5 Channel Partner and MSP Updates: Thursday 12 November 2020

Here are five (actually, more) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Thursday, November 12, 2020. Sip up.

Our Daily Brew

A. What’s Happening Today

1. Datto - After the IPO: Datto's IPO underwriters exercised in full their option to purchase up to an additional 3.3 million shares of common stock from Datto at the initial public offering price of $27.00 per share, less underwriting discounts and commissions. The net result: Datto has issued a total of 25.3 million shares for net proceeds of $641.6 million after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions, the MSP-centric technology provider says.

2. Rackspace Financial Results: For its third quarter of 2020, multi-cloud MSP Rackspace says:

The figures generally beat Wall Street's expectations.

3. Research - MSPs and Network Infrastructure Monitoring: Have MSPs standardized their network technology stacks? Annual research from Auvik Networks reveals these answers...

4. Talent - Microsoft Venture Capital Investments: Microsoft has hired former McAfee CEO Chris Young as executive VP of business development, reporting to CEO Satya Nadella. Young will oversee the evaluation and execution of strategic partnership opportunities, including alliances, venture investments and joint ventures that align with Microsoft's corporate strategy.

5. Talent - Data Storage: VAST Data has hired Peter Gadd as VP of international sales, David Noy as VP of product management, and Daniel Bounds as VP of marketing.

6. Cloud Integration Technology: TriggerMesh, a cloud native integration platform provider. has released an integration and automation platform called TriggerMesh Cloud Native Integration Platform 1.0.

7. Data Protection Appliances: Dell Technologies has unveiled new Dell EMC PowerProtect DP series integrated appliances and PowerProtect Data Manager software to help customers protect, manage and recover data from applications across data centers, edge locations and public clouds.

8. M&A - Hardware Monitoring: Synopsys has acquired Moortec, a provider of in-chip monitoring technology specializing in process, voltage and temperature (PVT) sensors. The Moortec sensors provide a key component to Synopsys' new Silicon Lifecycle Management (SLM) platform, the buyer says. Financial terms were not disclosed.

9. M&A - Customer Support Chatbots:  Snapchat developer Snap is acquiring a startup called Voca.ai, which builds AI-based voice assistants for customer support services, TechCrunch reports.

B. Channel Partner Programs, Strategic Alliances and Integrations

1. Talent - Channel Chief: Akeneo, a provider of Product Experience Management (PXM) solutions for corporate brands and retailers, has hired SaaS veteran Scott Rogers as VP of global channels and alliances.

2. MSP - Google Cloud Managed Services: Cloudbakers, a Google Cloud Premier Partner backed by private equity firm Sunstone Partners, has achieved the Google Cloud MSP designation. Cloudbakers has been a Google partner since 2010 and won Google Cloud’s Expansion Partner of the Year in North America in 2019.

3. MSP Software Integrations - Documentation Management: SyncMonkey Software Inc.  now integrates with NinjaRMM and Syncro. SyncMonkey is a documentation management system.

4. Partnership - MSP Security Services: IT By Design and SKOUT Cybersecurity, a Top 250 MSSP with Security Operations Center (SOC) expertise, have partnered to introduce ITBD Shield for MSPs.

5. Partnership - SMB Security - McAfee and Amazon: McAfee and Amazon Business have partner to provide a security software and IT services bundle for Business Prime members, specifically to support owners of small to medium size operations (SMBs). The bundle will protect sensitive data via email, offer web and firewall protection, offer mobile VPN, and safeguard devices from malware and the latest online threats, McAfee and Amazon Business say.

6. Partnership - Enterprise CRM and ITSM: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Zoho have partnered to provide CRM, IT service management (ITSM) and e-commerce solutions to large enterprises.

7. Partnership - Outsourced IT Services: Certain Prudential Financial employees will transition to Tata Consultancy Services. The deal involves Prudential's Ireland-based business and technology solutions provider, known as Pramerica Systems Ireland. Under the transaction, most Pramerica employees in Ireland will become TCS employees. Also, TCS will continue to service and support Prudential under a multiyear services arrangement. Pramerica will remain a wholly owned subsidiary of Prudential.

8. Partner Program - Data Privacy: Itouch.io has launched the 1touch.io Channel Partner Program. IT resellers with a large B2C base and more than 2,500 users can now supplement their security suite offerings with the Inventa solution. Key partners include Eversec Group, Atlantic Data Security, Etek Novared and Arrow, among others, Itouch.io says.

9. Partner Program: Komprise, a provider of analytics-driven data management as a service (DMaaS), has introduced new technical training certifications for cloud data management, financial incentives, and partner portal tools as part of the expanded Komprise Konnect Partner Program. Since the launch of the program, more than 50 new partners have been on-boarded and hundreds of partner employees have gone through technical training and certification, Komprise says.

10. Distribution - Network Security: Ingram Micro has agreed to distribute iboss, a cloud-delivered network security service that addressed SASE (Secure Access Service Edge), the companies say.

C. Technology Conferences and Virtual Partner Events