5 things

5 Channel Partner Updates: 14 July 2017

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Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Friday, July 14, 2017.

Actually, there are 10 timely updates 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…

10. Gartner IT Spending Concerns?: First, the good news. Global spending on IT solutions and services will grow 2.4 percent in 2017 vs. 2016, Gartner predicts. The bad news? Gartner had previously predicted a 3.0 percent growth rate. We'll share more thoughts soon...

9. Micro Focus Concerns: Micro Focus is expected to finalize the buyout of certain HP Enterprise software assets on September 1. Investors are worried about the deal pressuring MicroFocus's overall business, and company shares are therefore under pressure. Micro Focus Executive Chairman Kevin Loosemore says there's “no logical reason” for the drop in the company's share price...

8. More PC Market Weakness?: Following a lack-luster Q2 for PCs, the manufacturing data out of Asia suggest a weaker-than-normal Q3, says Cowen analyst Timothy Arcuri, and one below Intel's forecast, according to Barron's.

7. Prepare for Solar Power Outage: If solar power disappears for a few hours do you have backup for it? The scenario sounds far-fetched until you consider this: The eclipse set to darken skies on August 21 threatens to sideline solar farms and rooftop panels in a wide swath of the U.S., wiping out enough power generation to supply about 7 million homes, according to Bloomberg. In raw terms, the solar blackout will be like nine nuclear reactors going dark for a bit, the report says...

6. AT&T Leadership:  AT&T Inc. is planning major organizational changes to follow the $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc., including a redefined role for Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson, as the telecommunications giant morphs into a media company, Bloomberg asserts.

5. IBM Watson Can't Keep Up?: Here's a potentially alarming report for IBM shareholders. Despite all the IBM Watson hype, the company won't be able to keep up with cloud-based artificial intelligence technology from Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and Google, according to Jefferies and Co. In fact, the company claims Watson is unlikely to ever pay off financially for IBM.

4. Offshore IT Outsourcing: While Tata announced weak profits earlier this week, Infosys actually raised net income 1 percent in its most recent quarter. Also, Infosys raised its revenue outlook for upcoming quarters -- suggesting that the company's digital strategy can withstand potential Trump Administration outsourcing policies.

3. M&A: Accenture has acquired Clearhead, a digital optimization company based in Austin, Texas, to strengthen the personalization services of Accenture Interactive. Financial terms were not disclosed. Clearhead, which has about 70 employees, helps companies to continuously test, redesign and personalize digital customer experiences and digital products to optimize business outcomes.

2. DRaaS: Proact, a data center and cloud services provider in Europe, has embraced Zerto to expand the company's disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) offerings. 

OwnBackup CEO Sam Gutmann
Sam Gutmann

1. Funding: OwnBackup, led by former Intronis CEO Sam Gutmann, has raised $7.5 million in Series B funding led by Insight Venture Partners. OwnBackup's revenues grew 330% in 2016 vs. 2015, though the company didn't disclose actual dollar figures. The company offers backup, restore and replication services for Salesforce, ServiceNow, Slack and other SaaS applications. Key partner targets include systems integrators and ISVs. We'll share more thoughts later today. PS: By the way, OwnBackup investor Insight Venture Partners also owns Kaseya... Just sayin'.

Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.

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