5 Channel Partner Updates: Thursday 23 January 2020

Here are five (actually, a bit more…) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Thursday, January 23, 2020. Sip up.

Our Daily Brew

A. What’s Hot Today

1. Talent - MSP Automation: Liongard has hired Josh Tabin as CFO and Casey Higgins as director of worldwide channel and alliances. Moreover, MSP industry veteran Paul Chisholm will join the board. Chisholm is well-known for building, running and selling mindSHIFT -- a major MSP that pioneered much of the managed services market. Liongard develops unified management and automated systems documentation software for MSPs. We'll share more perspectives on the Liongard hires and business strategy soon.

2. Today - MSP Company Valuations: Get the latest stats from Service Leadership CEO Paul Dippell today during this ChannelE2E webcast.

3. M&A Negotiations - IT Services Provider: RJD Green has entered into initial acquisition and merger discussions with an established Healthcare IT Services firm, the suitor has disclosed without sharing the potential seller's name. If a deal happens, RJD will tuck the acquired business into its IOSoft subsidiary.

4. M&A - Data Lakes: Hitachi Vantara is acquiring Waterline Data. The result: Hitachi's Lumada Data Services Portfolio will allow customers to "more easily gain actionable insights from large datasets and comply with data regulations such as GDPR," the company says.

5. Private Equity CFO Survey: EY shares the findings here.

B. Partner Programs and Strategic Alliances

1. Integration – MSP Security Software: Kaspersky now integrates with SolarWinds RMM. The result: MSPs can leverage the SolarWinds RMM console to deploy and manage Kaspersky’s endpoint security products. Kaspersky has a similar integration in place with SolarWinds N-central.

2. Cloud Distribution – Security: Pax8 has agreed to offer to partners TitanHQ’s SpamTitan Cloud for email security and WebTitan Cloud for DNS filtering and protection.

3. Talent - Distribution: Ingram Micro's Jamie Ferullo, director and executive lead for its Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) business unit, is taking the reins as the next Buffalo campus leader, the distributor has announced.

4. Partner Program - CRM: Pipedrive has updated its Channel Partnership Program for affiliate partners and solution providers with Premier and Elite levels. Scott Fratianne, VP of channels sales & partnerships, is driving the program.

5. Partnership - Video Software: World Wide Technology (WWT), a major IT solutions provider, has agreed to offer Synamedia's video software to customers.

6. Integration - Google Cloud Platform: Zenlayer is now a Cloud Interconnect Partner within the Google Cloud Partner Advantage Program. Zenlayer's network in Mumbai, Hong Kong, and São Paulo, now offers direct connections to Google Cloud. Support for more locations will follow in the near future, the company said.

7. Partner Marketing Tools: Cisco offers up some new marketing tools for partners in a blog from Boon Lai, VP of global partner marketing.

C. Upcoming Technology Conferences

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