Category Archives for "Managed Services News"

Things have been tough on the cybersecurity talent front for some time. Organizations struggle to fill security positions. When they do, they typically find themselves in a bidding war for the best candidates with cybersecurity skills. Salaries are escalating, and the number of unfilled positions continues to soar. Unfortunately, the situation is likely to deteriorate further, according to a couple of new research reports.

The recent Fortinet Cybersecurity Skills Gap study found that 60% of organizations encounter great difficulty in recruiting cybersecurity resources. More than two-thirds of those surveyed believe that the shortage of trained or experienced staff creates additional risk for their organizations. Those that manage to find personnel can’t rest on their laurels for long. A shocking 52% admitted to having trouble retaining qualified employees. Such findings make it clear that more and more organizations are going to look to managed security services to fill the void, whether engaging directly with security vendors to manage aspects of the cybersecurity landscape or with managed service providers (MSPs) specializing in security.

Widening Skills Gaps

The skills gap is rapidly trending toward becoming a skills chasm, according to another study by Skillsoft. The 2022 IT Skills and Salary Report takes an annual look at the most in-demand skills and certifications, average compensation, growth opportunities and career sentiment among IT professionals. This year’s survey found two-thirds of IT decision makers had gaping skills gaps in their teams. Fifty-three percent of respondents stated that they are likely to look for a new job in the next 12 months.

Whether due to aggressive headhunting, the “great resignation,” quiet quitting, burnout due to the demands of digital transformation or overwork due to operating with lowered headcounts, many IT and security personnel are not planning to stick around. No wonder McKinsey cites record rates of turnover across all industries.

Why They Leave

All organizations are facing HR challenges, be it recruitment or retention,  that will only grow during the coming year. Skillsoft data shows the top reasons for leaving are a desire for better compensation, lack of training and development, and lack of work-life balance. Salary demands may place certain security resources beyond the means of some companies. But training is certainly an area where organizations can gain ground by educating their own resources via industry certifications and incentivizing personnel to take cybersecurity degrees.

Yet, the survey found the biggest reason behind a lack of IT and security training is that management didn’t see a need for it. This finding stands in stark contrast to another data point from the survey: 97% of IT decision-makers agree that certified staff add value to the organization.

Further findings from the study include:

• 80% say skills gaps pose high or medium risk to their team’s ability to meet objectives.
• 63% have been unable to fill at least three positions in the last year.
• The top factors driving skills gaps are difficulties with hiring skilled candidates (44%) and employee retention (33%); 26% say not enough is being invested into training.
• The top three most challenging areas to find qualified talent are cloud computing, data analytics/big data/data science, and cybersecurity.
• IT professionals cite the benefits of training to be improved quality of work (56%), increased engagement (41%) and faster job performance (36%).

Managed Service Boom

With such a dearth of a talent and the urgent need to secure the enterprise now, no wonder so many organizations are looking to managed services to fill the gap. Some engage with their existing security vendors and transition some tools from on-premises to being operated as a service by the vendor. Others are using MSPs to take care of security duties such as vulnerability management, endpoint detection and response (EDR), backup and recovery, and even security operations center (SOC) services.

Syxsense operates in both arenas. It offers managed security services for patch management, vulnerability management and remediation. These services provide real-time, 24-hour security coverage. Syxsense also offers an MSP/MSSP program with a world-class platform that features an orchestration and automation engine to scale business without adding costs.

For a demo, click here.

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.

U.S. channel partners are trailing behind Europe on sustainability, according to analyst firm Canalys.

Canalys’ Rachel Brindley

“You do see disparity between partners that are headquartered in the U.S. versus those that are headquartered in Europe,” said Rachel Brindley, senior director, channels, at Canalys.

There are several reasons for this. One is that the regulatory environment in Europe is more mature than that in the U.S.

“The European Union has got various regulations in place, but each individual country in Europe has different regulations as well. For example, in France, there’s a regulation where at least 30% of public sector RFPs must contain refurb equipment. Those things are really driving partners’ customers to focus on sustainability in their technology procurement. That is making a huge difference between the European and the North American market,” said Brindley.

Regulation isn’t the only driver, though.

“It’s the social side of employees wanting to work for a sustainable organisation,” Brindley said. “Particularly, the younger generations expect their organizations to be sustainable, and they’re very focused on that. [Also] customers wanting to be partnered with an organisation that has its sustainability strategies. It’s also its branding, for some companies; to say, ‘We’re sustainable.’ That’s important.”

