Monday Morning Impact – April 15

Study: Majority of CIOs and CISOs Fear Critical Updates

New research suggests that CIOs and CISOs around the world have held back from implementing critical security measures. According to a survey conducted by Tanium, an Emeryville, California-based security platform vendor, 81 percent of respondents said that they have refrained from adopting an important security update or patch, due to concerns about the impact it might have on business operations. More than half reported they had done so on more than one occasion.

The Global Resilience Gap study discovered that a lack of visibility across endpoints – laptops, servers, virtual machines, containers, or cloud infrastructure – is preventing organizations from making confident decisions, operating efficiently, and remaining resilient against disruptions. Almost one-third (32 percent) of respondents said that departments and business leaders work in silos, leaving them with a lack of visibility and control over IT operations. And this has directly affected the business, with the majority (80 percent) of CIOs and CISOs having found out that a critical update or patch they thought had been deployed had not actually updated all devices.

In addition to visibility issues, 94 percent of the respondents said that they have to make compromises in how well they are able to protect their organizations from disruptions to technology, including cyber threats and outages. When asked about the key reasons for making these compromises, one-third of those surveyed cited pressure to keep the lights on, with almost one-third suggesting that a focus on implementing new systems takes precedence over protecting existing business assets. Otherwise, over a quarter cited that being hamstrung by legacy IT commitments restricted their security efforts, and 23 percent suggested that internal politics was the key driver.

A lack of understanding of the need for business and technology resilience among other leaders across an organization was identified as a key factor in pressuring CIOs and CISOs to make compromises in their efforts to maintain resilience against disruption. Almost half (47 percent) of the CIOs and CISOs surveyed said that they face challenges because other business units do not grasp how important technology resilience is to the company.

“Our research shows that CIOs and CISOs are having to hold off on making crucial updates due to concerns about the impact it might have on business operations,” said Tanium CTO Ryan Kazanciyan. “Given that global cyber-attacks such as WannaCry were catalyzed by poor security hygiene, organizations need to ensure that they can confidently effect change to protect critical assets, monitor impact, and recover from the unexpected.”

Tanium commissioned independent market research specialist Censuswide to undertake the study of 504 Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) in companies of 1000+ employees in the UK, US, Germany, France and Japan were surveyed in Q4 2018.

Channel Impact^®
As organizations look to build a strong security and compliance culture, it is essential that IT operations and security teams unite around a common set of actionable data for true visibility and control.

Tech Data and Tata Launch Consumer Intelligence Platform

Tech Data has partnered with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to provide allied partners in the U.S. with a platform that simplifies the management of customer data to provide actionable business insights.

Developed by the TCS Digital Software & Solutions Group and delivered through a subscription model via the cloud, the platform captures and connects insights from a wide variety of internal and external sources, including IoT devices, and delivers real-time, highly relevant and hyper-personalized customer experiences.

Launched in 2014, TCS Digital Software & Solutions Group helps customers in the Banking/Financial Services, Retail, Communications and Cities verticals undergo digital transformations with industry-tailored licensed software and solutions. These four markets have a particularly urgent need to adopt emerging technologies to enhance customer intelligence capabilities and rapidly shift product and service offerings to enhance competitiveness, according to TCS.

“The hyper-personalized experiences that TCS can deliver will offer our partners a strong advantage in the marketplace as businesses in these consumer-facing industries look to connect with customers in meaningful ways,” said Colin Blair, vice president, Analytics and IoT Solutions, Americas at Tech Data. “These capabilities, coupled with the subscription delivery model, will provide our partners with not only a valuable solution for maximizing the impact of customer data, but also the ability to help transition their business models from simply reselling products to offering high-value, IP-based recurring subscription services.”

The move is intended to help Tech Data channel partners more effectively engage recurring revenue streams.

Channel Impact^®
Companies in every industry are struggling to monetize the massive amount of data being collected, in order to gain deeper insights into the needs and business practices of their customers. The new platform is expected to accelerate and make it easier for partners to use advanced data insights that can lead to additional installation, support services and revenue.

NetSuite Increases Investment in Partner Ecosystem for Cloud ERP

NetSuite has rolled out a new partner engagement initiative aimed at enabling new partners to start selling and delivering NetSuite to customers in 90 days. Marketed as “SuiteLife,” the initiative also includes components to help existing partners expand their NetSuite practice.

“The rate at which customers are moving ERP to the cloud is at an all-time high and our partner ecosystem plays a critical role in helping us meet this demand,” said Craig West, VP of Alliances and Channels at Oracle NetSuite. “By making it easier than ever for partners to join, succeed and grow in the NetSuite ecosystem, we are putting the power of the NetSuite platform into the hands of more organizations across the world.”

SuiteLife delivers certified training and tools and other resources designed to enable NetSuite partners to specialize around specific business functions, product areas and industries. The initiative provides access to a pre-configured industry cloud solution, a structured program that helps partners expedite the roll out and delivery of new products, access to NetSuite’s library of training and network of industry experts, and related enablement, tools, assets and support.

The NetSuite Partner Program includes global and regional systems integrators, finance and business advisory firms, and technology consulting providers, including Deloitte Digital, Capgemini, RSM and Eide Bailly. The company claims more than 16,000 customers in 203 countries and dependent territories.

Channel Impact^®
In many respects, effective channel enablement has evolved as the new frontier of channel programs, as products and solutions become more complex and tightly integrated.