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

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

What’s In Our Daily Brew?

A. What’s Brewing Today: Technology News

1. MSP Software & Co-Managed Services: Datto has enhanced Autotask PSA to help MSPs deliver co-managed services.

2. MSP Software - Email Encryption and File Sharing: Zix has launched a Secure Large File add-on for Zix Email Encryption. The offering allows customers to "eliminate the challenge of sending large files securely by facilitating the delivery of any file type up to 100 GB per message, with no storage quotas and no new credentials for recipients," the company says.

3. Microsoft 365 Consulting Services: Rackspace has announced Elastic Engineering for Microsoft 365. The move essentially involves Rackspace consultants who help customers with Microsoft 365-related roadmaps and strategy, tech guidance and advice, business process design, enhancements, adoption and ROI, and security and compliance..

4. IPO - Freshworks: Freshworks said it had priced its U.S. initial public offering well above the target range to raise $1.03 billion, valuing the Salesforce.com rival at $10.13 billion as hybrid work fuels demand for its products, Reuters reports. The IPO is expected to occur today (September 22), a spokesperson for the company tells ChannelE2E.

5. Potential IPO - Cohesity: Amid potential IPO rumors, Cohesity's annualized revenue run rate surpassed $300 million in the data protection company's most recent quarter. Also, Cohesity's year-over-year annual recurring revenue (ARR) rose 70 percent through July 2021 compared to the year-ended July 2020, the company says. The financial stats surface as Cohesity reportedly considers a potential IPO. The data protection company did not announce actual revenue, EBITDA or net income dollar figures.

6. M&A Question Marks - Zoom and Five9: A Justice Department-led panel -- known as Team Telecom -- is investigating Zoom's deal to buy Five9, citing potential national-security risks posed by the U.S. videoconferencing giant’s China ties, The Wall Street Journal reports.

7. HP Launches Windows 11 Devices: The latest HP devices -- running Microsoft Windows 11 -- are described here.

B. Channel Chiefs, Partner Programs and Strategic Alliances

1. Government Cloud Services: VMware Cloud on AWS GovCloud (US) has achieved FedRAMP Agency Authority to Operate (ATO) at the High Impact Level. The result: U.S. public sector agencies can now "migrate and more quickly modernize their VMware vSphere workloads with VMware Cloud and AWS GovCloud US," VMware asserts.

2. Amazon and SMB Lending: Amazon and Lendistry have unveiled Amazon Community Lending, a pilot program aimed at "driving growth opportunities for SMBs selling in Amazon’s store." Amazon Community Lending will provide U.S.-based Amazon sellers—nearly all of which are SMBs—access to short-term loans of up to $100,000 at "competitive and affordable rates to sustain and grow their businesses," the two companies say.

3. Network Cybersecurity: Owl Cyber Defense Solutions has joined the Dell Extended Technology Complete (ETC) program. The Dell ETC program identifies "trusted solutions that help customers optimize and complete their Dell Technologies infrastructure," the companies say.

4. Intelligent Document Processing: DataBank, a Kyocera Group Company, has joined the KnowledgeLake partner program.

5. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Part One: Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. and Automation Anywhere are partnering to deliver RPA capabilities to end-customers. The effort involves Konica Minolta’s Intelligent Information Management (IIM) services portfolio, and associated digital transformation capabilities for end-customers. Konica Minolta owns two major MSP businesses, namely All Covered and IT Weapons.

6. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Part Two: People Tech Group, a Web and enterprise application consulting firm, has launched an RPA services capability focused on UiPath's software.

7. Service Level Objectives: Nobl9, which develops a software reliability platform, has launched a channel program aimed at systems integrators and solution providers. The effort focuses on service level objectives (SLOs) -- a unit of reliability that "brings a more mathematical and reality- based approach to tracking service reliability than legacy approaches like service level agreements," Nobl9 asserts.

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