5 Channel Partner Updates: Tuesday 10 December 2019 -

Here are five (actually, far more…) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Tuesday, December 10, 2019.

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A. What’s Hot Today

1. M&A - Network Services: Segra is acquiring North State Telecommunications, a fiber optic network, cloud and IT services and cybersecurity provider. The deal is valued at $240 million. Segra is one of the largest independent fiber bandwidth companies in the eastern United States.

2. M&A - Private Equity and Distribution: Apollo Global Management expects to finalize its buyout of Tech Data in the first half of 2020. Tech Data's "go shop" period -- during which the distributor could solicit alternative bids for the company -- expired on December 9.

3. MSP Software - RMM & Security: Barracuda Networks is connecting the dots between the company's products to assist MSPs with business automation and security. The latest step involves Barracuda Content Shield integrating with Managed Workplace, the company's remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform. MSPs that run Managed Workplace can now leverageContent Shield's web filtering and malware protection. The integration comes amid Barracuda MSP's rapidly expanding international footprint.

4. IT Infrastructure Management: Virtana has upgraded VirtualWisdom, a hybrid IT infrastructure management and AIOps platform for mission-critical workloads. VirtualWisdom 6.3 supports global storage array analytics, an expanded range of integrations, and new portable reports and dashboards, the company says.

5. SD-WANs and Azure Active Directory: Aryaka's SD-WAN technology now integrates with Microsoft Azure Active Directory. As part of this, the MyAryaka cloud portal is now part of the Azure Active Directory Application Gallery.

B. Partnerships and Strategic Alliances

1. Distribution - MDR: Interwork Technologies, a specialty distributor focused on cybersecurity, has agreed to distribute eSentire's managed detection and response (MDR) services to partners. eSentire is a Top 200 MSSP for 2019 and a Top 20 MDR provider.

2. Microsoft Azure Expert MSP: Brillio, a global digital technology consulting and solutions company, has been named a Microsoft Azure Expert Managed Service Provider (MSP), the highest level of Azure certification.

3. Windows Server on AWS Cloud: Mission, a Top 200 Public Cloud MSP for 2019, is a certified launch partner in the new AWS End-of-Support Migration Program (EMP) for Windows Server. As a program partner, businesses with applications running on legacy (and unsupported) versions of Windows Server can entrust Mission to migrate those applications to newer and supported Windows Server versions on AWS – and do so without any code changes necessary, the MSP says.