Monday Morning Impact – November 14

Canalys: Growth in Global Cloud Services Loses Steam

Worldwide cloud infrastructure services expenditure increased 28% year on year to reach US$63.1 billion in Q3 2022, up US$13.8 billion on the same period a year ago, according to Canalys, an independent market researcher. With the negative impact of inflation and rising energy prices, companies are reducing their technology spend, which may hit demand for cloud services in the short term.

Coupled with the strong US dollar, the annual growth rate fell below 30% for the first time. Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud remained the top three providers in Q3 2022, together accounting for 63% of global spend after growing 33%.

Long-term demand for enterprise digitalization remains strong, as the move to cloud remains the best way for today’s businesses to do more with less, according to Canalys. But the impact of inflation and recession on the cloud services market was evident, with most top cloud vendors missing revenue targets in the quarter.

“Under economic pressure, enterprise customers are choosing to reduce operational risks by lowering their IT budgets,” said Canalys VP Alex Smith. “Despite winning large deals and having a backlog of contracts to fulfill, the growth of cloud vendors will be constrained because of inevitable project delays as some customers get skittish about the economic outlook. Hyperscalers will face a period of rising costs and lower revenue growth, which may lead to more conservative planning in 2023.”

Canalys defines cloud infrastructure services as those that provide infrastructure-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service, either on dedicated hosted private infrastructure or shared public infrastructure. This excludes software-as-a-service expenditure directly but includes revenue generated from the infrastructure services being consumed to host and operate them.

Channel Impact^®
Cloud services are still growing, but not as quickly; a trend that most channel partners need to watch.

Cisco Introduces Six New Partner Specializations

Cisco has expanded its portfolio of specializations available through the company’s partner program.

New additions include:

“Full-stack Observability (FSO)” which showcases expertise in application performance analytics across the full IT stack, including integrations across AppDynamics, ThousandEyes, Intersight, and Secure Application.

“Hybrid Work from Office,” which recognizes Cisco partners for their skills and experience helping customers evolve traditional on-site and off-site work models, with solutions that power hybrid work, enabling people to work safely and securely from home or office.

“Secure Access Service Edge (SASE),” which highlights partners’ ability to help customers to securely enable the growing universe of roaming users, devices, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) apps without adding complexity or reducing end-user performance.

“Hybrid Cloud Computing,” which identifies partners that provide secure hybrid cloud computing experiences at home, in the office, or anywhere.

“Hybrid Cloud Networking,” which recognizes partners that securely and efficiently connect and manage customers’ data, workloads, and applications across data centers, edge, and multiple clouds.

“Hybrid Cloud Software,” which demonstrates expertise in managing operational complexity by helping customers streamline and unify IT operations with secure, hybrid cloud management software.

The new solution specializations are one of the four categories of partner specializations available to qualified Cisco partners to demonstrate their expertise to customers.

Partners that achieve solution specializations are recognized and rewarded based on the value delivered to customers. The requirements for each specialization are tied to knowledge and experience, allowing partners to capitalize on their existing investments with Cisco.

Channel Impact^®
The six new solution specializations focus on the biggest market opportunities for partners, including hybrid cloud, hybrid work, secure access service edge (SASE) and full-stack observability.

DigitalOcean Introduces New Channel Partner Program

DigitalOcean, has rolled out Partner Pod, the New York-based cloud company’s new channel partner program for allied digital agencies, consultants, and technology providers.

Through the Partner Pod, partners will have access to DigitalOcean’s suite of cloud products, technical support and training, co-marketing opportunities and marketing development funds. The program is structured with different levels that reflect different stages of partnership maturity and co-investment.

“Small businesses represent a massive sector, yet are frequently overlooked and underserved by technology providers,” said Yancey Spruill, CEO at DigitalOcean. “Our goal is to connect these businesses with a broad, robust network of partners that are ready to help them succeed. In turn, our partners will be in a better position to grow their businesses.”

Participating partners can choose from three business tracks. The tracks include one for consultants or eCommerce providers who advise customers on their IT products and services; cloud aggregators or agencies that sell, add value, host, manage or supply IT solutions; managed hosting providers for SMBs and anything as a service (XaaS); and ISVs and developers.

Partners also have their choice of sales rewards, from discount structures to referral fees, and other sales credits. A new Partner Pod portal has also been added.

Channel Impact^®
The company’s intention is to provide customized support and benefits for partners that cater to the unique needs of small businesses.