5 Channel Partner and MSP Updates: Wednesday 14 October 2020

Here are five (actually, more) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Wednesday, October 14, 2020. Sip up.

Our Daily Brew

A. What’s Happening Today

1. M&A - Channel Management Services: 360insights, a channel incentives management (CIM) provider, has acquired Perks WW. The acquisition expands 360insights’ presence across North America and beyond.

2. M&A - SaaS Management: Apptio has acquired SaaSLicense, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) discovery, optimization, and management product.

3. Branding - IT Consulting: Accenture has launched the “Let there be change” brand campaign, and will triple the company’s annual media spend to $90 million. The brand campaign was developed with creative agency Droga5, part of Accenture Interactive.

4. DropBox - Work From Home: Dropbox will become a “Virtual First” company and make remote work the primary, day-to-day default for its employees, Bloomberg reports.

5. UCaaS: RingCentral Global Office will be available in six continents including Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. RingCentral is also announcing expansion into several countries -- Estonia, Greece, Lithuania, Slovenia, and South Africa.

6. Talent - Microsoft 365 Management Tools: CoreView has hired Veeam and MSP360 veteran Doug Hazelman as SVP and chief evangelist. Private equity firm Insight Partners recently invested in CoreView. Insight also owns Veeam.

7. Talent - MSP: Interface Security Systems, an MSP with extensive cybersecurity expertise, has promoted Brent Duncan to president and COO. Interface Security Systems is a portfolio company of SunTx Capital Partners and Prudential Capital Partners.

8. Talent - Data Science Software: Anaconda has hired Kevin Goldsmith as chief technology officer.

9. SD-WANs: Masergy has unveiled SD-WAN Work From Anywhere solutions.

10. Apple 5G iPhones: Apple on Tuesday launched its next-generation iPhone 12 with 5G connectivity support -- though most U.S. carriers have yet to fully roll out their 5G networks.

11. Huawei Selling Smart Phone Business?: Huawei is in talks with Digital China Group Co Ltd and other suitors to sell parts of its Honor smartphone unit in a deal that could fetch up to 25 billion yuan ($3.7 billion), Reuters reports.

12. Data Management: Informatica has updated its cloud data management platform to help partners and customers design, build and deploy cloud-native serverless data integration in a multi- cloud environment, the company says.

B. Channel Chiefs, Partner Programs and Strategic Alliances

1. Avast Channel Chief: Avast has named Microsoft and Symantec veteran Marc Botham as VP of worldwide channel & alliances, Avast Business. Botham joined Avast six months prior as regional director for the UK and Ireland.

2. Channel Partner Program - Storage: Infinidat's partner program has grown to include nearly 400 strategic partners. Actual channel-centric revenue figures were not disclosed.

3. Partnership - Data Management as a Service: Cohesity has partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to promote Data Management as a Service (DMaaS). The move essentially counters Druva's pure cloud strategy, ChannelE2E believes.

4. Distribution – Malware Detection: Ingram Micro has agreed to distribute VMRay’s automated malware analysis and detection solution across Europe.

C. Technology Conferences and Virtual Partner Events