Monday Morning Impact – January 11
IDC: Worldwide Unified Communications & Collaboration Sees Major Growth
The worldwide unified communications & collaboration (UC&C) market grew 26.7% year over year and 6.6% quarter over quarter to $12.2 billion in the third quarter of 2020 (3Q20), according to IDC, the Framingham, Massachusetts-based market researcher.
As some organizations moved from crisis phase to recovery phase with regard to the pandemic, it was anticipated that worldwide UC&C growth would be driven by customers across all business size segments with interest especially in cloud-based solutions for voice, video, messaging, and collaboration for driving initiatives such as digital transformation projects and workplaces of the future. The increased revenue and shipment numbers within these segments for 3Q20 seem to bear that out.
Specifically, the UC Collaboration market (including video conferencing software and cloud services) increased 46.7% year over year and 5.3% over 2Q20 to reach almost $5.8 billion in revenue, with seats increasing 37.8% annually. Additionally, the Hosted Voice/UC public cloud UCaaS market also did well and grew 23.3% year over year and 8.3% sequentially in 3Q 2020 to reach almost $4.3 billion in revenue. In Enterprise Videoconferencing Systems (video endpoints and infrastructure), traditional room-based video systems declined both 2.3% year over year and 6.9% sequentially, but smaller huddle room video endpoints and video infrastructure equipment both experienced positive growth in the quarter (72.5% year over year and 16.8% over 2Q20) and (39.6% year over year and 21.6%% quarter over quarter), respectively. Revenue for IP Phones declined both 32.9% compared to 3Q19 and 11% sequentially.
“In 2020, COVID-19 caused many businesses and organizations to re-think their plans for leveraging digital technologies and accelerated interest in and adoption of solutions such as collaboration, videoconferencing, messaging, and UC as a service (UCaaS), among others,” said Rich Costello, senior research analyst, Unified Communications and Collaboration. “In 2021, we expect the positive growth numbers across these key UC&C segments to continue, albeit at slightly more modest rates.”
The IDC Worldwide Quarterly Unified Communications & Collaboration Qview provides total market size and vendor market share data in an easy-to-use Excel pivot table format that includes IP Telephony/UC Systems (IP Phones, IP PBX/UC Systems), Enterprise Videoconferencing Systems (Videoconferencing Room Endpoints, Huddle Room Endpoints, Videoconferencing Infrastructure), UC Collaboration, and Managed/Hosted Voice/UCaas (Hosted Voice/Public Cloud UCaaS, Managed Voice/Private Cloud UCaaS). Measurement for the Worldwide Quarterly UC&C QView is provided in vendor revenue and unit/line/license/seat shipments.
Channel Impact®
Partners who invested heavily in this space in the midst of the pandemic have already been rewarded and are likely to see continued rewards into 2021.
Verizon Business launches IoT Managed Services
Verizon Business has announced the launch of IoT Managed Services, an offering developed to help manage the intricacies of preparing, deploying, managing, and maintaining an IoT solution.
“For many companies, cellular IoT is not always something they have fully prepared for from a staffing, implementation, and maintenance standpoint,” said Steven Szabo, Verizon Business’ vice president of Internet of Things. “Through IoT Managed Services, we are bringing a dedicated team of IoT specialists and the most reliable IoT network under one roof so customers can focus on growing their business.”
The offering includes site surveys, solution development, and device staging. It then extends to lifecycle functions with dedicated triage and ongoing account and platform management. Services are offered in varying levels, including:
Level 1: A dedicated point of contact for help with cellular connectivity
Level 2: Adds lifecycle support for customer accounts, as well as for IoT solution implementations
Level 3: Adds dedicated support for IoT platforms owned by customers
The offering is designed to meet the needs of a wide variety of companies, from the large enterprise to the small business.
Channel Impact®
By having this dedicated support for all matters relating to IoT implementation and management, customers can utilize a “deeper bench” to address their technology needs.
Institute for Security and Technology Launches Multi-Sector Ransomware Task Force
The Institute for Security and Technology (IST) — in partnership with a broad coalition of experts in industry, government, law enforcement, nonprofits, cybersecurity insurance, and international organizations — has launched a new Ransomware Task Force (RTF).
The RTF’s founding members understand that ransomware is too large of a threat for any one entity to address and have come together to provide clear recommendations for both public and private action that will significantly reduce the threat.
The Institute for Security and Technology is a non-partisan, non-profit network, based in the San Francisco Bay area, that designs and promotes solutions to a variety of security threats.
The RTF will assess existing solutions at varying levels of the ransomware kill chain, identify gaps in solution application, and create a roadmap of concrete objectives and actionable milestones for high-level decision-makers. To contribute to the final roadmap, the RTF will commission expert papers and engage stakeholders across industries to coalesce around vetted solutions.
Founding partners include Aspen Digital, Citrix, The Cyber Threat Alliance, Cybereason, The CyberPeace Institute, The Cybersecurity Coalition, The Global Cyber Alliance, McAfee, Microsoft, Rapid7, Resilience, SecurityScorecard, Shadowserver Foundation, Stratigos Security, Team Cymru, Third Way, and the UT Austin Stauss Center.
The Ransomware Task Force website, including full membership and leadership roles, will be launched in January 2021.
Channel Impact®
Ransomware incidents have been growing rapidly as hospitals, school districts, city governments, and others have found their networks held hostage by malicious actors seeking payouts. This group intends to synthesize a clear framework of actionable solutions.
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