Four things we learned this month

1. Trump is ruffling feathers in tech

Just a few weeks into his presidency, Donald Trump made his mark in the technology space. His Executive Order on immigration sparked outrage from around the US and indeed the globe, and parts of the tech industry were quick to make their thoughts known too.

Microsoft and Google immediately launched statements speaking out against the move, and later joined forces with almost 100 other tech firms to launch a legal battle against the ban.

And Trump's presence is being felt on home turf too, with a Privacy Act clause in another order ruling that privacy rights are limited to US citizens or permanent residents. This led UK firms to beat the drum for their own locally hosted services.

2. Everyone wants to be a digital transformation expert

Anyone who has been to a vendor partner conference in the last year will know that digital transformation (DX)has been a cornerstone of CEOs' presentations, as many vendors try to rebrand as digital specialists. Partners, on the other hand, have preferred to be known as MSPs, or even the slightly vague "solution provider".

Until now, that is, when resellers are making it clear they too want to be seen as DX specialists. Computacenter suggested last year that it wanted to be known as a digital services enabler, and last month, Daisy said it is rebranding to be known as a digital services provider, or DSP.

The channel loves an acronym, and after VARs, VADs, MSPs, ISVs, OEMs and CSPs, it seems the time has come for the DSP.

3. No vendor is too big to fail

The fall into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month of comms giant Avaya provided a stark reminder that no vendor is too big to hit the skids.

However, Avaya said it did not expect "any material disruptions" during the process - which it is undergoing to reduce debt - while partners leapt to its defence.

"It's better than a fragmentation because the rumours have been kicking around for weeks about either a Chapter 11 or a fragmentation - in others words the thing getting broken up," said Jeremy Butt, EMEA vice president of Westcon, one of the comms vendor's largest distributors. "For the channel and for the customers it's good that the thing is still in one piece."

4. Another Windows migration looms

Three years ago the channel went into meltdown in the 12 months leading up to the end of life of Windows XP. The one-year migration campaign was awash with security warnings from Microsoft itself, as well as migration specialists.

Now it seems the migration campaign is starting up again, for Windows 7 this time. The OS is due to reach the end of its life in 2020 -less than three years away. To kick things off, Microsoft Germany published a blog saying that Windows 7 is no longer up to facing modern-day security threats, and that Windows 10 is the only way to go to be secure. Although Microsoft clearly has something to gain from beating the drum for Windows 10, analyst Clive Longbottom said the firm has a point.