5 Channel Partner Updates: 6 February 2017 -

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Monday, February 6, 2017. 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. Tech vs. President Trump: Several technology giants, including Apple, Google and Microsoft, banded together on Sunday to file a legal brief opposing President Donald Trump's temporary immigration ban, arguing that it "inflicts significant harm on American business," Reuters reported. 17. President Trump & Small Business Fallout: Imagine the following scenario. You're invited to an SMB leader meeting hosted by President Trump. Maybe you agree with his policies. Maybe you firmly oppose them. Regardless of where you stand, you attend the meeting because it's a unique opportunity to express your SMB policy concerns to the President of the United States. The question: Can you avoid the potential fallout that many meetings now cause? 16. Small Business Optimism: Small business owners are feeling more positive about 2017 than the general public, according to research from New York Life. Technology (75 percent), the new political landscape (57 percent) and the employment market (56 percent) are inspiring that optimism. 15.Managed Print Services: Will SteadyPrint somehow play a role in managed print services? Hmmm... 14. SMB Podcast: Check out SMB Jumpstreet, a podcast for technology consultants -- by technology consultants. And don't forget about the ChannelE2E Podcast... 13. Windows 10 Cloud vs. Chromebooks: Microsoft is preparing yet another response to Google ChromeOS and Chromebooks. It's called Windows 10 Cloud or just Windows Cloud, depending on whom you ask... 12. Microsoft Azure Management: Looking for a way to more effectively manage Microsoft Azure cloud workloads? Check out Microsoft's overhauled Azure Marketplace.

11. ShoreTel vs. Avaya: ShoreTel CEO Don Joos says his company will capitalize on Avaya's "death spiral" -- a reference to Avaya's current Chapter 11 bankruptcy status. Still, Avaya has vowed to eventually emerge from bankruptcy as a stronger company. Moreover, ShoreTel itself has been trying to sell itself since about August 2016. Bottom Line: It's a strange time for Joos to be slinging mud at another company. But wait. More content awaits you on page 2. Proceed to page two now and sip up the remaining items... Welcome to page two. Enjoy a second serving of channel content -- items 10 to 1 -- here. 10. Datadog & Pusher Integration: Pusher is a hosted platform that lets developers build real-time features into apps. You can now add Pusher as an integration on Datadog and monitor your real-time connections and messages, the company says. Datadog specializes in infrastructure monitoring. The company is preparing to officially launch application performance monitoring (APM) to compete with AppDynamics, Dynatrace, New Relic and others. 9. Google G Suite Management: Google has enhanced G Suite's management capabilities in recent days. The enhancements focus on security key enforcement; data loss prevention and analytics. 8. AWS Revenues: They keep growing and growing...

Mergers and Acquisitions

Lots of deals have been confirmed in recent days. Here's a sampling of them... 7. M&A - CSP Acquisition: Cloud services provider Inabox has acquired Hostworks in Australia. We'll share more details soon. 6. M&A - IT Services & Software: Vista Equity Partners has completed the buyout of Sungard's Public Sector and Education businesses for $850. The K-12 education business now merges with PowerSchool, another business that Vista owns. And the Sungard public sector business becomes its own business (I think). The moves are not to be confused with Sungard Availability Services, which works closely with MSPs. 5. M&A - Colocation: Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners has acquired Cologix, a colocation provider. We'll share more details soon. 4. M&A - IT Services: NetAccess Systems Inc. has acquired Sunpark Consulting Group (also known as Network Partners), an IT consulting company. Yup, we'll share more details soon. 3. M&A - Distribution: ALSO Holding AG has acquired Internet Smartsec, a Finnish importer and value-added distributor of security and network products. By now you likely know: We'll share more details soon. 2. M&A - Database Cloud: Stratoscale, the cloud infrastructure company that delivers an AWS-region within the data center, today acquired Tesora, a privately held database-as-a-service (DBaaS) provider that fulfills the promise of DBaaS from any public, private or hybrid cloud computing platform. Stay tuned for... more details.

1. Office 365 Security for Fun and Profit: How can you safeguard Microsoft Office 365 for end-customers -- while profiting from add-on services? AppRiver Channel Sales Manager Justin Gilbert shares answers during out March 16 Webcast. Register now. More: Read all of our daily 5 Channel Partner Updates. Plus: Subscribe to our daily enewsletter. Thanks to those who already have.