5 Channel Partner Updates: 13 December 2016 -

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Tuesday, December 13, 2016. Actually, there are 18 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… 18. Application Performance Monitoring: Datadog is ranked among the 10 fastest growing companies in North America, according to the Deloitte 2016 Fast 500 list. Datadog is expanding from infrastructure monitoring toward APM -- a move that counters AppDynamics and New Relic... 17. Financial Services Hacks: Cyber attacks targeting SWIFT, a global bank transfer system, have succeeded in stealing funds again, according to an exclusive Reuters report. In fact, the threat is "very persistent, adaptive and sophisticated -- and it is here to stay," the report stated. 16. Google Goes to Cuba: Google signed an agreement with the Cuban government on Monday granting internet users on the Communist-run island quicker access to Google's branded content, Reuters said. The deal links ETECSA, Cuba's state-run telecommunications network, to Google's global cache network. 15. Bill Gates & Clean Energy: Bill Gates and other business leaders are launching a $1 billion clean-technology fund called Breakthrough Energy Ventures. It will invest in companies that develop low-cost, low-carbon technologies. Ironically, I don't think Gates was invited to President-elect Donald Trump's tech CEO gathering, which is set for Wednesday in New York... Gates believes the U.S. can make energy breakthroughs, even under Trump, according to Recode. 14. IT Workers vs. Disney: Roughly 30 former Disney employees filed a lawsuit on Monday, alleging discrimination on the basis of national origin and race. The lawsuit highlights how Disney allegedly replaced its IT workers with H-1B visa workers. The suit arrives just as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to sit down with high tech CEOs in New York. No doubt, U.S. employment and visa-carrying workers will be a topic of discussion at the Trump-led meeting... 13. Cisco Security Strategy: Former OpenDNS founder and CEO David Ulevitch is now Cisco's Security Business Group Leader. What's his overall strategy for the group? We're checking. In the meantime, Cisco SVP David Goeckeler described the company's endpoint security strategy in this video... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iF31uIIMMo 12. New Cisco Partners: During Cisco's annual shareholder meeting yesterday, CEO Chuck Robbins described a new partner ecosystem that's increasingly important to the networking giant. Indeed, Cisco increasingly engages industrial partners -- names like Philips, Hitachi and FANUC (a robot company) for its Internet of Things (IoT) push, Robbins told attendees. The statement reinforces recent findings from The 2112 Group, which described the emerging world of specialized channel partners in a recent report.

11. Cisco Partner Recurring Revenues: How can Cisco partners accelerate their recurring revenues in 2017? Channel Chief Wendy Bahr offers some recurring revenue guidance here. The statement comes within a few days of Cisco unveiling FindIT, a remote monitoring platform for MSPs supporting SMB customers.

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10. Log Management: Loggly, which develops a cloud-based log management service, has launched Gamut Search. The log analysis technology is designed to deliver near instant response for searches over massive data volumes covering long time periods, the company claims. 9. Remote Access: Keep an eye on MyWorkDrive 2.0, a remote file access solution that's seeking too disrupt the crowded file sync, sharing and file server markets... The twist: MyWorkDrive was developed by Intivix, an MSP and IT consulting firm in San Francisco.

8. Partner Program Part I: Hibernia Networks, a provider of global telecommunications services, announces channel partnerships with Bridgepointe Technologies and Cloudwirx, as the company broadens the reach of its indirect sales channel, the company stated.

7. Partner Program Part II: Viavi Solutions named Tecon as its top channel partner for the year. Launched one year ago, the Viavi Velocity Partner Program helps partners to accelerate next-generation networks and services solutions to better serve customers, the company says. 6. CenturyLink Faces ATM, Frame Relay Questions: CenturyLink is defending itself against opposition to its request to discontinue Frame Relay and ATM services in selected territories, citing low usage and vendor equipment support, FierceWireless reported. ATM, short for asynchronous transfer mode, was supposed to dominate the networking scene my the late 1990s. But the high-speed switching technology got derailed once Ethernet evolved to Fast Ethernet, Switched Ethernet and now Gigabit Ethernet. CenturyLink, like many telecom rivals, has been pivoting next-generation network services after failing to compete head-on against Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. 5. Cloud Services for Healthcare IT: Keep an eye on the Concerto Cloud for Healthcare, which features built-in HIPAA compliance from the application down through the physical layer, the company claims. The offering supports hybrid deployment capabilities with integrations across the Concerto private cloud, Microsoft Azure public cloud and on-premises applications, Concerto asserts...

4. Frank Vitagliano's Next Move: Frank Vitagliano is leaving Dell Technologies after a successful run at the technology giant. Vitagliano is well-known across the channel for his pioneering partner approach at IBM, Juniper and Dell. Next up for Vitagliano? Stay tuned. 3. Top 50 Cloud Management Tools: You'll find the Top 50 Cloud Management Tools listed here. Plus, we'll be making some updates to the list based on reader feedback in recent days. Stay tuned.

2. Salesforce IoT Partner Program: CompTIA CEO Todd Thibodeaux and I are meeting Salesforce today to discuss the cloud giant's IoT partner strategy. Among those leading the conversation: Neeracha Taychakhoonavudh, senior VP, partner programs, Salesforce. What will Thibodeaux and I learn? We'll share details soon... 1. Predictions for 2017: You'll find ChannelE2E's top technology predictions for 2017 listed here. New predictions surface daily. Send me your predictions for consideration: [email protected]. More: Read all of our daily 5 Channel Partner Updates. Plus: Subscribe to our daily enewsletter. Thanks to those who already have.