Monday Morning Impact – August 24

Gartner: Major Growth in IaaS Public Cloud Services

The worldwide infrastructure as a service (IaaS) market grew 37.3% in 2019 to total $44.5 billion, up from $32.4 billion in 2018, according to Gartner, Inc. Amazon retained the Number 1 position in the IaaS market in 2019, followed by Microsoft, Alibaba, Google and Tencent.

“Cloud underpins the push to digital business, which remains at the top of CIOs’ agendas,” said Sid Nag, research vice president at Gartner. “It enables technologies such as the edge, AI, machine learning and 5G, among others. At the end of the day, each of these technologies require a scalable, elastic and high-capacity infrastructure platform like public cloud IaaS, which is why the market witnessed strong growth.”

According to the report, entitled “Market Share: Enterprise Public Cloud Services, Worldwide, 2019,” the top five IaaS providers in 2019 accounted for 80% of the market, up from 77% in 2018. Three-quarters of all IaaS providers exhibited growth in 2018.

Amazon continued to lead the worldwide IaaS market with an estimated $20 billion of revenue in 2019 and 45% of the total market. Amazon leveraged its No.1 spot in 2018 to build out its capabilities beyond the IaaS layer in the cloud stack and maintain its top position in 2019.

Microsoft remained in the Number 2 position in the IaaS market with more than half of its nearly $8 billion in revenue coming from North America. Microsoft’s IaaS offering grew 57.8% in 2019, as the company leveraged its sales reach and ability to co-sell its Azure offerings with other Microsoft products and services in order to drive adoption.

The dominant IaaS provider in China, Alibaba Cloud, grew 62.4% in 2019 with revenue surpassing $4 billion, up from $2.5 billion in 2018. Alibaba Group will continue to expand its cloud infrastructure business in the coming years and aim to offer cloud-based intelligent solutions to its customers to support their digital transformation process.

China-based Tencent grew its IaaS offering by over 100% in 2019. It is the second largest provider of cloud services in China, after Alibaba.

Google’s IaaS revenue grew from $1.3 billion in 2018 to $2.4 billion in 2019, experiencing 80.1% growth. Google’s cloud services focused on providing organizations with industry specific solutions on robust computing infrastructure. North America accounts for nearly half of Google’s IaaS revenue.

“There will be a continued push of cloud spending as an outcome of the coronavirus pandemic,” said Nag. “When enterprises were compelled to move their applications to the public cloud as a result of the pandemic, they realized the true benefits of public cloud and it is unlikely that they will change course. In the recovery and rebound phase, CIOs are recognizing that they don’t need to bring workloads back on premises, which will further increase cloud spending and drive new applications around cloud-hosted collaboration that incorporate emerging technologies such as virtual reality and immersive video experiences.”

Channel Impact^®
The data underscore the importance of the XaaS movement, especially as the Coronavirus further extends the WFH business model.

Check Point Software Launches Distribution Marketplace Program

Check Point Software, a San Carlos, California-based cybersecurity vendor, has launched its the new Check Point Distribution Marketplace Program, joining with Arrow Electronics and Ingram Micro. The new program delivers enablement, marketing support, flexible financing and consumption models to partners, and builds on the Partner Growth Program launched in January.

“This new program further strengthens our commitment to helping our partners win new business and build even stronger relationships with existing customers,” said Frank Rauch, Check Point’s Head of Worldwide Channels.” We plan to partner with additional marketplace distributors over the coming months to extend the new program.”

Check Point’s ArrowSphere solution is one of the first product lines to be made available through the marketplace. In early September, the company plans to launch an extensive range of Check Point’s CloudGuard cloud protection and SandBlast threat prevention solutions concurrently in 14 European Countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom.

“Cyberattacks continue to increase at rapid pace, and the situation we are currently facing has forced many companies and organizations worldwide to implement additional security layers”, says Eric Nowak, president of Arrow’s enterprise computing solutions business in EMEA. “Following CloudGuard IaaS we are now adding more Check Point security products to ArrowSphere, helping our channel clients and end customers to manage the cloud easily and securely.”

Check Point’s CloudGuard and SandBlast solutions will also be available on the Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace in the U.S., Canada and Netherlands, with further solutions being introduced over the coming months.

Channel Impact^®
Customers are increasingly using cloud marketplaces to get immediate access to solutions and consumption models that adapt to their business needs. They have also emerged as an important source of product access for partners.

D&H Distributing Launches New Business Continuity Initiative

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based D&H Distributing has launched a portfolio of offerings around business continuity–a prominent category in light of COVID-19’s market disruptions. The distributor has created assets, tools, and marketing materials for its partners, including resource guides focused on different verticals, an MSP/VAR checklist, customizable brochures on remote work and WiFi optimization, and turn-key offerings comprising data access and security, remote device management, Infrastructure-as-a-Service, collaboration, UCaaS, and desktop hardware.

The initiative includes a dedicated mini-site providing guidance, tips, statistics, links, and strategies. Assets focus on three main categories: Data Access and Security, Communication, and Desktop Hardware. The site outlines solutions in these areas from major partners like ASUS, Aruba, Axcient, Belkin, Brother, Cisco, Chrome, HP, Kensington, Lenovo, Lexmark, Logitech, MSI, Microsoft, RingCentral, Sophos, and TP-Link. The mini-site includes links to comprehensive Sales Guides, providing product information, strategies, solutions, and prep questions for partners.

The company has also assembled a “Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Guide,” helping partners to market solutions such as health monitoring devices like electronic no-contact thermometers and digital pulse oximeters; sanitization solutions like soap dispensers and stands for hand sanitizer stations; plus wet wipes and “clean kits.”

Various webinars and other virtual engagements will include regular sessions and keynotes that address topics such as remote networks, telework, distance learning, and enhanced home networking connectivity.

Channel Impact^®
These offerings are designed help businesses accommodate a return to safe operations in the new normal.