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5 Channel Partner Updates: 20 June 2016

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Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to sip on for Monday, June 20, 2016.

Actually, there are 11 entries for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) to sip on. Take a look…

11. Dell Software Sale?: Rumors about Dell potentially selling Quest Software and SonicWall heated up over the weekend, and a deal could emerge as soon as this week, Reuters reported. SonicWall channel partners, in particular, are seeking clarity as Dell decides which assets to keep -- and what to shed -- ahead of the pending $67 billion M&A deal with EMC Corp.

10. Freshly Funded in FinTech: Plaid Technologies, a builder of infrastructure for financial services companies, just raised $44 million led by Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, continuing the trend of Wall Street banks investing in fintech startups, Blooomberg noted.

9. Shifting Cloud Market Share?: As businesses shift to public cloud services, their platform choices are turning a few heads. Roughly 32 percent of enterprises going to the cloud intend to select Microsoft Azure -- compared to VMware vCloud Air (24 percent) and Amazon Web Services (22 percent), according to HyTrust. We'll share more thoughts on this later today.

8. Partner Programs:

  • Avnet Inc. has expanded its portfolio to include co-location solutions from CoreSite, a provider of data center and interconnection services with direct access to leading cloud providers such as AWS, Google and Microsoft. CoreSite’s services will be available in the Avnet catalog as well as through the Avnet Cloud Marketplace.

  • HCL Infosystems, an IT services company, has agreed to distribute and support Blackberry's Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) software offerings in India. The move comes as BlackBerry also strives to build a next-generation reseller channel for smartphone devices.

  • Pax8, a  value-added cloud distributor, has agree to offer Vision Solutions, which specializes in disaster recovery, high availability, and migration software and services for hybrid data centers. Pax8 is offering ProfitBricks as an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) platform for the Vision Solutions offerings.

7. Climbing the ChartsSYNNEX Corporation is now ranked No. 212 on the Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. companies, up eight positions from the previous year. SYNNEX reported $13.34 billion in revenue for its 2015 fiscal year, and generates a 15.8% year-over-year increase in net income.

6. From RMM To APM: AppDynamics, which promotes a Application Performance Management (APM) tools, has hired Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to prepare for an IPO. For RMM (remote monitoring and management) software providers and MSPs, the pending AppDynamics IPO is another reminder that businesses are increasing their spend on application performance. AppDynamics competes with New Relic, which is already public. Here's what the AppDynamics IPO could mean to MSPs.

5. Cloud Service Brokerages - Hot or Not?: The term cloud services brokerage (CSB) has been around for nearly a decade. And it's making a comeback in some circles. IBM promotes CSBs as a new generation of systems integrators that tie together multiple clouds for customers. But I gotta say: I'm not a fan of the CSB term. I'll explain why later today.

4. Ingram Micro Stock: Anybody else notice that Ingram Micro shares have been trading about 10 percent to 11 below the proposed takeover private that Tianjin Tianhai expects to pay for the distribution giant? The "spread" between current share price and the M&A deal price suggests investors are worried regulators may block the deal. But Bloomberg says the concerns are likely overstated. ChannelE2E's sources say the Ingram company sale is proceeding without any major hitches...

3. DockerCon 2016: Stay tuned for multiple news updates and alliances to surface at this week's DockerCon 2016 conference in Seattle, Wash. We'll share more thoughts on container management for VARs and MSPs soon.

2. Next Stops: We'll be at DattoCon16 on Tuesday and ConnectWise Automation Nation 2016 for LabTech technicians on Wednesday. Stay tuned for live updates from both conferences, each of which will attract several hundred MSPs.

1. Help Wanted: Several new career opportunities have surfaced on the ChannelE2E Job Board. Check out the board for careers at VARs, MSPs and channel-friendly technology companies. Or submit openings at your business.

More: Read all of our daily 5 Channel Partner UpdatesPlusSubscribe to our daily enewsletter. Thanks to those who already have.

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.