5 Channel Partner Updates: Thursday 23 July 2020

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

Our Daily Brew

A. What’s Happening Today

1. Today – Cyber Insurance Webcast: Join us for the live Q&A today (Thursday, July 23). Can't join us live? Register anyway and consume the webcast on-demand in the days or weeks ahead.

2. Research - ServiceNow Integration Trends: High-level findings are here, and the complete report is here...

3. M&A - SD-WANs: Adaptiv Networks has acquired ELFIQ Networks from Martello Technologies Group. The deal expands Adaptiv Networks’ portfolio of SD-WAN solutions for mid-size enterprises and accelerates its international expansion, the buyer says.

4. Tech Startup Funding Slowdown: In the first full quarter spanning the pandemic, overall startup funding in the U.S. and Canada dropped 12% from the previous quarter, a Crunchbase report finds, according to The Wall Street Journal.

5. Talent and Training - Re-Skilling America: Woz Enterprise, founded by Steve Wozniak, has joined a consortium to reskill and put Americans back to work. Reskill and Restart — powered and led by Infosys Wingspan — is a free online platform that provides skills assessments and training for job seekers, and connects them with prospective employers. Woz Enterprise will develop the training curriculum for the tech sector. Woz Enterprise is led by CEO Jacob Mayhew.

6. Talent - MSP Consortium: The 20, a consortium that offers automation tools to MSPs, has hired  Chris H. Davenport II as chief operating officer (COO) and Mark Elliott as chief revenue officer (CRO).

7. Talent - Cloud Data Protection: Druva has named Andrew Daniels as the company’s new CIO and CISO.

8. Cloud Monitoring - Open Source: New Relic is making its software agents, integrations, and SDKs available under an open source license.

B. Channel Partner Programs and Strategic Alliances

1. SMB Security Awareness Training: Cisco's perspectives for partners are here.

2. Partnership - SD-WANs Part One:  Aryaka and Check Point Software Technologies are partnering to deliver SD-WAN as a Service. The effort integrates Aryaka’s Cloud-First managed SD-WAN solution and Check Point’s CloudGuard Connect, CloudGuard Edge and CloudGuard IaaS, the companies say.

3. Partnership - SD-WANs Part Two: Windstream Enterprise's SD-WAN Concierge is now available to purchase with the Fortinet Secure SD-WAN platform, offering a value-added network service option, the companies say.

4. Partner Program - Continuous Delivery: Harness has expanded its Global Partner Program. The company in 2020 has grown the partner program more than 675% over 2019, though actual dollar figures were not disclosed. The program features 38 new partnerships across 18 countries. Key technology partners include AWS, Google Cloud and Cisco Systems. Key channel partners include Ahead, Benchmark Corp., Digital Architects Zurich, Econocom, Evry, Grid Dynamics, Orasi, Relevance Labs and Trace3.

5. Partnership - VMware: AHEAD, an IT consulting firm, MSP and provider of enterprise cloud solutions, has achieved a VMware Master Services Competency in Cloud Native, making it one of the first companies in the world to attain competencies in all six VMware Master Services Competencies, and the first to do so in North America, AHEAD says.

6. Partnership - Data Protection:  Caringo has launched the Swarm Cloud DR managed service, powered by Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage. Swarm's enterprise data protection methods gain the ability to instantly add a remote Disaster Recovery (DR) site powered by Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage, the companies say.

7. Integration - RPA and AWS Cloud: UiPath's Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software platform now integrates with Amazon Web Services (AWS). By integrating with Amazon Textract, Amazon Rekognition, and Amazon Connect, the UiPath Platform can "boost employee productivity, enhance customer experience, and accelerate digital transformation through dynamically-scaled AI-powered RPA solutions," UiPath asserts.

C. Upcoming Technology Conferences & Virtual Partner Events