5 Channel Partner Updates: Wednesday 22 April 2020 -

Here are five (actually more) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Wednesday, April 22, 2020. Sip up.

Our Daily Brew

Who We Serve: Content for managed services providers (MSPs), 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. Top 100 Vertical Market MSPs — 2020 Edition: We’ll unveil the list and the research on a ChannelE2E webcast. Join us live this Thursday to see the results and ask your questions, or register and listen to the webcast sometime thereafter.

2. MSP Stimulus Pledge: Greystone Technology, an MSP in Colorado, has launched the MSP Stimulus Pledge. The campaign ensures peers and competitors in the IT services industry will use government assistance, including PPP funds, as intended: To keep team members employed and keep the economy moving. The pledge involves:

Avoiding layoffs of staff and pay reductions
Paying bills on time
Providing no increase in owner’s compensation
Working as partners with our vendors without demanding concessions simply because we can use the leverage of economic conditions
Running our businesses in a manner that creates a strong foundation for our employees and clients into a new future

3. Channel Talent - Data Protection: Cohesity has hired Mike Houghton as vice president of Americas channels.

4. Lawsuits - Data Protection: Commvault has filed suit against Cohesity and Rubrik, alleging that the fast-growing cloud data protection software firms violate seven Commvault patents. Ironically, the lawsuits surface after Commvault was late to the cloud data protection market, and at a time when activist investors are pressuring Commvault for business changes. ChannelE2E has reached out to Cohesity and Rubrik for comment.

5, Debt Levels - Zix and AppRiver: Did Zix take on too much debt to acquire AppRiver last year? At first glance, the answer was no. But take a closer look as the pandemic pressures small businesses, and this pundit raises concerns about Zix debt levels...

6. MSPs - Identity and Access Management (IAM): ID Agent, a Kaseya company, has expanded its dark web monitoring platform to include Passly, an identity and access management solution (IAM).

7. SolarWinds Subscription Pricing: SolarWinds has shifted to subscription-based pricing for the majority of its on-premises IT operations management products.

8. Kubernetes Data Management & VMware: Kasten K10 is available on VMware Cloud Marketplace.

9. Distribution - DevOps: Lifeboat Distribution has agreed to distribute Chef, a software company that provides code to automate infrastructure, security, compliance and applications.

10. IT Monitoring - Artificial Intelligence: ScienceLogic has developed AI technology to the company's monitoring solutions for multi-cloud management and hybrid IT infrastructure. So-called Behavioral Correlation technology allows IT teams to more effectively identify, troubleshoot and remediate service-disrupting events. Watch for the capability to debut in a Colosseum Release due out in late Q2, 2020.

11. Funding - Blue Prism: The company has raised £100 million from existing and new investors. The funding will be used to further strengthen and protect Blue Prism’s balance sheet during a period of uncertainty for the wider economy, while allowing continued investment in the innovation of its dedicated enterprise intelligent automation suite, the company says.

12. Funding - DevOps Automation: CircleCI has raised $100 million in Series E funding led by IVP and Sapphire Ventures. CircleCI has raised $215 million in total funding since its founding in 2011.

13. Research - SD-WAN Market: Aryaka has published its fourth annual 2020 State of the WAN report.