5 Channel Partner Updates: Tuesday 17 December 2019

Here are five (actually, far more…) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Tuesday, December 17, 2019.

Our Daily Brew

A. What’s Hot Today

1. M&A - IT Staffing: Drisla has acquired QStride Inc., an IT consulting and staffing provider.

2. M&A – Distribution: Tech Data is acquiring Inflow Technologies, a value-added distributer with expertise in cybersecurity and networking. The deal is expected to close during Tech Data’s first quarter of fiscal year 2021.

3. M&A - Intel Acquires AI Chips: Intel has acquired Habana Labs for $2 billion. Habana is an artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaker based in Israel.

4. M&A - IT Training: A Cloud Guru has acquired Linux Academy. The deal unites two cloud-focused IT training companies. On a related note, Bain Capital Tech Opportunities has made a "significant" investment in A Cloud Guru, alongside participation from existing investors Elephant, Summit Partners and AirTree Ventures.

5. Funding - Cloud Services Provider: AllCloud, a Top 200 Public Cloud MSP for 2019 focused on Amazon Web Services and Salesforce, has raised $18 million in additional funding. Eastside Partners led the new round, with participation from Salesforce Ventures and previous investors.

6. Funding - Network Security: EfficientIP, a network security and automation specialist, has raised $11 million in Series B funding from Jolt Capital.

7. Funding - Business Management Software: Odoo, an open source business management software, has received a $90 million minority investment led by private equity firm Summit Partners, with participation from Odoo’s executive management team and existing investor SRIW and its affiliate Noshaq.

8. M&A - Networking: Cisco Systems is acquiring Exablaze, a low-latency networking startup that could assist application performance in such areas as artificial intelligence/machine learning clusters, high frequency trading and high-performance computing (HPC), Cisco says. The deal is expected to close in Cisco's Q3 of fiscal year 2020.

9. Cisco vs. Counterfeits: Cisco Systems has won a legal battle against counterfeit versions of key networking equipment, securing an injunction that requires big online marketplaces, including Amazon and Alibaba to halt the sale of some knockoffs, The Wall Street Journal Reports.

10. Microsoft Azure MSP Expert - Part One: Ingram Micro Cloud has earned the Microsoft Azure Expert MSP certification. For cloud resellers, Ingram Micro Cloud offers the ability to white label its Microsoft Azure professional and managed services, helping resellers to more efficiently manage their resources in relation to their customer demands, Ingram asserts. Related Conference: Ingram Micro Cloud Summit 2020 is scheduled for May.

11. Microsoft Azure MSP Expert - Part Two: Cloud4C, a global cloud MSP, has achieved Microsoft Azure Expert MSP status.

12. 5G Network Contract Wins: Huawei is locked in a race with rivals Nokia and Ericsson to build next-generation 5G networks, Reuters reports. Here's a list of recent 5G recent customer and project wins as compiled by Reuters.

13. Office 365 Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR): SolarWinds has launched Backup for Office 365. It supports Exchange, OneDrive and SharePoint data protection. We're checking to see how the new release compares to the MSP software company's earlier data protection platforms for Microsoft's SaaS applications.

14. Research - Public Cloud Performance: How do AWS, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure perform compared to one another? This CockroachLabs report offers some clues and conclusions.

15. Top 10 Artificial Intelligence Service Providers: HFS describes and lists them here.

16. Vertical Markets: Black Box will promote branch office networking solutions at the NRF 2020 conference for retailers in January.

B. Partnerships and Strategic Alliances

1. MSP Conference - Europe: IT Nation Connect Europe 2020, hosted by ConnectWise, is confirmed for May 12-14 in Amsterdam.

2. Partnership - Facility Management: Trinity Automated Solutions and FacilityConneX are partnering to promote facility data monitoring solutions.

3. Distribution - UCaaS: Synnex now offers the new Avaya Cloud Office UCaaS solution through its partner network.

4. Managed SD-WAN Services: Hughes Network Systems has added the VMware SD-WAN powered by VeloCloud platform to its HughesON Managed SD-WAN portfolio for enterprise customers.

5. All Partner Programs: Search the comprehensive ChannelE2E Partner Program Database here. Also, submit your company information here and your partner program can be listed in the database.

C. Upcoming Technology Conferences

Got news to share for our morning update? Email me: [email protected].