5 Channel Partner Program and MSP News Updates: Thursday 28 January 2021 -

Here are five (actually, more) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Thursday, January 28, 2021. Sip up.

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Who We Serve: Content for managed services providers (MSPs), IT service providers (ITSPs), technology solutions providers (TSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs), IT consulting firms, systems integrators, VARs, independent software vendors (ISVs), and any other partner acronym that further caffeinates our already stellar SEO.
Frequency: Every business morning.
Reaching the Barista: Send news, tips and rumors to [email protected].

A. What’s Brewing Today: Technology News

1. M&A - Tech Activity: Technology industry M&A in Q4 2020 was worth $243.4 billion, up 12.5% over the previous quarter, and a rise of 107% when compared with the last four-quarter average, according to GlobalData. At the country level, the U.S. topped the list in terms of deal value at $118 billion. In terms of volumes, North America emerged as the top region for technology industry M&A deals globally, followed by Europe and then Asia-Pacific. The top country in terms of M&A deals activity in Q4 2020 was the US with 680 deals, followed by the UK with 159 and China with 115.

2. M&A Buyouts - 2020 Stats: Buyout investment activity in the United States reached $262.4 billion in 2020, up 23 percent compared to 2019, according to Refinitiv. The 2020 figure was the highest total since 2007.

3. Venture Capital - 2020 Record Activity: Venture Capital investments in the United States reached a record $124.8 billion in 2020, up 16 percent from 2019, according to Refinitiv.

4. New Unicorn - Remote Access Software: After a major business pivot, remote access software provider Splashtop has achieved a $1 billion valuation -- aka Unicorn status.

5. ServiceNow Quarterly Earnings: Demand for ServiceNow's IT service management (ITSM) software booming. The evidence: ServiceNow revenue was $1.25 billion in Q4 of 2020, up 31 percent from Q4 of 2019, the ITSM software company announced on January 27, 2021.

6. Cloud-to-Cloud Backup: A Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup upgrade now features a "fast search and restore experience for Office 365 data, including Teams, Exchange Online, SharePoint, and OneDrive," the company says.

7. Managed SD-WANs: TPx has upgraded its SD-WAN solution, based on the VMware SD-WAN platform, to address:

Work from home through private traffic segmentation;
cloud deployments with virtual managed services routers (vMSRs);
distributed enterprise network scaling with MSR clustering; and
privacy-ready networks with PCI and HIPAA compliance.

B. Channel Chiefs, Partner Programs and Strategic Alliances

1. Partnership - Risk Assessments: Network Detection and Response (NDR)) provider IronNet Cybersecurity has partnered with Unlimited Technology, Exero and DirectDefense to launch an Enterprise Security Program Review. The program analyzes the current and desired future state of an organization's infrastructure against the National Industry Standards and Technology (NIST) cybersecurity controls.

2. Partnership - Cloud Data and Security Analytics: Snowflake will augment its cloud data lakes with Exabeam security analytics and automation. The partnership enables organizations to identify risks and respond to incidents across their entire business ecosystem, the two companies assert.

3. Partnership - Enterprise Applications: Accenture and SAP are partnering to assist customers with SAP S/4HANA cloud migrations, the two companies say.