Monday Morning Impact – February 17

Published On: February 16, 2025Categories: Buzz

IDC: IT Distribution Revenues Return to Growth in Q4

Fourth quarter distributor revenues grew 2.3% year-over-year, landing at $21.4 billion, but this solid end to the year was not enough to outweigh weaker sales in earlier quarters, and 2024 ended down 1.1% year-over-year, according to IDC. Product groups driving growth included software coming in at 9.7% year-over-year, and personal computing which grew 16.2% year-over-year. The performance in these categories was enough to offset a year-over-year decline in Services of -5.5% and the anticipated decline in Network Infrastructure of -6.0% year-over-year.

Personal Computing returned to normal distributor revenue levels in 2024 after a significant contraction in 2023. The $3.75 billion in sales recorded in Q4 continues to be fueled by AI PC configurations, which grew 141% year-over-year.

Software sales in Q4 came in at $4.55 billion. The two largest categories, Security Software and Storage Software, which account for over 40% of software sales, grew at 6.2% and 13.4% year-over-year, respectively. But it was the third largest software category, Physical and Virtual Computing Software, that showed the most growth, coming in at 82.1% year-over-year.

The related IDC trackers used in this report are built on the exclusive partnership between IDC and the Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC). They measure market trends in the U.S. and Canada based on sales data collected weekly from various distributors in North America representing more than 1,000 brands. This data is mapped to IDC’s taxonomy with over 200 categories organized into 13 distinct product groups with detailed product attributes across categories.

Channel Impact^®
The numbers represent significant trends across the marketplace, including mid-market and below.

Dell’Oro: SASE Numbers Look Strong

The global Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) market is forecast to reach $17 billion by 2029, representing a 12 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), according to the Redwood City, California-based Dell’Oro Group. The increasing presence of vendors offering SD-WAN and SSE capabilities, which defines single-vendor SASE, is projected to account for 90 percent of the total SASE market by 2029. This trend fuels market expansion as enterprises seeks integrated networking and security solutions that streamline operations and reduce complexity.

“Despite macroeconomic pressures slowing near-term growth, the long-term outlook remains strong as enterprises continue prioritizing cloud-first strategies,” said Mauricio Sanchez, Sr. Director of Enterprise Security and Networking at Dell’Oro Group. “SASE is not just an option—it is becoming necessary for organizations navigating hybrid work environments and multi-cloud ecosystems.”

According to the company’s SASE and SD-WAN Forecast, the SSE market is anticipated to accelerate in 2025, despite macroeconomic challenges. Post-pandemic spending digestion and macroeconomic concerns are impacting near-term growth, while the market’s maturing state and slower transitions from access routers to SD-WAN solutions are expected to influence long-term growth. Unified SASE solutions, a segment of single-vendor SASE, are forecasted to grow at a 19 percent revenue CAGR, driven by smaller enterprises seeking tightly integrated networking and security solutions that offer greater simplicity.

Dell’Oro Group SASE and SD-WAN 5-year forecast report offers a complete industry overview with tables covering SASE by technology (SSE versus SD-WAN) and implementation (unified versus disaggregated) as far back as 2019. SSE is further segmented across SWG, CASB, ZTNA, and FWaaS technologies.

Channel Impact^®
Channel partners are seeing continued strength and growth in the SASE market, further supporting the conclusions of the Dell’Oro report.

Citrix Announces Acquisition of Unicon, Targeting Hybrid Work Solutions

Citrix has announced the acquisition of Unicon GmbH, a provider of the endpoint operating system (OS), “eLux,” along with the enterprise management platform, “Scout.”

Unicon’s eLux OS and Scout management platform help organizations repurpose existing devices, reduce hardware waste, and support green IT initiatives while also providing endpoint security. Founded in Germany more than 30 years ago, Unicon’s eLux OS is deployed to more than 2.5 million endpoint devices across more than 65 countries, including large-scale customers with fleets of 300,000+ endpoint devices.

“The hybrid work model embraced by countless companies today brings tremendous opportunities for employees, as well as challenges for IT teams who must balance security, performance, scalability, and cost savings,” said Sridhar Mullapudi, co-president of Citrix. “Our acquisition of Unicon will enable our customers to maximize the value of their endpoints, giving users secure access to the Citrix platform without the need for additional software purchases.”

The technology partnership between Citrix and Unicon has been in place since 2001. eLux is already integrated with various Citrix technologies such as Virtual Apps and Desktops (VDI), Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS), and the Citrix Enterprise Browser.

Channel Impact^®
With the acquisition of Unicon, Citrix intends to provide customers with a secure client OS and endpoint management that improves endpoint security, resiliency and operational costs, while providing a seamless end-to-end experience for access to corporate applications and desktops.

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