Category Archives for "Managed Services News"

Vonage is making a big play for partners in the U.K. and throughout Europe.

Adam Wilson, strategic partner director, EMEA and APAC for Vonage, joins us for this edition of Channel Futures TV. He discusses the biggest opportunities for Vonage partners today and describes some of the new partner types the company is recruiting. He also touches on how current economic conditions are impacting customer engagement.

VMware has taken another step in its efforts to move its business model from legacy perpetual licensing to recurring subscriptions. The latter, of course, bring in more consistent revenue. To that end, VMware on Tuesday unveiled vSphere+ and vSAN+.

The original vSphere serves as VMware’s computing platform, while vSAN offers storage.

Now, though, the next iterations – vSphere+ and vSAN+ – provide the opex versions of those solutions. They are part of Project Arctic, announced at last year’s VMworld event.

As such, vSphere+ and vSAN+ “represent the next major evolution of those foundational solutions that customers know and trust,” said Krish Prasad, senior vice president and general manager of VMware’s Cloud Infrastructure Business Group. “Wherever customers are on their digital transformation journey and in executing their multicloud strategy, vSphere+ and vSAN+ will help accelerate their transformation — enabling them to build, run and operate their workloads on-premises while benefiting from new cloud consumption models that positively impact their current operations.”

Note that during VMware’s media briefing announcing the products, company representatives stood firm on their stance not to answer questions about the pending, $61 billion Broadcom acquisition. Read the latest on that deal here. (Incidentally, VMware also has a new interim channel head, now that Sandy Hogan has resigned.)

Meantime, see our slideshow above to learn more about vSphere+ and vSAN+; plus, what the products mean for channel partners and their customers.

SecureAuth has added Dennis Dowd, previously with CyrusOne and AppDynamics, to its leadership team as vice president of worldwide sales.

Dowd will lead SecureAuth’s direct and channel sales teams to grow revenue. SecureAuth also promoted Karan Dua to chief financial officer. Dua previously served as vice president of finance since joining SecureAuth in 2019.

SecureAuth’s Dennis Dowd

“SecureAuth was built on strong identity and access innovation, and continues to take passwordless continuous authentication to the next level with Arculix,” Dowd said.

SecureAuth is well-positioned to help organizations show their value-add, Dowd said. It does so by addressing the demands of digital acceleration and a challenging digital identity threat landscape.

Driving Sales Growth

As the latest addition to the SecureAuth leadership team, Dowd brings experience in driving sales growth and supporting successful value-add solutions for channel partners for a broad range of technology solutions. Prior to SecureAuth, Dowd was CyrusOne‘s area vice president. There, he built an enterprise sales team, growing the business by 500%, and leading to the $15 billion acquisition by KKR and GIP.

As an AppDynamics, AppSense and Dell Technologies veteran, Dowd held sales and channel leadership positions driving market adoption.

Paul Trulove is SecureAuth‘s CEO.

“With the recent launch of Arculix, our next-generation authentication platform, Dennis is joining SecureAuth at an exciting time,” he said. “And we look forward to accelerating growth by partnering with customers to deliver a frictionless, but secure authentication process for all users.”

SecureAuth’s Karan Dua

As SecureAuth’s CFO, Dua is responsible for the global general and administrative function including accounting, finance, treasury, tax and legal. Prior to SecureAuth, he worked at PlanGrid, which was acquired by Autodesk, and YuMe, a public company with $170 million in annual revenue. Dua also brings experience working for big four accounting firms PwC and Ernst & Young.

HPE PARTNER GROWTH SUMMIT — HPE on Monday rolled out a new program to help its partners sell as-a-service solutions. The company used its HPE Discover Partner Growth Summit to unveil several key updates and new programs, all aimed at partner growth. The ecosystem program, Partner Ready Vantage, is to enable partners to stay involved throughout the customer life cycle. 

In light of this announcement, partners offered Channel Futures their thoughts on the program.

MSP Growth Coalition Juan Fernandez

“I believe this is a step in the right direction,” Juan Fernandez, co-founder and CEO, MSP Growth Coalition, told Channel Futures. “The mentorship, workshops, and educational aspects of the program pique my interest as there are so many partners that can take advantage of these services. It’s often forgotten that we are not only in the tech business but also in the employee success business. The more educated we [are], the better suited tech employees are at supporting customers needs.”

Fernandez says that the hardest part about as-a-service is packaging and pricing. That’s not to mention if you’re doing this in-house: the financing.

“If we simplify that process, then I 100% agree this will be a home run,” continued Fernandez. “But, if we add layers of complexity, it may be a tough start. Regardless, this is progress, and I feel that over time it will empower the modern solution provider and will become the way of the future.”

Subscription Model Pivot

Techsperts’ Joe Cannata

“HPE seems to be jumping on the subscription model approach,” Joe Cannata, CEO, Techsperts, told Channel Futures. “While I’m not sure they will compete directly with the Microsofts and Amazons, I can imagine a more packaged and user friendly approach to selling services that could be appealing to partners. I’m interested to see how it plays out and how HPE differentiates [itself] in the market.”

Interesting mention, as we touched on the same phenomenon in our initial coverage of the announcement. Indeed, in recent years, HPE has switched its partner focus from transactional to subscription. This was/has been in an effort to stay ahead of the competition in terms of the growing cloud-computing competition.

For several years, the big vendors, HPE included, have been placing a heavy emphasis on subscription partners as they move away from the old-fashioned transactional model. These vendors have to realize that traditional transactional partners need a little help moving to the as-a-service model, and that partners need those extra service dollars in order to really make significant margin.

