5 Channel Partner and MSP News Updates: Monday 11 January 2021 -

Here are five (actually, more) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Monday, January 11, 2021. Sip up.

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A. What’s Brewing Today: Technology News

1. Free Speech vs. National Security: Parler, an emerging social media platform, went dark early Monday after Amazon Web Services (AWS) turned off the company's cloud services. Also, Apple and Google removed Parler from their app stores. AWS alleges that Parler hosts violent content that violates the cloud provider's terms of service, CNBC reported. Some Parler users had posted calls to bring weapons to the presidential election later this month. Meanwhile, Stripe will no longer process payments for President Trump’s campaign website following last week’s riot at the Capitol, The Wall Street Journal reports.

2. PSA Software for Midsize MSPs: Dreamtsoft is quietly developing PSA (professional services automation) and business management software for midsize MSPs (managed IT services providers) and IT professionals. While ServiceNow has critical mass in the enterprise and ConnectWise Manage has a big following in the SMB sector, Dreamtsoft wants to carve out market share somewhere between those two offerings. The startup was founded by ServiceNow veterans.

3. M&A Debate - Cisco Systems and Acacia: Cisco Systems and Acacia Communications are locked in an M&A legal battle. Acacia wants to walk away from the $2.84 billion M&A deal, but Cisco insists that the deal will move forward.

4. M&A Financing - Ingram Micro Acquisition: Private equity firm Platinum Equity will finance its leveraged buyout of IT distributor Ingram Micro with about $3 billion of debt that will be sold to investors, Bloomberg reports.

5. Talent - Managed IT Services: After multiple acquisitions, BCM One has named the following executives to the following positions.

Mark Amick, formerly COO of the SIP.US, SIPTRUNK and nexVortex entities, has been promoted to group president, NextGen Communications, and will be in charge of the company's UCaaS, SIP, and white-label next communications platform offerings.
Paul Bloom, formerly VP of operations, is now group president, managed services, and is responsible for BCM One's Managed Services offerings, including Managed SD-WAN, Managed Network Services, Microsoft Teams and Managed Connectivity.
Mike Nowak, formerly VP Of sales at nexVortex, becomes senior VP of sales for BCM One. He will oversee the newly integrated sales team of recent acquisitions to serve BCM One clients as well as channel partners and resellers nationwide.
Meghan Neilan is now VP of direct sale, managing the retention and growth of BCM One's account base, in addition to recruiting new logos nationally.

Andy Steinke is now VP of channel sales, and is responsible for BCM One's Channel Partner Program and management of the BCM One Channel Sales team.
Paula Como Kauth is now VP of marketing, leading marketing communications, branding, public relations, analyst relations, events, digital, and lead generation programs across BCM One and its acquired brand entities.

6. Managed WiFi 6 Services: TPx, a nationwide managed services provider, has updated its MSx Managed Networks service to leverage Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) technology. Wi-Fi 6, also known as High-Efficiency Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), lays the groundwork for the growing use of internet-connected hardware and devices as well as applications like collaborative high-definition (HD) video streaming, augmented reality and virtual reality, TPx predicts.

7. Partner - VMware Cloud: Ensono has achieved VMware Cloud Verified status. The designation essentially means Ensono offers the complete VMware-based software defined data center infrastructure delivered as a service.