Monday Morning Impact – July 11

CompTIA Research Reveals Contradictions in Managed Services Market

MSPs tend to expect high revenue growth over the next two years, but nonetheless express anxiety over their role in a market increasingly dominated by cloud computing solutions and by a persistent problem with employee retention. This is according to newly published research by CompTIA, a nonprofit technology trade association based in suburban Chicago.

CompTIA’s Fifth Annual Trends in Managed Services report is based on a survey of more than 400 participating MSPs with an eye toward better understanding their internal operations and external strategies.

Half of all MSPs surveyed expect high revenue growth over the next two years, with services accounting for 75 percent or more of total revenue. But bullishness on future business is tempered by worries about margin erosion. Just over half of the firms cite margin erosion as a factor that keeps them awake at night. Respondents also expressed concern about the potential impacts of cloud computing on their business models, with many fearing that they might one day be displaced by large cloud providers.

Just 54 percent of MSPs offer cloud-based solutions and services as a strategic part of their business, according to the survey. Another 44 percent only support cloud services when request by a customer.

MSPs must also act to stem the persistent problem of employee churn. A majority of firms say in the past year they’ve lost at least one staff technician to an end-user organization’s IT staff.

Channel Impact^®
The rapid evolution of the industry continues to underscore the need for creativity and innovation within the supply chain. Those who manage to place successful bets on the direction of the industry will continue to be more capable of reaping rewards for their foresight.

Nutanix Expands Ecosystem for Enterprise Cloud Platform with Updated Alliance Program

Nutanix, a San Jose-based enterprise cloud computing, vendor, has announced the second generation of its Elevate Technology Alliance Partner Program, delivering new technical designs and marketing/enablement investments.

Through the updated program, the company has rolled out educational updates intended to improve field and channel enablement; upgraded messaging and solution verifications for joint initiatives; updated co-marketing tools; interoperability resources; and technical designations.

“A strong partner ecosystem is key to strengthening access and opportunities for customers to leverage the Nutanix enterprise cloud platform and that’s why we focus so heavily on our joint investments,” said Venugopal Pai, Vice President of Alliances and Business Development at Nutanix. “We actively work with our Elevate partners on a range of activities including marketing events, and with these updates, we are investing even further in enabling field collaboration, channel programs, and demand-generation to drive incomparable value for our Elevate partners, resulting in better results for our joint customers.”

Channel Impact^®
Programs such as this one can be instrumental in gaining additional market traction while also helping partners to better understand the market sub-segment, and how that sub-segment can be integrated into their overall value proposition.

ThousandEyes Announces New Channel Partner Program

ThousandEyes, a San Francisco-based network intelligence company, has rolled out a new channel program designed to enable partners to better support their clients’ cloud-adoption initiatives by providing network visibility and insights into cloud-centric networks and applications.

“The ThousandEyes Channel Partner Program provides the technology, tools and resources to help our partners’ customers effectively migrate to the cloud and monitor their applications and services traversing the Internet,” said Anthony Narducci, Vice President of Sales at ThousandEyes. “By adding network intelligence to their trusted advisor cache, our partners are now better equipped to help customers navigate these added complexities while leveraging a business model that is built for continued success.”

In addition to a channel compensation structure, the new program includes sales and technical training, demand generation initiatives, and support resources.

Channel Impact^®
As cloud and managed services continue to gain market penetration, technology companies that compete in and around this space can be expected to adopt increasingly competitive channel programs as a means of cultivating effective routes to market.