Monday Morning Impact – October 21

Cloud Services See Strong Continued Growth

New data from Synergy Research Group shows that across seven key cloud service and infrastructure market segments, operator and vendor revenues for the first half of 2019 passed the $150 billion milestone, having grown by 24% from the first half of 2018.

In the cloud service segments, IaaS & PaaS had the highest growth rate at 44%, followed by enterprise SaaS at 27%, UCaaS at 23% and hosted private cloud infrastructure services at 20%. Spending on hardware and software for public, private and hybrid infrastructure grew at just over 10%, while cloud provider spending on colocation and data center leasing grew by 17%.

“Cloud-associated markets are growing at rates ranging from 10% to well over 40% and annual spending on cloud will double in under four years,” said John Dinsdale, a Chief Analyst at Synergy Research Group. “Cloud has opened up a range of opportunities for new market entrants and for disruptive technologies and business models. Amazon and Microsoft have led the charge in terms of driving changes and aggressively growing cloud revenue streams, but many other tech companies are also benefitting. The flip side is that some traditional IT players are having a hard time balancing protection of legacy businesses with the need to fully embrace cloud.”

Spending on cloud services is now far greater than spending on supporting data center infrastructure. In the first half of 2019, total spend on hardware and software used to build cloud infrastructure was almost $55 billion – somewhat evenly split between public and private clouds.

Infrastructure investments by cloud service providers helped them to generate over $90 billion in revenues from cloud infrastructure services (IaaS, PaaS, hosted private cloud services) and enterprise SaaS, in addition to which their infrastructure supports internet services such as search, social networking, email, e-commerce, gaming and mobile apps. Spending on data center leasing and colocation services continue to grow strongly.

Channel Impact^®
The data underscore major implications for channel partners as they plan sales strategies and areas of potential expansion.

Synnex Announces Dedicated Support Program for North American MSSPs

Synnex Corporation, of Greenville, South Carolina, has announced the expansion of its professional service portfolio with the launch of a dedicated Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) support program. The new program is designed to ensure partners have the needed tools to create new revenue streams and increase profitability as more end-customers shift their focus to cloud environments.

Core program offerings include Network Operation Center and Security Operation Center support; enhanced premium support; additional installation support; on-premise and cloud deployment; and ongoing education opportunities. The offering can also be fully white-labeled.

“Launching a dedicated MSSP support program positions Synnex as a strong leader in full lifecycle support services and is another example of our commitment to helping partners succeed in today’s competitive market,” said Reyna Thompson, Senior Vice President, Product Management, North America. “We are pleased to add this increased level of support focused on partner enablement, which will complement a number of our existing vendor relationships.”

Services existing prior to this announcement include pre-sales support, remote and onsite configuration, 24/7 monitoring and management, system integration, asset tagging and labeling, rack and stack, penetration and vulnerability testing, certification training, security compliance assessments, VCISO managed services, source code reviews, incident response and remediation services, log analysis, forensics, social engineering and training, and certified ethical hacker certification.

This offering allows end-customers to acquire technology through a flexible, subscription-based financing option with payment plans ranging from 24 to 60 months.

Channel Impact^®
The program addresses the growing end-user demand for managed services due to increasingly complex cybersecurity threats and cybersecurity skills shortage.

BlackBerry Updates Channel Program for Cloud, IoT

BlackBerry Limited has rolled out a revamped enterprise partner program intended to provide channel partners more flexibility to capture opportunities in the Internet of Things (IoT), a market expected to generate more than $1.1 trillion in enterprise spend by 2023.

Through the announcement, a new Silver tier has been introduced to the program, which includes an accreditation for the skills and knowledge necessary to onboard and support new customers on the BlackBerry UEM Platform. Partners can offer BlackBerry solutions that meet all the compliance and security requirements of an on-premise solution while benefiting from the flexibility and lower cost of entry associated with the cloud.

Program benefits include recurring SaaS revenue and professional services revenue from supporting cloud migration and growth; virtual training and access to the beta community and knowledge base to test products before they are released; access to NFR licenses for testing and trial; plus demand generation & sales support via proposal-based marketing funds, and case studies.

“With the addition of the Silver tier, we’re able to support partners as they respond to the increasing demand for cloud services from customers,” said Richard McLeod, Global Vice President, Enterprise Software Channels. “This, along with the other new enhancements to the program, came as a direct result from the channel’s feedback, and we’re confident that now having listened and taken action, partners will be able to gain increased value from our partnership.”

Channel Impact^®
The program is designed to help partners gain new competencies and capabilities that will enable them to meet market demands by ensuring partners are equipped to successfully design, architect, implement and support BlackBerry solutions.