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5 Channel Partner Updates: 21 Oct 2015

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Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, gossip, chatter and plenty more to start your day for Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2015. Actually, today's update involves 15 items for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs) and cloud services providers (CSP) to sip on. 15. Breaking News -- This Just In: Western Digital is buying SanDisk for $19 billion. The deal is expected to close in Q3 2016. "Demand for cheaper chips and new products to power Internet-connected gadgets, as well as a push from technology companies to consolidate suppliers, has led to record levels of dealmaking in the semiconductor sector this year," CNBC asserted. Yada, yada, yada... Storage M&A will accelerate as more workloads shift to cloud, mobile and the Internet of Things. 14. EMC Challenges, Opportunities: EMC released slightly weaker than expected 3Q 2015 results this morning. Revenue in the company's core Information Infrastructure business fell 3 percent. A potential bright spot involved Pivotal, where Q3 revenue grew 16 percent. But it's far too soon to call that business a hyper-growth opportunity. EMC says Pivotal's annual recurring revenue at the end of Q3 was $75 million -- or less than $7 million per month. The results come as Dell prepares to complete the $67 billion buyout of EMC by May 2016. 13. EMC and VMware's New Business: The companies spinning are out Virtustream. It sounds like the focus will be a combination IaaS provider and MSP. I'll share more thoughts soon.
gavriella schuster
Gavriella Schuster
12. Microsoft Surface Resellers: The company says 5,000 resellers now offer Microsoft Surface devices to customers. The majority of those partners are VAR-type businesses, according to Gavriella Schuster, general manager of Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Group. Schuster shared more details with ChannelE2E last evening. We'll offer more insights from the conversation soon. 11. Cloud Services Win: Not sure how to market your customer wins? Follow the lead of Fusion, a cloud services provider (CSP) that's promoting a $1.5 million, three-year cloud services contract with a "leading health insurance organization." The news release says just enough about Fusion's expertise and the customer win -- without actually revealing the customer's name. 10. More File and Sync: ownCloud has launched a hybrid cloud-based file and sync service. Customers can choose their cloud storage service (I assume that includes all the major names...) while also offering on-premises security and control. I don't know how it compares to channel-friendly file sync services like Autotask File Synchronization and Sharing), eFolder File Sync and Intronis ECHOshare, among others.
Ginni Rometty Ginni Rometty
9. IBM's Journey: After more weak quarterly results, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty defended her leadership of the company and the pace of change at IBM. "I run the company for the long term," Rometty said at a conference yesterday. "It's about building a company that is sturdy and moves to higher value." Agreed. But as I've said before, Rometty moved too slowly during her first two years as CEO (2012-2013), trying to meet Wall Street earnings and not focusing rapidly enough on the shift from hardware and software to cloud services... 8. SolarWinds at Oracle OpenWorld: N-able parent SolarWinds will show off its database performance tuning capabilities during Oracle OpenWorld next week. It's a timely reminder that N-able's MSPs could be pushing far beyond traditional infrastructure management... More: See Items 7 through 1 — including a quick check of Cisco's channel pipeline sales; the MSP engaging nonprofits; Gartner's top IT trends for 2016; and a new approach to cloud application monitoring. Page 2 of 2: Today's top channel partner updates, continued: 7. Cisco Security Shows Channel Momentum: After a "long period of underperforming peers," Cisco's security solutions enjoy growing momentum among resellers, according to Wall Street analyst firm William Blair. At the same time, Cisco's Nexus 9K data center switches and ACI software defined networking have momentum, the research note stated. True believers include Logicalis, a major MSP that's expanding its Cisco support capabilities.
Chuck Lennon Chuck Lennon
6. MSPs Serving Nonprofit Organizations: Last week, ChannelE2E told you how CCB Technology revolutionized software licensing in the nonprofit vertical. Now, TeamLogic IT is taking similar steps in the MSP market -- where franchises are promoting managed services to nonprofit customers. The company expects to open 25 new TeamLogic IT offices in the US this year, and that figure will rise in 2016, TeamLogic IT President Chuck Lennon tells ChannelE2E. 5. Careful of the Hybrid Cloud Hype: Yes, I believe in the hybrid cloud. Spending in that area is growing about 27 percent annually, according to Gartner. But if you look more closely at the numbers, I think you'll see all the "new" spending is actually a blend of public cloud services plus traditional on-premises spending that's simply reclassified as the hybrid wave. Buying a server? Must be for hybrid. Need a new network router? Surely that's for hybrid. Putting in a WiFi network? That's hybrid, too -- right? By now, you get the picture... 4. Death of Unicorns: You know all those startups valued at $1 billion or more? A few months ago, as you may recall, I warned that many startup Unicorns would die. Now, venture capitalist Bill Gurley says those Unicorns are really only worth about 20 to 30 percent of their valuations... Ouch. 3. In Case You Missed It: During yesterday's edition of Tech News Today, Mike Elgan and I waxed poetic about the new Star Wars trailer before moving onto the news of the day: Google's new delivery drone efforts; Uber's mapping strategy; and plenty more. Take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzExFv5_m_k 2. Gartner's Top IT Trends for 2016: You can find Gartner's Top IT Trends for 2016 here. ChannelE2E will weigh in with related thoughts soon.
Phillip Liu Phillip Liu
1. New Approaches to Cloud Monitoring: How can MSPs effectively monitor applications across multiple clouds? SignalFx CTO Phillip Liu offers some answers in ChannelE2E Podcast Episode 048. Liu built a range of monitoring systems during his time at Facebook. Fast forward to present day, and SignalFx has attracted venture capital as the company strives to ease application management via monitoring as a service. Read Them All: Did you miss one of our 5 Channel Partner Observations? Find the archive here hereSubscribe: Receive ChannelE2E’s blog headlines, insights and updates in your inbox daily. Subscribe to our 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.