Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to sip on for Wednesday, May 11, 2016.
Actually, there are 13 entries for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) to sip on. Take a look…
13. IT Nation Europe: ConnectWise has confirmed plans for IT Nation Europe 2017, a partner summit built built specifically for the company's European customers and IT service providers. And yes, the IT Nation global summit in Orlando, Fla., continues forward -- dates for that are already set for 2016, 2017 and beyond.
12. Synnex: Keep an eye on CloudSolv, the cloud services partner organization within Synnex. Upside surprises coming? Hmmm...
11. IT Services - Franchise Momentum: TeamLogic IT's franchises increased their Q1 revenues an average of 26 percent vs. Q1 2015. The figure represents comparable office sales across nearly 100 North American locations. Systemwide, revenues grew 40 percent in 2015, TeamLogic IT President Chuck Lennon said.
10. Global Expansion: Nation-E, which specializes in cybersecurity solutions for industrial infrastructure and smart grids, has opened new offices in Silicon Valley and New York City’s financial district. The Silicon Valley location is the company's U.S. headquarters, and the New York location is a showroom for the company’s technology with a strong focus on building management systems for new clients.
9. Salesforce IoT on Amazon: Salesforce.com Inc. is building its new Internet of Things service atop Amazon Web Services (AWS), the latest sign that SaaS cloud giants see AWS as effective compute infrastructure. Several Salesforce customers are testing the IoT cloud services, with an official launch expected sometime mid-2016.
8. Slack & Identity Management: Slack, the wildly popular office collaboration platform, is getting into the identity management business. Frankly, I don't care who solves the password management problem -- as long as it gets solved...
7. HP Venture Capital: HP Inc. has launched a corporate venture arm to invest in startups that have cutting edge technologies. HP Tech Ventures, in theory, will help HP Inc. to eventually reduce its dependence on traditional PC and printer revenues. The effort is not to be confused with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), which remains focused on data center, servers, storage, networking and other big business technologies.
6. Coding Doesn't Cure All: Become a coder and you'll escape poverty, make lots of money and live happily ever after. That theme has become common in recent years, especially as coding schools help to train thousands of programmers for IT job openings. Still, Basel Farag, an Apple iOS developer, has a slightly different view of the market. Among his key points: The line between learning to code and getting paid to program as a profession is not an easy line to cross.
5. Partner Programs & Channel Chiefs: Recent moves include...
- Ixia, a provider of network testing, visibility, and security solutions, has launched the Xceed program to "accelerate the sales cycle for the company’s technology partners, to provide implementation guidance for integrated solutions, and to create faster time-to-value for customers and channel partners."
- Data Storage Corporation, a cloud services provider, has hired Larry Robinson has joined the company as vice president, business development. Robinson, a Cablevision Lightpath veteran, will oversee the company's distribution channel.
- Salesforce has updated its marketing cloud partner program efforts. Watch for the changes to kick in around June 30.
4. Leadership: IGEL Technology, which develops workspace management software and thin clients, has hired Jed Ayres as president and CEO for IGEL North America, effective June 1, 2016. The AppSense veteran will focus heavily on channel developments.
3. Workspace as a Service: Ease Technologies Inc., a managed service provider in Maryland, has embraced independenceIT's workspace as a service platform. The self-branded Ease Cloud Workspace service gives users access to applications, desktops and data from any computing device.
2. Entrepreneurs & the Election: Roughly 94 percent of small business owners plan to vote in the presidential election, but only 55 percent have chosen a candidate. Also, 87 percent of respondents do not feel that candidates have addressed small business issues enough in the campaign thus far, according to a survey of more than 1,000 small business owners by Guidant Financial and MyCorporation. If the election were held today, the majority of respondents would choose Donald Trump, with only 19 percent voting for Hillary Clinton. Still, the stats shift significantly as you examine various voter profiles.
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