Monday Morning Impact – March 28

CompTIA: New Service Offerings and Business Models Shape Managed Services Market

A growing number of managed service providers are embracing new business approaches and adding more sophisticated premium services to their portfolios, according to new research by CompTIA, a suburban Chicago-based industry trade association.

CompTIA’s January survey of 400 U.S. MSPs finds that most firms are cautiously optimistic about business prospects due in some measure to actions they took during the pandemic.

“Like many businesses, MSPs were buffeted by two years of pandemic-induced economic upheaval,” said Carolyn April, senior director of industry analysis at CompTIA. “Some MSPs saw this as an opportunity to get creative and find new ways to provide value to customers, but others struggled to hold on.”

According to the survey, savvy MSPs shored up their business by expanding into new services areas and aggressively targeting things like improved customer experience and marketing efforts. Many of the MSPs also capitalized on the mass move to remote work, outfitting and managing customer technology networks that were relocated from centralized office cubicles to home offices. Eight in 10 MSPs said the changes they made in the past two years have had a positive effect.

MSPs continue to look for areas where they can add value. Providing a great customer experience (CX) tops their priorities. Nearly half (46%) of MSPs said shifts in customer procurement habits are driving change in their own business, while a comparable number (44%) said the demand for business consulting is also pushing them in new directions.

Complexities in cybersecurity are another area where MSP see opportunities to strengthen connections to customers. A net 93% of MSPs said that the sophistication of cybersecurity is driving change in their business models or will within the next 24 months.

MSPs are also expanding into “premium” offerings such as applications-as-a-service, data analytics, cloud-based services and compliance and privacy consulting. Among MSPs that have added premium services 62% said they expect to see strong growth in this category that’s on par with the rest of their business, while 19% foresee robust growth that’s faster than other services.

Channel Impact^®
The data demonstrates how MSP models are evolving in the pandemic/post-pandemic world.

SentinelOne to Acquire Attivo Networks

SentinelOne, a Mountain View, California-based cybersecurity platform company, has entered into an agreement to acquire Attivo Networks, an identity security and lateral movement protection company, in a move expected extend SentinelOne’s AI-powered prevention, detection, and response capabilities to identity-based threats.

“The shift to hybrid work and increased cloud adoption has established identity as the new perimeter, highlighting the importance of visibility into user activity,” said Nicholas Warner, COO of SentinelOne. “Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) is the missing link in holistic XDR and zero trust strategies.”

Attackers are targeting identity and access management gaps to gain a foothold within trusted environments and advance laterally in pursuit of high-value targets.

Attivo’s identity suite delivers holistic prevention, detection, and response, protecting against credential theft, privilege escalation, lateral movement, data cloaking, and identity exposure.

“Attivo’s solutions are a perfect complement, as an XDR with identity protection significantly improves organizational security posture,” said Attivo CEO Tushar Kothari. “Combined with the power of SentinelOne’s autonomous XDR, we’ll bring real-time identity threat detection and response to the front lines of cyberdefense.”

Under the terms of the agreement, SentinelOne will acquire Attivo Networks in a cash and stock transaction valued at $616.5 million. The acquisition is expected to close in SentinelOne’s upcoming fiscal second quarter, subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions.

Channel Impact^®
The combined entity is expected to deliver comprehensive identity security by extending SentinelOne’s XDR capabilities to identity-based threats across endpoint, cloud workloads, IoT devices, mobile, and data. The move expands SentinelOne’s total addressable market by $4 billion in the fast-growing, critical identity security category.

Netskope Unveils New Global Evolve Partner Program

Netskope, a Santa Clara, California-based SASE vendor, has announced new benefits, incentives, and program opportunities for its partner ecosystem.

The new program features three program levels: The new Authorized level provides an entry point to address increased demand from partners wanting to join Netskope’s program, while the Gold and Platinum levels deliver greater discount advantages for top partners, amongst other benefits.

A new global discounting structure by program level and opportunity type has been added, as well as new incentives for the Deal Registration program.

Netskope has also added two new paths toward technical certifications, including certifications to become a Certified Cloud Security Administrator or Certified Cloud Security Integrator. The company has also introduced a new Service Delivery Specialization. Partners building out implementation and activation offerings now have a path to specialization, recognizing partner technical expertise, customer focus, and services scale.

“Security has become more dynamic than ever, stretching to accommodate cloud-based traffic and thousands of applications across a distributed workforce, and creating increased demand for solution providers that can strategically advise on the right steps toward SASE,” said Dave Rogers, Vice President of Global Alliances & Channel Sales at Netskope. “We’re providing our partners with all of the resources, incentives and discounts they need for high-growth, long-term success.”

The Netskope offering combines CASB, SWG, firewall, and ZTNA into a single platform.

Channel Impact^®
The new program is expected to help partners more opportunities to profit and grow opportunities in the rapidly evolving Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) space.