Private equity technology investment firm Thoma Bravo LLC continued its sweep of security and other key channel companies with an agreement to acquire Imperva Inc. for $2.1 billion.
Imperva, which specializes in protection of data and applications on-premises and in the cloud, announced the agreement on Tuesday. The deal would leave the current executive team in place and keep its headquarters in Redwood Shores, Calif. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 11, 20180 comments
Over the weekend, Microsoft pulled the latest version of Windows 10 and other version 1809 operating systems, just four days after releasing them.
"We have paused the rollout of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update (version 1809) for all users as we investigate isolated reports of users missing some files after updating," Microsoft said in a statement on its support site. As of Monday afternoon, Microsoft had not released a new update. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 08, 20180 comments
Microsoft hosted a media event in New York City on Tuesday to reveal three new devices in its Surface line of PCs, as well as complementary headphones and a new consumer financing program.
The new devices were the Surface Studio 2, the Surface Pro 6 and the Surface Laptop 2, all of which became available to pre-order on Tuesday. The Surface Pro 6 and Surface Laptop 2 will start shipping on Oct. 16. The Surface Studio 2 starts shipping Nov. 15. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 02, 20180 comments
Ron Huddleston, a senior channel executive at several high-profile technology companies, including Microsoft, where he was a central figure in the major channel reorganization last year, died on Friday.
Huddleston's current professional role was chief partner officer at Twilio, the San Francisco-based cloud communications platform company. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 02, 20180 comments
- Access the 2018 application form here.
We are taking applications starting today for the 6th annual RCP/Rocket Awards sponsored by Redmond Channel Partner magazine and Revenue Rocket Consulting Group.
The 2018 award is open to all U.S.-based Microsoft partners, with annual revenues between $5 million and $100 million and whose innovative business strategies resulted in sustained growth over three years (2016, 2017 and through the first three quarters of 2018). More
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 01, 20180 comments
Microsoft introduced a plethora of new technologies for customers and partners to test and evaluate this week in the form of significant previews for a new version of its flagship database, several big advances in the Azure public cloud, and a number of more targeted cloud enhancements and tools.
The batch of preview releases came during the Microsoft Ignite conference this week in Orlando, Fla. While the preview technologies aren't yet supported or touted as production-ready, their delivery marks the key milestone when a product goes from slideware to something concrete. (For coverage of technologies hitting general availability at Ignite, see this roundup.) More
Posted by Scott Bekker on September 27, 20180 comments
Partners will leave Microsoft Ignite this week with more than a dozen new generally available (GA) technologies to sell or build offerings on, ranging from the latest version of Windows Server to strategic Internet of Things (IoT) offerings to a number of Azure services and features.
Kicking off its flagship IT conference Monday morning with a keynote by CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft released details on more than a dozen major products, services and frameworks. While Microsoft's product cycle has kept pace with industry trends to become more fluid in recent years, GA is still a key milestone that signals a product will be fully supported in production environments. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on September 24, 20180 comments
New modules coming to Dynamics 365, Microsoft's business applications suite, promise to help businesses access cutting-edge AI and mixed reality technologies to solve their everyday problems.
Microsoft showcased five new apps for Dynamics 365 on Tuesday that integrate everyday business tasks with either the AI capabilities that increasingly permeate the Azure cloud or the mixed reality promise of the Microsoft HoloLens visor-based computer and Windows Mixed Reality immersive headsets from OEMs. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on September 18, 20180 comments
Software-defined perimeter (SDP) specialist Meta Networks on Monday launched a formal partner program.
SDP is an emerging area in IT security, with analysts at Gartner last year identifying it as one of the top 10 security approaches to keep an eye on. Generally replacing virtual private networks, an SDP uses software-defined policies to put users at the center of the network security model, identifying those users in policies and determining what resources they can access. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on September 17, 20180 comments
Microsoft is battening down the hatches of its Azure infrastructure in advance of Hurricane Florence's approach to the U.S. East Coast.
As of Thursday afternoon, Florence was a Category 2 hurricane that was pounding the Carolinas from offshore with damaging waves and high winds that have already left tens of thousands of customers without power. The U.S. National Weather Service was forecasting that the storm would make landfall sometime late Thursday or early Friday with a storm surge equivalent to a higher-category hurricane, followed by catastrophic amounts of rain. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on September 13, 20180 comments
AccountabilIT, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., acquired Little Rock, Ark.-based ClearPointe Technologies this week in an acquisition that brings two managed service providers (MSPs) together.
WestView Capital Partners provided financing for the transaction. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on September 13, 20180 comments
Microsoft is prepping a new service to reduce friction involved in migrating applications to Windows 10 and Office 365.
The service, dubbed Desktop App Assure, will be delivered as a component of FastTrack, Microsoft's internal migration desk for moving customers to its cloud platforms. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on September 06, 20180 comments