Customers Pushing Channel Partners on Sustainability

Momentum around sustainability is being driven by customers rather than partners, emphasized Brindley.

“They now have very clear sustainability strategies and targets that they need to meet. They’re pushing that down to their partners, which in turn is building through into distribution but also going back upstream into the into the vendor community.”

According to research by Canalys and Schneider Electric, 75% of European partners already have at least one person focused on ESG (environment, social, governance). More than 75% of customer RFPs have sustainability criteria included.

While some U.S. partners are catching up, leadership in sustainability is coming from the likes of European players like Atea and Bechtel.

Kristian Kerr, VP, EMEA & LATAM partner organisation at NetApp, agrees that more partners are investing in sustainability practices.

NetApp’s Kristian Kerr

“Probably half of the partners I speak to are building or have a practice to support customers from a consultancy standpoint. It’s also looking at efficiencies of what kit they have, in which data centers, which is burning and consuming power? How can they optimize that infrastructure? How can they lean into the cloud?”

Monitoring Power Consumption

At the Canalys Channels EMEA Forum last month, analyst Alistair Edwards urged partners to help their customers urgently reduce energy consumption and improve efficiency.

Rising energy prices and the need to focus on consumption and monitoring are opportunities for channel partners, reiterated Brindley.

“Particularly with the macroeconomic situation, being able to manage and understand which devices or infrastructure is draining energy and how you can make those more efficient,” she said.

David Terry is VP, IT channels, Schneider Electric, Europe.

Schneider Electric’s David Terry

“With greater focus on IT channel ESG commitments, now is the time for partners to double down on sustainability efforts,” said Terry. “Energy optimization, energy efficiency and managed power services all present key opportunities for partners to differentiate and drive market share.”

Said Brindley: “We do think that if partners aren’t developing their sustainability strategies, they will be at a competitive disadvantage moving forward.”

Cybercriminals are ready to pounce this cyber weekend, and consumers and businesses should be on high alert.

That’s according to Melissa Bischoping, Tanium‘s director of endpoint security research. Cyber weekend extends from Black Friday through Monday.

Threats to consumers include stolen accounts and credit card numbers, and holiday shopping phishing lures. For retailers, it’s loss of trust from breaches, website availability from bot activity, and inventory issues when bots are snagging valuable, in-demand products to sell at a markup.

Tanium’s Melissa Bischoping

“We continue to see many of the same risks as previous years; however, we’re seeing more of them,” Bischoping said. “The marketplace to purchase prebuilt kits for bots and malware has made it much easier for new players to participate in crime. The good news is much of the protection, detection and response efforts will also remain the same.”

Cyber Weekend Means Additional Strain on Websites

Increased demand on websites coupled with malicious botnets can put additional strain on websites, Bischoping said. While not all website outages are the result of an attack, a website under strain can offer poor performance. In addition, it may result in increased errors experienced by legitimate shoppers.

“Sites impersonating retail brands in phishing emails and fake retail storefronts increase,” she said. “These types of lures use the established trust consumers have in retail brands paired with social engineering techniques to lure consumers.”

While many risks such as ransomware, credential theft and account takeovers remain the same, staff often run much leaner during the holiday season due to employee time off and observed holidays, Bischoping said. An uptick in online holiday shopping web traffic, plus additional threat actor activity and smaller staff can make “security operations centers (SOC) as busy as the North Pole in December.”

“For retailers, the holiday season often also means restrictive freezes on changes and non-critical updates,” she said. “These change freezes are an essential piece of keeping business-critical systems available to customers. But it means that retailers need a tested, documented process to implement emergency changes for security fixes without unnecessary red tape.”

Earlier Holiday Season Means More Opportunities for Threats

It seems like every year the holiday shopping season starts earlier, Bischoping said. That means more opportunities to successfully use things like holiday sale phishing lures. The ease and availability of toolkits for setting up bots to snag inventory and resell for profit makes it an attractive market for those looking to turn a quick profit.

“Brand protection teams can monitor for website names similar to their own, and subscribe to threat intelligence to stay aware of the specific threats to the retail industry,” she said. “This often includes detailed documentation on known threat actor tactics, techniques and procedures that can reduce the time to detect and respond.”

