HostedBizz in partnership with Veeam has created a sandbox service for Veeam channel partners. The sandbox allows partners to get educated on Veeam's products in a staged (i.e., non-production) environment. Partners can perform trials, proofs of concept and customer demonstrations in the sandbox. HostedBizz has about 15 employees and has been expanding from Canada to Great Britain, according to Ottawa Business Journal.
ITUtility.net, meanwhile, positions itself as a hosted solutions enabler for Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, Dynamics and various private cloud services. Resellers can white label the services on a month-to-month basis -- essentially avoiding the longer-term contracts that Microsoft Office 365 often requires. The company is based in Ottawa, Ontario.
In theory, the deal will allow HostedBizz to blend SaaS applications and business continuity services. However, we haven't spoken directly with the buyers or sellers. We'll be sure to update this article with more details once we secure them. Special thanks to Ulistic's Stuart Crawford for a heads up about the deal.
Canada: More MSP, CSP Mergers and Acquisitions
Quite a few CSPs and MSPs across Canada have completed mergers and/or acquisitions in 2016. Additional Canadian M&A deals this year have included:
- Accelerated Connections Inc. (ACI) acquired OneConnect Services Inc. and Canopco to push deeper into telecom, cloud, managed and hospitality IT services across Canada.
- CompuVision Systems Inc. and Savvia Inc. — two Canadian MSPs — confirmed their merger in August 2016.
- CTECH Consulting Group and BackupPlan — an IT services specialist and a business continuity specialist — merged in August 2016.
- F12.net acquired Xcel Professional Services in May 2016.
- E.S. Williams & Associates Inc. (ESW) and ITnorth confirmed their merger in April 2016, combining their IT service provider businesses to focus more aggressively on Western Canada.
- TUC Managed IT Solutions and CareWorx confirmed merger plans in February 2016.
Complete M&A Coverage: Track all VAR, MSP and CSP mergers and acquisitions by visiting the ChannelE2E Milestones section daily.