sip up.

Our Daily Brew

A. What’s Happening Today

1. IT Nation Connect 2020: ConnectWise has confirmed that this will be a purely virtual conference in November 2020.

2. MSP Momentum: Synoptek is projecting an estimated 18 percent year-over-year recurring revenue growth, despite the coronavirus pandemic. Synoptek’s cloud applications and cloud management side of the business has grown 560 percent, though actual revenue and profit figures were not disclosed.

3. Data Protection - Hardened Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR): Acronis has launched Acronis Cyber Backup SCS Hardened Edition, a full disk image backup solution designed specifically for ‘no internet’ air-gapped networks. Based on the same code base as Acronis SCS’ Department of Defense Information Network Approved Products List (DoDIN APL) certified solution, Acronis Cyber Backup SCS Hardened Edition is designed for national security, industrial, and financial environments, and other extreme security use cases.

4. Zix Financial Results: Cloud email security, productivity and compliance solutions provider Zix says revenues were $53.3 million in Q2 2020, up 16 percent compared to Q2 of 2019. The overall results generally beat Wall Street's expectations. Zix and the company's AppRiver business work closely with MSPs (managed IT service providers).

5. Desktop as a Service (DaaS), Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI): VMware has unveiled new VMware Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub and VMware Horizon 8 capabilities, making it easier for partners to deliver virtual desktops and applications, the company says.

6. Talent - IT Services: Mindtree, a digital transformation and technology services company, has named Venu Lambu as president of global markets, a role strategically oriented towards accelerating Mindtree’s revenue growth. Based in London, Lambu is responsible for formulating strategic direction and business development for Mindtree businesses across all industry segments.

7. Talent - Virtual IT Training: CloudShare has named Nadav Peleg as chief revenue officer (CRO).

8, Oracle Cloud Expansion: Oracle has unveiled its s San Jose Cloud Region, marking the company’s 25th Cloud Region worldwide. The opening is part of Oracle’s "aggressive plan to add 11 Cloud Regions by July 2021, bringing its total to 36," the cloud, software and infrastructure company says.

9. Salesforce Feedback Tool: Salesforce has unveiled Feedback Management -- a new suite of tools and surveys built natively with Salesforce. Users and partners can collect real-time, actionable feedback from their customers and employees, Salesforce says.

B. Channel Partner Programs and Strategic Alliances

1. Integration - Service Now and Augmented Reality IT Support: CareAR now integrates with ServiceNow's Customer Service Management, Field Service Management and IT service management (ITSM) components. The result: Mutual CareAR and ServiceNow customers can gain augmented reality visual support capabilities. Remote users can virtually "see" the situation and visually guide customers and field workers -- as if the remote worker was on-site, CareAR asserts. Early adopters include NTT Data, the massive global IT service provider.

2. Integration - Customer Experience Management (CXM) and ITSM: Sprinklr has unveiled a ServiceNow Customer Service Management (CSM) integration, helping companies decrease case resolution time, cut costs and reduce customer churn, the company says.

3. Partnership - IT Service Management: Cherwell Software and Resolve Systems have partnered to help customers better manage their IT environments through workflow automation and auto-discovery and dependency mapping, the two companies say.

4. Partnership - Microsoft & Samsung: The partnership continues to expand.

5. Partnership - Remote Workspaces: Wipro and Intel are partnering to promote and deliver Wipro's LIVE Workspace and vPro technology to end-customers.

6. Partnership - Oracle Cloud VMware Solution: It's now available in all global regions and on-premises, Oracle says.

7. Partnership - SAP on HPE Hardware: Hewlett Packard Enterprise and SAP are partnering to deliver the customer edition of SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud with HPE GreenLake, as a fully managed service at the edge, in the customer’s data center or colocation facility of their choice, the companies say.

8. Partner Program & Talent - Autonomous IT Operations: BigPanda has expanded its partner program, and is seeking to engage Value Added Resellers (VARs), strategic technology partners, Systems Integrators (SIs), and MSPs. In a related move, BigPanda has hired two new Alliance Directors, Nisa Sypker and Matt Biehler.

9. AWS  Cloud Partner: Involta is now an Advanced Consulting Partner in the AWS Partner Network (APN).

10. Windows Applications on Google Chromebooks: Parallels later this year will introduce Desktop for Chromebook Enterprise. The desktop virtualization solution that enables full-featured Windows applications to run in virtual machines on Chromebooks, without rebooting or an Internet connection.

11. Talent - Cloud Management: CloudBolt Software has named Nick Mansour as chief revenue officer,  and Larry Kraft as SVP, global channels and alliances. Mansour and Kraft join on the heels of CloudBolt’s acquisition of SovLabs.

C. Upcoming Technology Conferences & Virtual Partner Events