Buy Now, Pay Later Scheme

Cybercriminals have developed new scams for the holiday shopping period, including a new scheme exploiting buy now, pay later (BNPL) services. That’s according to Kaspersky’s Black Friday alert. Its goal is to educate users to stay safe during the sales season.

An example of this scam is the misuse of the popular service, Afterpay. It has 20 million active users across the world. These tools allow customers to split the cost of the purchase into several interest-free installments. 

Perpetrators set up a page mimicking the official website, tricking unsuspecting victims into entering their credit card numbers and security codes into a fake form. After the user has entered their details, cybercriminals will try to steal as much money as possible from this card, emptying the victim’s wallet.

Olga Svistunova is web content analyst at Kaspersky.

Kaspersky’s Olga Svistunova

“The shopping event of the year, Black Friday, is a hot time not only for sellers and their buyers, but also for scammers who want to steal as much money as possible from hurried customers,” she said. “The new scheme exploiting BNPL services only proves that cybercriminals do not stop in their desire to attack victims and come up with new methods to do so. On ordinary days, the customer can easily understand if the product is too cheap, it’s most likely a scam. But during the Black Friday sales period this fact isn’t so clear. Shoppers become less vigilant and are therefore an easy target for cybercriminals. That’s why it’s so important to pay attention to which site you buy from, be careful with unfamiliar companies and use a reliable security solution.”

Managed cyber services will be a gold mine for the channel in the coming years. Expect the global value of this market to reach nearly $50 billion by 2027.

That’s according to MarketsandMarkets, which expects a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 12% through 2027. It values the current market at slightly less than $28 billion.

Major managed cyber services vendors include IBM, AT&T, NTT, Accenture, Secureworks, CrowdStrike, F5 and more.

Some factors driving market growth include increased usage of cloud technology and IoT devices in enterprises, and growing demand for strong and cost-effective security services to monitor security events.

MDR Services Most in Demand

The managed detection and response (MDR) segment should have the highest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2027. MDR provides organizations with threat-hunting services and responds to threats when discovered. Security providers provide MDR customers access to their pool of security researchers and engineers, who are responsible for monitoring networks, analyzing incidents and responding to security cases.

Among key features of MDR services are continuous threat monitoring, detection and response, endpoint threat detection, threat intelligence, threat hunting, and incident analysis and response. IBM, Secureworks, Trustwave, RSI Security, Atos, Accenture, Proficio, CrowdStrike, Cyflare, and Avertium are some key MDR service providers.

Increasing demand for security from SMEs to improve their productivity and knowledge base has triggered vendors to provide services at a lower cost. Managed cyber services are the best fit for SMEs as cost-effectiveness is its biggest advantage. The adoption and acceptance by SMEs will help expand their customer base and enhance business efficiency. Governments are also taking initiatives to protect SMEs in their respective countries.

Look for IT spending in the SME segment to increase at a high rate, says MarketsandMarkets. The CAGR for IT spending by SMEs in EMEA between 2018 and 2023 should be nearly 4%, compared to less than 3% for the overall market. This rise is expected to give MSSPs a boost. Therefore, MSSPs are focusing on the SME segment to acquire potential customers.

By region, Asia Pacific should have the highest CAGR through 2027. Asia Pacific has a mix of developing and developed countries. Government regulations, increasing cybersecurity incidents, and cloud technology adoption in the region are driving market growth there.

Remote work has forever changed the face of business. These 20 communications and collaboration leaders are stepping up to move the channel forward.

This is the fourth in a series of Channel Futures Channel Leaders of the Year lists. We are unveiling them one-by-one until the end of the year. They include senior partner executives in cloud, security, networking and connectivity, EMEA, managed services, distribution and cloud.

These leaders have earned a reputation as partner-friendly, customer-focused and future-minded. Some of them have been putting their mark on the industry for decades; others are rising stars. These leaders will determine the future of the channel as they redefine the partner-supplier relationship.

We’ve chosen these leaders based on their company’s market share, growth potential, strength of partner network, scope of partner program and the individual’s impact on the partner ecosystem. Partner feedback played a key role, with special attention on how these individuals supported and advocated for their agent, VAR and MSP partners.

These leaders will be eligible for our 2023 Channel Futures Influencer of the Year Award, as well as the Channel Futures/Channel Partners Circle of Excellence Award.

See our slideshow above for our list of 20 EMEA channel leaders of the year for 2022. They are listed in alphabetical order.

