5 Channel Partner & MSP Market News Updates: 10 March 2023

by Jessica Davis • Mar 10, 2023

TGIF, MSP friends. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more as you get ready for the weekend on this March 10, 2023. Sip up.

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Today’s Technology and MSP Partner Program News

1. OpenAI, coming to software near you soon: ConnectWise, Salesforce, and Microsoft are all incorporating ChatGPT-like functionality from OpenAI in their offerings. Who’s next?  Open AI CEO Sam Altman told an investors conference that the company will focus on building a platform that sells APIs to others, so you are likely to see many more such integrations coming soon.
2. February job numbers from the Labor Department: Payroll employment rose by 311,000 in February, according to the February job report released today by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unemployment rates for information workers edged down slightly during the month from 3.7% a year ago to 3.2% in February 2023. However, monthly wages rose at the slowest pace in a year. For professional and business services workers, unemployment rates were slightly higher than last year’s 3.9%, rising to 4.2%.
3. New channel chief: Zscaler has named Karl Soderlund as its new channel chief. The company, which has recently announced layoffs, poached the executive from Palo Alto Networks. Sonderlund’s official title will be senior vice president, worldwide partners and alliances, and he will be responsible for developing and executing a competitive go-to-market strategy and leading the organization’s channel team.
4. New partnership for cybersecurity service providers: Cloud service deliver and business automation platform RackNap has launched an integration with cyber protection solutions provider Acronis that will enable managed security service providers to offer Acronis to RackNap platform customers.  The integration will enable features such as order provisioning and service delivery process automation.
5. Major tech lender in trouble: Tech lender Silicon Valley Bank experienced a bank run and share selloff yesterday after the bank said it would sell $2.25 billion shares to bolster its capital position after a big loss on its investment portfolio. That’s led to a wider selloff of bank shares. Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal report that some venture capital investors advised their startups to pull their funds out of SVB over fears about liquidity.