5 Channel Partner Program and MSP News Updates: Tuesday 23 February 2021

Here  are five (actually, more) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Tuesday, February 23, 2021. Sip up.

What’s In Our Daily Brew?

A. What’s Brewing Today: Technology News

1. Public Cloud MSP - Data Services: Mission, a Top 250 Public Cloud MSP and Amazon Web Services (AWS) Premier Consulting Partner, has launched a dedicated Data, Analytics & Machine Learning practice.

2. Funding - MSP Software: Atera, an IT management software company that serves MSPs and IT departments, has raised $25 million from K1 Investment Management.

3. Funding - MSP: Electric,​ a New York-based MSP that blends organic software development with third-party automation software, has raised $40 million in Series C funding.

4. Funding - Managed Software Containers: Platform9, a provider of SaaS Managed Kubernetes has closed its Series-D funding with an additional $12.5 million for a total of $37.5 million. This round was led by WRVI Capital, with participation from all existing venture investors including NGP Capital, Mubadala Ventures, Canvas Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and Redpoint Ventures.

5. Funding - Cloud-Native Storage Management: StorageOS has raised $10 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Downing Ventures. Existing investors Bain Capital Ventures, Uncorrelated Ventures and MMC Ventures also participated in the round alongside new investor, Chestnut Street Ventures.

6. SolarWinds Reemerges: SolarWinds has confirmed plans to participate in the Microsoft Ignite 2021 virtual conference, which starts March 4. The SolarWinds event announcement is one of the company's first non-security statements since the Orion cyberattack was discovered and disclosed in December 2020. Separately, plans to rebrand SolarWinds MSP as N-able and spin-off that business appear to be moving forward.

7. Cloud Revenue Stats: Some rather interesting details...

8. Microsoft Paid Time Off: Microsoft told its employees they can take an additional five paid days off to ease stress and anxiety during the Covid pandemic, Silicon Valley Business Journal reports.

B. Channel Chiefs, Partner Programs and Strategic Alliances

1. Distribution - Video Wall Solutions: D&H Distributing is helping its IT partners capture large-format video wall solutions—a "high-ticket, high-margin opportunity" that may accelerate as retail, hospitality and other vertical markets regain momentum amid easing COVID-19 business restrictions. D&H has historically offered traditional DVLED (Direct View digital signage) and LED video walls, and recently added streamlined “video kits” to its product portfolio, including from Samsung, LG, NEC, Planar, and ViewSonic, the distributor said.

2. Partnership - UK Data Protection:  BT’s portfolio of security services now leverage Acronis the companies say.

3. Migrations - SAP on Azure Cloud: SNP has inked a strategic alliance to simplify and accelerate SAP customers’ journey to SAP on the Azure cloud, SNP says.

4. 5G Network Security: Sophos plans to provide Sophos Intercept X endpoint protection for 5G PCs powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon compute platforms, the companies say. The combination of Sophos Intercept X with Snapdragon compute platforms will "provide users next-generation security through an always on, always connected PC environment," Sophos asserts.

5. Partner Program - Performance Monitoring Software: AppNeta has launched a Global Alliances partnership program, designed to enable partners to drive success of Internet, Cloud, and SaaS transformation across their customer base, the company says.

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