Monday Morning Impact – July 31

Gartner Forecasts Worldwide IT Spending to Grow in 2023

Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $4.7 trillion in 2023, an increase of 4.3% from 2022, according to the latest forecast by Gartner.

“Digital business transformations are beginning to morph,” said John-David Lovelock, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner. “IT projects are shifting from a focus on external facing deliverables such as revenue and customer experience, to more inward facing efforts focused on optimization.”

Gartner expects that the software segment will see double-digit growth in 2023 as organizations increase utilization and reallocate spending to core applications and platforms that support efficiency gains, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) applications. Vendor price increases are expected to bolster software spending through this year.

While the overall outlook for enterprise IT spending is positive, devices spending is expected to decline 8.6% in 2023 due to the ongoing impact of inflation on consumer purchasing power.

“The devices segment is experiencing one of its worst growth years on record,” said Lovelock. “Even as inflation eases slightly in some regions, macroeconomic factors are still negatively impacting discretionary spending and lengthening device refresh cycles. Devices spending is not expected to recover to 2021 levels until at least 2026.”

While generative artificial intelligence (AI) is top of mind for many business and IT leaders, it is not yet significantly impacting IT spending levels. In the longer-term, generative AI will primarily be incorporated into enterprises through existing spending.

“Generative AI’s best channel to market is through the software, hardware and services that organizations are already using,” said Lovelock. “Every year, new features are added to tech products and services as add-ons or upgrades. Most enterprises will incorporate generative AI in a slow and controlled manner through upgrades to tools that are already built into IT budgets.”

“When it comes to AI this year, organizations can thrive without having AI in production, but they cannot be without a story and a strategy,” added Lovelock.

Channel Impact^®
As CIOs continue to lose the competition for IT talent, they are shifting spending to technologies that enable automation and efficiency to drive growth at scale with fewer employees.

Netskope Launches New Managed Service Provider Program to Support SASE

Netskope, a Santa Clara, California-based Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) company, has rolled out a new Managed Service Provider (MSP) Program as part of its existing partner program. The new program provides flexible licensing options, dedicated MSP Partner resources, and a new technical support accreditation that complements the Netskope Service Delivery Specialization.

The MSP program features a new as-a-service business model framework and includes the availability of tools and resources to support partners as they develop and deliver managed Netskope SASE offerings. Features include simplified and flexible SKU pricing, new solution packages across the Netskope product portfolio, and a new Deal Protection Program to register MSP opportunities. In addition, the company has added two partner technical training tracks dedicated to implementation and support, including the introduction of five new training modules, access to a dedicated global support portal, and a new MSP Partner support process. A dedicated partner portal with tools, trainings, support, and access to the MSP Opportunity Registration has also been added.

“The Netskope MSP Program is the next step for our partners on their path toward offering a fully managed SASE solution,” said Dave Rogers, Senior Vice President, Alliances and Global Channel Sales at Netskope. “The goal of this evolution is to empower our partners to deliver the expertise and management our customers need, all while expanding their portfolio to include high-value, margin rich services.”

Netskope’s SASE platform includes cloud, data, and network security. Partners have the flexibility to offer the full spectrum or a portion of these solutions in a packaged managed service offering to their customers.

Channel Impact^®
The newly formalized program is designed to help partners expand their revenue streams with an additional route to market and profitable service offerings.

Carahsoft, Coalfire and Google Public Sector Forge Alliance on FedRAMP SaaS Accelerator

Cybersecurity company Coalfire, IT solutions provider Carahsoft Technology Corp., and Google Public Sector have entered into a partnership to accelerate FedRAMP Authority-to-Operate (ATO) certification and public sector opportunities for customers deployed on Google Cloud.

“With the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program now the law of the land, achieving FedRAMP certification has quickly evolved from cost burden to exponential business opportunity,” said Troy Bertram, managing director of Google Cloud’s Public Sector Partner Ecosystem.

The collaboration enables Google Public Sector and Carahsoft clients to accelerate their digital transformation and enter new federal markets through Coalfire’s FedRAMP advisory services. These offerings allow customers to more quickly and cost-effectively understand gaps and build required architectures and documentation to achieve FedRAMP authorization, thereby reducing financial barriers to entry. Once clients achieve ATO, they are positioned to sell across multiple agencies, instead of just one. Clients retain ownership of all technology deliverables.

“From gap and desired architecture analysis to audit-ready, this partnership with Coalfire enables Carahsoft technology partners operating in Google Cloud to confidently accredit and deploy FedRAMP-compliant environments within an accelerated timeline,” said Carahsoft President Craig P. Abod. “Carahsoft and its ecosystem of partners are excited for the opportunity to offer public sector customers a greater variety of FedRAMP-certified solutions deployed on Google Cloud to achieve their mission goals.”

Channel Impact^®
The roadmap is designed to provide a threat-informed approach to risk management, opening new opportunities for companies to test once and certify many times under the FedRAMP Authorization Act passed in December.