Here are five (actually more) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Friday, May 15, 2020. Sip up.
Our Daily Brew
- Who We Serve: Content for managed services providers (MSPs), IT service providers (ITSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs), IT consulting firms, systems integrators, VARs, independent software vendors (ISVs), and any other partner acronym that further caffeinates our already stellar SEO.
- Frequency: Every business morning.
- Reaching the Barista: Send news, tips and rumors to [email protected].
A. What’s Hot Today
1. Funding - Cloud Data Centers: DigitalOcean has raised $50 million in Series C funding led by Access Industries, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The funding follows the $320 million debt financing in February and brings DigitalOcean’s equity valuation to $1.15 billion. DigitalOcean's cloud focuses on developers and SMB customers.
2. Talent - IT Services: Catapult Systems President Terri Burmeister has been promoted to CEO, effective June 1. She is a 13-year company veteran. The IT consulting firm works closely with Microsoft. Among those taking note of Burnmeister's new role: Microsoft Channel Chief Gavriella Schuster. In a prepared statement, Schuster said: “Terri has been a strong leader and female role model within the Microsoft partner community for a long time. She has built a great partnership with Microsoft and I am thrilled to see Catapult recognize her contributions.”
3. Small Business Fallout: Roughly 100,000 U.S. small businesses have closed, The Hill reports.
4. New Relic Financial Results: The cloud-based monitoring software provider released Q4 2020 results. They include:
- Revenue of $160 million, up 21 percent from Q4 2019.
- A n4t loss of $28.5 million, larger than a net loss of $17.4 million in Q4 2019.
The results generally exceeded Wall Street's expectations.
5. Distribution – IT Security: D&H Distributing‘s Cloud Marketplace now features Vade Secure‘s predictive email defense software for Microsoft 365. Datto founder and former CEO Austin McChord is a Vade Secure investor.
6. SD-WANs - Momentum: Fortinet is one of the fastest growing SD-WAN vendors and is positioned among the highest three vendors in worldwide market share for SD-WAN equipment by revenue, according to research from Gartner and Omdia.
