Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Monday, December 12, 2016.
Actually, there are 13 timely entries for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs), independent software vendors (ISVs), telco master agents and telco agents to sip on. Take a look…
13. Channel Partner Programs: Zyxel Communications, a provider of secure broadband networking, has enhanced its Freedom Program to make it more profitable for VARs, the company claims.
12. A.I. Replaces Human Help Desks?: Artificial intelligence will replace 80 percent of IT help desk positions over the next few years, according to Anoj Pillai, chief architect at UST Global. With that theme in mind, we're watching to see how chat bots potentially reinvent IT help desks.
11. SEC Small Business Advocate: The SEC is launching an Office of the Small Business Advocate. The new office could help the SEC to "better understand small business barriers when accessing capital, and how proposed rules and regulations will impact their costs and competitiveness," according to the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council.
10. Top 10 Business Continuity Disasters in the UK: Look closely here and you'll find the list for 2016.
9. eRate Policy Change?: The longstanding eRate government program allows IT service providers to more effectively source and deploy technology for schools and libraries. But should eRate be used to fund residential broadband? Hmmm...
8. Fastest Growing Server Company: Inspur servers shipments grew 28 percent year-over-year during the first three quarters of 2016, according to Gartner. Moreover, Inspur has been the server revenue market leader in the China market for six out of the past nine quarters...
7. Kaseya's Top Australia & New Zealand MSPs: Here's the list.
6. Github Layoffs: Alas, they're confirmed. Track all technology industry layoffs here.
5. Business Relocation: CompuCom Systems Inc. will move from Dallas to South Carolina in a $41 million project that becomes Lancaster County’s largest-ever economic development announcement, according to local media reports.
4. Cisco vs. Arista: Arista Networks used rival Cisco Systems networking technology in its Ethernet switches without permission, a U.S. trade judge ruled on Friday, handing Cisco yet another win in a sprawling legal battle over patents between the two companies, Reuters reported.
3. GoDaddy Security for Small Businesses: GoDaddy has expanded its partnership with SiteLock, a cloud-based website security solutions company. GoDaddy will now offer two new website security features, TrueShield WAF and TrueSpeed CDN. The new features are designed to “make it easier for small business owners to protect their websites, while still operating smoothly,” SmallBizTrends noted.
2. Trump's Tech Summit: Some of the technology industry's biggest names -- Tim Cook, Larry Page, Sheryl Sandberg and perhaps even Jeff Bezos -- are set to meet President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower on Wednesday, according to Recode. No doubt, Trump and many of the expected attendees have sharply different views on technology, global trade, employment, freedom of the press, taxes, and plenty more. Other than those issues it should be a ho-hum meeting...
1. Help Wanted: G2 Technology Group and Trusted Metrics are seeking to fill these positions. Need to find talent? Post your open positions on the ChannelE2E Job Board, which is free to all channel-friendly companies.
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