Then, check out our other 2022 Channel Leaders lists:

Managed cyber services will be a gold mine for the channel in the coming years. Expect the global value of this market to reach nearly $50 billion by 2027.

That’s according to MarketsandMarkets, which expects a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 12% through 2027. It values the current market at slightly less than $28 billion.

Major managed cyber services vendors include IBM, AT&T, NTT, Accenture, Secureworks, CrowdStrike, F5 and more.

Some factors driving market growth include increased usage of cloud technology and IoT devices in enterprises, and growing demand for strong and cost-effective security services to monitor security events.

MDR Services Most in Demand

The managed detection and response (MDR) segment should have the highest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2027. MDR provides organizations with threat-hunting services and responds to threats when discovered. Security providers provide MDR customers access to their pool of security researchers and engineers, who are responsible for monitoring networks, analyzing incidents and responding to security cases.

Among key features of MDR services are continuous threat monitoring, detection and response, endpoint threat detection, threat intelligence, threat hunting, and incident analysis and response. IBM, Secureworks, Trustwave, RSI Security, Atos, Accenture, Proficio, CrowdStrike, Cyflare, and Avertium are some key MDR service providers.

Increasing demand for security from SMEs to improve their productivity and knowledge base has triggered vendors to provide services at a lower cost. Managed cyber services are the best fit for SMEs as cost-effectiveness is its biggest advantage. The adoption and acceptance by SMEs will help expand their customer base and enhance business efficiency. Governments are also taking initiatives to protect SMEs in their respective countries.

Look for IT spending in the SME segment to increase at a high rate, says MarketsandMarkets. The CAGR for IT spending by SMEs in EMEA between 2018 and 2023 should be nearly 4%, compared to less than 3% for the overall market. This rise is expected to give MSSPs a boost. Therefore, MSSPs are focusing on the SME segment to acquire potential customers.

By region, Asia Pacific should have the highest CAGR through 2027. Asia Pacific has a mix of developing and developed countries. Government regulations, increasing cybersecurity incidents, and cloud technology adoption in the region are driving market growth there.

Remote work has forever changed the face of business. These 20 communications and collaboration leaders are stepping up to move the channel forward.

This is the fourth in a series of Channel Futures Channel Leaders of the Year lists. We are unveiling them one-by-one until the end of the year. They include senior partner executives in cloud, security, networking and connectivity, EMEA, managed services, distribution and cloud.

These leaders have earned a reputation as partner-friendly, customer-focused and future-minded. Some of them have been putting their mark on the industry for decades; others are rising stars. These leaders will determine the future of the channel as they redefine the partner-supplier relationship.

We’ve chosen these leaders based on their company’s market share, growth potential, strength of partner network, scope of partner program and the individual’s impact on the partner ecosystem. Partner feedback played a key role, with special attention on how these individuals supported and advocated for their agent, VAR and MSP partners.

These leaders will be eligible for our 2023 Channel Futures Influencer of the Year Award, as well as the Channel Futures/Channel Partners Circle of Excellence Award.

See our slideshow above for our list of 20 EMEA channel leaders of the year for 2022. They are listed in alphabetical order.

Then, check out our other 2022 Channel Leaders lists:

Randhir Thakur, the president of Intel’s new contract manufacturing business, plans to step down next quarter. CEO Pat Gelsinger, who learned on Tuesday that Intel has reduced his potential stock compensation, informed employees of Thakur’s resignation.

Intel’s Randhir Thakur

The Register first reported Thakur’s planned departure from Intel Foundry Services (IFS) late Monday. The report, which Intel confirmed, cited an email from Gelsinger with the news. The message suggested that Gelsinger has already lined up a new leader for IFS.

Industry analyst Patrick Moorhead, who leads Moor Insights and Strategy, believes Tower Semiconductor CEO Russell Ellwanger is the likely replacement.

Moor Insights’ Patrick Moorhead

“If I read between the lines, there was one seat available, and with the impending Tower acquisition, Tower CEO got the nod to run overall IFS,” Moorhead said on Twitter. Moorhead added: “Thakur and the team got a lot done, and I don’t think this is performance-related.”

If I read between the lines, there was one seat available, and with the impending Tower acquisition, Tower CEO got the nod to run overall IFS.

