5 Channel Partner Program and MSP News Updates: Friday 26 February 2021 -

Here are five (actually, more) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Friday, February 26, 2021. Sip up.

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A. What’s Brewing Today: Technology News

1. MSP M&A - Key Advisor: Cogent Growth Partners assisted the recent MSP M&A deal between WorkSmart and RMS Associates of Smyrna, Georgia. In addition to identifying the seller, Cogent served as the intermediary, assisting both companies in due diligence, deal negotiation and transaction completion. Financial details of the transaction, which was closed January 1, 2021, were not disclosed.

2. Application Performance Management (APM): SolarWinds has announced the APM Integrated Experience for the SolarWinds. The offering essential consolidates access to three solutions (AppOptics, Loggly, and Pingdom) -- giving partners and customers a simplified way to track application performance metrics, traces, logs, and user experience.

3. Funding - Field Service Management Cloud Software: Workiz, a field service management and communication startup, has raised $13 million in Series B funding led by New Era Capital Partners. Additional investors include Aleph, Magenta Venture Partners, Maor Investments, and TMT Investments PLC.

4. Google Cloud - Business Intelligence: Google Cloud has enhanced BigQuery, allowing organizations to "provide employees with increased access to data at scale and empower them with the ability to make fast data-driven decisions that directly impact the business," Google asserts.

B. Technology Revenues - Quarterly Financial Results

Multiple companies announced quarterly results in the past two days or so. Here's a sampling of results. PS: The fiscal year "2021" mentions are correct. Many technology company fiscal years don't align with the calendar year.

1. Dell ($DELL) Earnings: For Q4 of fiscal year 2021...

Revenue of $26.1 billion, up 9 percent from Q4 of fiscal 2020.
Net income of $1.3 billion, up 223 percent from Q4 of fiscal 2020.

2. HP ($HPQ) Earnings: For Q1 of fiscal 2021...

Net revenue of $15.6 billion, up 7 percent from Q1 of fiscal 2020.
GAAP net earnings of $1.01 billion, compared to $678 million in Q1 of fiscal 2020.

3. Salesforce ($CRM) Earnings: For Q4 of fiscal year 2021...

Revenue of $5.82 billion, up 20 percent compared to Q4 of fiscal 2020.
Net income of $267 million, compared to a $248 million net loss in Q4 of fiscal 2020.

4. VMware ($VMW) Earnings: For Q4 of fiscal year 2021...

Revenue was $3.3 billion, up 7 percent from Q4 of fiscal 2020.
GAAP net income was $791 million, up from $321 million in Q4 of fiscal 2020.

5. Workday ($WDAY) Earnings: For Q4 of fiscal year 2021...

Revenue was $1.13 billion, up 15.9 percent from Q4 of fiscal 2020.
Net loss of $71.7 million, compared to a net loss of $127.9 million in fiscal 2020.

The key takeaway from all the earnings: PC sales remain extremely strong. But software companies are forecasting slower-than-expected growth in 2021, according to combined reports.

Side note: Here's our analysis of Zix earnings and SolarWinds earnings, especially as they pertain to MSP partners. And yes, SolarWinds MSP is rebranding as N-able and pursuing a Q2 2021 spin-out from the parent software company.

C. Channel Chiefs, Partner Programs and Strategic Alliances

1. Talent - MSP Software: SolarWinds has named Kevin Bury as chief customer officer for the SolarWinds MSP division -- which is expected to spin-out as N-able in Q2 2021. Bury will "strengthen the existing investment in partner success for MSPs worldwide," the company says.

2. Integration - MSP Software: ThreatLocker now integrates with Datto's Autotask PSA (professional services automation) software. This integration streamlines secure business operations for MSPs, allowing them to access their Autotask PSA account from within the ThreatLocker portal, the companies say.

3. Distribution - Asia MSPs: Datto has signed a distribution agreement with Nextgen in Southeast Asia, Channel Asia reports.

4. AWS for Small Business: Amazon has launched the AWS Think Big for Small Business (TVSB) program for small and minority-owned AWS partners.

5. Partner Program Growth - Unified Communications: The Vyopta Partner Community grew by 75 percent in 2020. Also, the company plans to host its inaugural Vyopta Collaboration Intelligence Partner Summit on March 4.