Content, 5 things

5 Channel Partner Program and MSP News Updates: 22 April 2021

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Here are five (actually, more) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Thursday, April 22, 2021. Sip up.

What’s In Our Daily Brew?

  • Who We Serve: Content for managed services providers (MSPs), IT service providers (ITSPs), technology solutions providers (TSPs), 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 Brewing Today: Technology News

1. M&A - SPAC and Smart Home Technology: SmartRent.com Inc., which sells smart home-technology systems to apartment-building owners and developers, intends to go public through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that values the property-tech startup at $2.2 billion, The Wall Street Journal reports. The merger apparently involves Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp.

2. Technology SPACs List: See ChannelE2E's list of more than 80 technology-focused SPACs here.

3. Talent - MSP Software: N-able has hired RSA, Constant Contact and Symantec veteran Mike Adler as chief technology and product officer. The hire comes as N-able prepares to spin-off from parent SolarWinds in the first half of 2021.

4. Talent - Professional Services Automation (PSA) Software: FinancialForce, a provider of PSA and ERP (enterprise resource planning) software that runs on Salesforce, has named Burton M. Goldfield as independent director and chairman of the board. Goldfield is president and CEO of TriNet, a provider of human resources solutions for small and medium-size businesses.

5. Talent - Software Testing: Tricentis has hired former SolarWinds CEO Kevin Thompson as chairman of the board and chief executive officer. Former Tricentis CEO Sandeep Johri is stepping down from the company but will remain on the board.

6. Talent - IT Services: Upstack has hired Telarus and Zayo Group veteran Scott Forbush as chief revenue officer. The announcement comes roughly one week after Berkshire Partners announced a private equity investment in Upstack.

7. Talent - Hitachi Leadership, Layoffs: Hitachi Vantara is laying off about 65 employees in Silicon Valley, but the business unit also is making some key hires. The new names to know include Roger Lvin as president, Digital Solutions Business Unit, Radhika Krishnan as chief product officer and Frank Antonysamy as chief digital solutions Officer, according to a LinkedIn note from Hitachi Vantara CEO Gajen Kandiah. The moves come roughly one month after parent company Hitachi acquired GlobalLogic for $9.6 billion in a bid to dive deeper into software engineering.

B. Channel Chiefs, Partner Programs and Strategic Alliances

1. IT Service Management (ITSM) and Artificial Intelligence (AI): Thirdera, a provider of professional services and integrations for companies implementing ServiceNow, has inked a partnership with PeopleReign, provider of an intelligent virtual agent for IT and HR employee service requests.  The result: Thidera will will deploy PeopleReign’s AI-based “virtual agent” to help IT and HR departments resolve service requests faster and more cost effectively, the companies say.

2. Sustainability Partnerships: Microsoft, with an eye toward Earth Day 2021, outlined its sustainability strategy and associated partnerships in this blog.

3. AWS Cloud Data Protection: Zerto has announced backup and disaster recovery (DR) for Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Services (Amazon EKS); disaster recovery across AWS Regions or Availability Zones; and new backup capabilities for AWS focused on cost optimization and security.

C. Channel Partner Summits, MSP Conferences and Virtual Events Calendar

  1. Top 100 Vertical Market MSPs Unveiled (April 22, Webcast)
  2. Red Hat Summit 2021 (April 27-28, Virtual)
  3. QuoteWerks User Summit 2021 (April 28-30, Virtual)
  4. Women Transforming Technology Conference (May 3-4, Virtual)
  5. Microsoft Business Applications Summit 2021 (May 4, Virtual)
  6. ChannelE2E’s complete event calendar
  7. Add Your Annual Event To Our Calendar: Submit it here
Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.