Thakur and the team got a lot done, and I don’t think this is performance-related. $INTC $TSEM https://t.co/Dpq4m5xwEG

— Patrick Moorhead #NotTraveling #Zoomtopia (@PatrickMoorhead) November 21, 2022

Intel earlier this year agreed to acquire Israel-based Tower Semiconductor for $5.4 billion. The acquisition promises to boost the launch of IFS, a significant effort to expand Intel’s manufacturing capacity. But it is also a major effort to generate revenues by providing manufacturing capabilities for other semiconductor companies, including AWS, MediaTek, Nvidia and Qualcomm.

IFS is key to Intel’s Integrated Device Manufacturing (IDM 2.0) initiative to expand its manufacturing capabilities globally. That includes building fabs in the U.S. By creating its own fabs and contract manufacturing business, Intel is taking on much larger players Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

Adding to the competitive stakes, SkyWaker Technology is investing billions of dollars in fabs, EETimes reported on Tuesday.

Gelsinger’s Reduced Stock Compensation

Intel has reduced the amount of potential stock payouts Gelsinger will receive, according to The Oregonian. The reduced stock payout comes after investors complained about Intel’s plan for layoffs over the next three years.

However, the report characterized the move as likely “symbolic” because of Intel’s declining stock price, putting the potential awards “out of reach.”

Intel received more bad news last week when a federal jury ruled that it must pay VLSI Technology $948 million for infringing on its patent. An Intel spokesperson told Reuters it intends to appeal the verdict.

Managed cyber services will be a gold mine for the channel in the coming years. Expect the global value of this market to reach nearly $50 billion by 2027.

That’s according to MarketsandMarkets, which expects a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 12% through 2027. It values the current market at slightly less than $28 billion.

Major managed cyber services vendors include IBM, AT&T, NTT, Accenture, Secureworks, CrowdStrike, F5 and more.

Some factors driving market growth include increased usage of cloud technology and IoT devices in enterprises, and growing demand for strong and cost-effective security services to monitor security events.

MDR Services Most in Demand

The managed detection and response (MDR) segment should have the highest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2027. MDR provides organizations with threat-hunting services and responds to threats when discovered. Security providers provide MDR customers access to their pool of security researchers and engineers, who are responsible for monitoring networks, analyzing incidents and responding to security cases.

Among key features of MDR services are continuous threat monitoring, detection and response, endpoint threat detection, threat intelligence, threat hunting, and incident analysis and response. IBM, Secureworks, Trustwave, RSI Security, Atos, Accenture, Proficio, CrowdStrike, Cyflare, and Avertium are some key MDR service providers.

Increasing demand for security from SMEs to improve their productivity and knowledge base has triggered vendors to provide services at a lower cost. Managed cyber services are the best fit for SMEs as cost-effectiveness is its biggest advantage. The adoption and acceptance by SMEs will help expand their customer base and enhance business efficiency. Governments are also taking initiatives to protect SMEs in their respective countries.

Look for IT spending in the SME segment to increase at a high rate, says MarketsandMarkets. The CAGR for IT spending by SMEs in EMEA between 2018 and 2023 should be nearly 4%, compared to less than 3% for the overall market. This rise is expected to give MSSPs a boost. Therefore, MSSPs are focusing on the SME segment to acquire potential customers.

By region, Asia Pacific should have the highest CAGR through 2027. Asia Pacific has a mix of developing and developed countries. Government regulations, increasing cybersecurity incidents, and cloud technology adoption in the region are driving market growth there.

Remote work has forever changed the face of business. These 20 communications and collaboration leaders are stepping up to move the channel forward.

This is the fourth in a series of Channel Futures Channel Leaders of the Year lists. We are unveiling them one-by-one until the end of the year. They include senior partner executives in cloud, security, networking and connectivity, EMEA, managed services, distribution and cloud.

These leaders have earned a reputation as partner-friendly, customer-focused and future-minded. Some of them have been putting their mark on the industry for decades; others are rising stars. These leaders will determine the future of the channel as they redefine the partner-supplier relationship.

We’ve chosen these leaders based on their company’s market share, growth potential, strength of partner network, scope of partner program and the individual’s impact on the partner ecosystem. Partner feedback played a key role, with special attention on how these individuals supported and advocated for their agent, VAR and MSP partners.

These leaders will be eligible for our 2023 Channel Futures Influencer of the Year Award, as well as the Channel Futures/Channel Partners Circle of Excellence Award.

See our slideshow above for our list of 20 EMEA channel leaders of the year for 2022. They are listed in alphabetical order.

Then, check out our other 2022 Channel Leaders lists: