Monday Morning Impact – December 5

TD Synnex Industry Benchmark Study Finds North American Businesses Focusing on Next-Gen Solutions

Only 12 percent of North American technology ecosystem business leaders say they will offer augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) solutions by 2024, despite aggregate analyst and financial research forecasting an $800 billion global metaverse market, in the next 24 months. That’s according to the inaugural TD Synnex Ecosystem Benchmark Report which underscores that every business is connected in the global technology ecosystem, as well as the rapid rate of change that has evolved to a state of ongoing transformation.

The report, which provides a 24-36-month outlook, is based on a global industry survey of 300 mid-size technology ecosystem partners, defined as technology companies with 1,000 seats and below. The research examines the expansion of professional and managed IT services, high-growth technology investments, the adoption of the as-a-service consumption model, the AR/VR opportunity gap, and growth drivers.

Seventy-seven percent of North American partners say expanding technology solution offerings is important or very important, with a focus on solutions being directly linked to cloud capabilities, applying consumption-based models, and ensuring solutions are secured. Within 24 months, partners indicate offering various technology solutions including Device as a Service (31 percent), IOT (23 percent), Security (22 percent), Cloud Integration (20 percent), and Cloud Deployment (20 percent).

Partners are making room for professional and managed IT services in their future business mix, anticipating the most increase over 36 months. The survey finds that every category of services is projected to grow.

Partners see the largest decrease in reselling hardware in the next three years, however, most North American partners (78 percent) forecast hardware resale will be fundamental to their business mix.

Networking (18 percent), Endpoint (16 percent), and Services and Storage (10 percent) represent three of the top five revenue drivers for partners. Networking came in as the single most profitable technology for North American partners.

Respondents indicate hardware categories represent the opportunity to attach services, and hardware-based programs, like device-as-a service, creating a virtuous cycle of revenue, which partners are prioritizing as part of their portfolio offerings within the next two years.

While 42% of partners say ESG (environmental, social and governance) activities aren’t applicable to their business, IT business leaders know they need to grow capabilities around sustainability and ESG, with 17 percent expressing the importance of ESG expertise or certification in three years.

North American IT partners signal that collaboration is a high-priority growth strategy, with 59 percent of respondents ranking engaging ecosystem partners as important or very important to future growth. This statistic is tight alignment with the partners who indicate they will enter new vertical markets to grow (60 percent). Respondents also see an increasing need for expertise in government, healthcare, education, and financial services over the next three years.

Channel Impact^®
The report offers insights every type of IT channel partner can use to make smart investments in their businesses, expand strategically and accelerate the adoption of emerging technologies.

Trend Micro: One-third of Global Organizations Were Breached More than Seven Times in the Past Year

Trend Micro Incorporated, a Dallas-based cybersecurity vendor, announced that 32% of global organizations have had customer records compromised multiple times over the past 12 months as they struggle to profile and defend an expanding attack surface.

The findings come from Trend Micro’s semi-annual Cyber Risk Index (CRI) report, compiled by the Ponemon Institute from interviews with over 4,100 organizations across North America, Europe, Latin/South America, and Asia-Pacific.

Top cyber threats in 1H 2022 include Business Email Compromise (BEC), Clickjacking, Fileless attacks, Ransomware, and Login attacks (Credential Theft).

“You can’t protect what you can’t see,” said Jon Clay, VP of threat intelligence at Trend Micro. “But with hybrid working ushering in a new era of complex, distributed IT environments, many organizations are finding it difficult to eradicate growing security coverage and visibility gaps.”

The CRI calculates the gap between organizational preparedness and the likelihood of being attacked, with -10 representing the highest level of risk. The global CRI index moved from –0.04 in 2H 2021 to –0.15 in 1H 2022, indicating a surging level of risk over the past six months.

This trend is also reflected elsewhere in the data: the number of global organizations experiencing a “successful” cyber-attack increased from 84% to 90% over the same period. Unsurprisingly, the number now expected to be compromised over the coming year has also increased from 76% to 85%.

Some of the top preparedness risks highlighted by the index report are related to attack surface discovery capabilities. It is often challenging for security professionals to identify the physical location of business-critical data assets and applications.

By addressing the shortage of cybersecurity professionals and improving security processes and technology, organizations will significantly reduce their vulnerability to attacks.

Channel Impact^®
The data provide a compelling snapshot of how global organizations perceive their security posture and the likelihood of being attacked. Respondents pointed to the high cost of outside expertise, damage to critical infrastructure, and lost productivity as the main negative consequences of a breach.

Rubrik Unveils Ransomware Recovery Offering

Rubrik, a Palo Alto-based company specializing in Zero Trust security, has rolled out “Rubrik Cyber Recovery” to help organizations improve their cyber readiness and recovery. Available as part of Rubrik Security Cloud, the new offering adds simplified methodologies to test, validate, and document an organization’s cyber recovery plans. It also provides businesses a way to instantly recover the last known clean copy of data into production while performing forensic investigations out-of-band in an isolated recovery environment.

Customers can test whether their recovery playbook works, including sequence, timing, and failure points. They can download reports about recovery performance on-demand to prove that regular testing of cyber recovery capabilities is taking place. The offering also enables organizations to conduct forensic investigations on infected snapshots in isolated environments while they restore business continuity quickly using a last known good snapshot.

“IT and security teams are faced with increasing pressure to ensure they can recover from a cyberattack, and yet boards and leadership teams lack confidence in their ability to do so,” said Dan Rogers, President of Rubrik. “Rubrik Cyber Recovery can help boost board and leadership confidence by not only enabling organizations to achieve safer, predictable recovery from cyber events, but also enabling IT and Security teams to prove preparedness. These advancements in Rubrik Security Cloud continue to strengthen customers’ defenses in securing their data.”

Channel Impact^®
Organizations are struggling to prepare for and respond to increasingly inevitable ransomware attacks and other cyber incidents. This offering enables organizations to gain more visibility into ransomware impacts and exposures.