“[This is] HPE recognizing that new reality and trying to give partners what they want,” said Kris Blackmon, chief channel officer with channel consultancy JS Group. “Easier said than done. I’ll be paying close attention to see how partners react, and if they’re actually getting those services multiples they’re looking for.”

Staying Ahead of the Curve

Other partners cite HPE’s vigorous objective to keep the company relevant in a significantly and constantly changing IT market.

3Nines’ Terry Suellentrop

“I’m glad to see that HPE is trying to get out in front of this instead of lagging behind,” said Terry Suellentrop, CEO, 3Nines Technologies. “The MSP business model is fairly well developed, but hardware manufacturers have been reluctant to get on board. So, this is a welcome change. I’m guessing that this will take a year or so to play out how this works, and whether SMB customers will embrace the as-a service model for hardware.”

SOS Support’s Jason Kidman

“I have heard recently that Microsoft has, or will be, releasing a managed service solution,” Jason Kidman, president, SOS Support, told Channel Futures. “At first, it was a bit intimidating. But then I realized that our clients don’t want Microsoft to be their MSP. The only other solution I would commit to for our clients would be HPE. I do feel strongly that HPE is great quality. I also think everybody wants to get into recurring revenue models.”

Evolving Business Models

During Monday’s general session at HPE Partner Growth Summit, George Hope, worldwide head of partner sales, addressed the shifting landscape and partner/customer expectations.

“As partners evolve their business models to meet the demands of customers today, they need a flexible program that is designed to help them deliver no matter how their customers are choosing to buy or what their priorities are,” said Hope. “HPE Partner Ready Vantage enables partners to participate more fully across the entire customer life cycle and is optimized for our partners’ evolving business needs to accelerate their growth and enable their success.” 

We asked partners how HPE’s initiatives apply to their businesses and to their customers’.

“The more we have tried to offer HaaS, or even leasing options via third parties to our clients, the more I see our clients not wanting to do them,” added Kidman. “Is this because they want to capitalize their investments for tax purposes? Do they feel like they get a better deal buying up front? Either way, the adoption on our end has been minimal — but we haven’t pushed it hard either.”

XM Cyber has acquired Cyber Observer, a provider of continuous controls monitoring (CCM) and cloud security posture management (CSPM).

The acquisition extends XM Cyber’s attack path management platform.

The purchase marks the latest growth milestone for XM Cyber, which was acquired by Schwartz Group last November. Since then, XM Cyber has extended its portfolio of solutions, expanded its workforce globally, and increased its customer base.

XM Cyber isn’t saying how much it paid for Cyber Observer.

XM Cyber will integrate Cyber Observer’s platform into its platform. Security teams then can see their cyber exposures. They can also see how their existing security controls, and detection and response tools can react to these threats.

It will also automate compliance validation and reporting for key standards like NIST and GDPR.

Latest Step in XM Cyber’s Strategy

Noam Erez is XM Cyber’s CEO.

XM Cyber’s Noam Erez

“Our goal is to give security teams the ability to easily understand and correct their security posture on a continuous basis, including weaknesses, exposures and compensating security controls across the full internal and external attack surface covering on-premises, cloud and SaaS systems,” he said. “This acquisition is not an isolated event, but just the latest step in our strategy to provide the most comprehensive and proactive security posture management platform on the market.”

Shimon Becker is Cyber Observer’s founder and CEO.

Cyber Observer’s Shimon Becker

“Cyber Observer’s patented continuous control monitoring capabilities are a perfect complement to XM Cyber’s award-winning hybrid cloud security platform,” he said. “We are excited about this opportunity and look forward to working with the XM Cyber team to deliver the first end-to-end continuous cyber security posture management solution supporting both cloud and on-premises coverage.”

Last month, XM Cyber announced a new security capability for Microsoft’s Active Directory (AD). With this new capability, enterprises gain end-to-end attack path visualization for understanding and prioritized remediation of all weaknesses before an attack can take place.

HPE DISCOVER AND PARTNER GROWTH SUMMIT — Customers increasingly are demanding a new consumption approach to their digital transformation. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has recently pivoted to enable customers to consume its core business as a service to better support their business goals.

In this spirit, before the official kickoff of HPE Discover 2022 in Las Vegas, the company has announced a new partner program. HPE Partner Ready Vantage builds upon the HPE Partner Ready program. To help partners weather and flourish in today’s fluctuating market, HPE Partner Ready Vantage steps in. The program focuses on partners with as-a-service practices and aims to help them adapt and grow their businesses wherever they are on their journey. 

Adapting Partner Models

In the last few years, HPE has switched its partner focus from transactional to subscription. This is no small thing, as it changes the whole makeup of the channel. As a result, it changes the definition of a successful partner, and what partners and vendors choose to invest in. Dell and Microsoft have also done this, begging the question, how has/will that strategy paid/pay off? It has everything to do with the technical requirements of partners.

HPE’s George Hope

“We’re focused on finding new ways to put partners first,” said George Hope, worldwide head of partner sales, HPE. “This means providing the choice, flexibility, the opportunity to adapt and grow at the partners’ pace. I think that it’s critical to understand that everyone operates at a different pace. And we want to accommodate the different phases. We’re going to continue to create significant resources, investments, tools and programs to meet the needs of today’s (and tomorrow’s) partner. This, of course, means supporting all of the business models, and creating a framework that that’s welcoming to all. We want to make it easier for partners to grow their business within us. So we need to be in keeping with the evolution of our as-a-service portfolio, our own transformation as a company, with our strategy.”

Updates and Refreshes

In tandem with the program, HPE also announced several updates and enhancements. These include the HPE Pro Series, Partner Connect, and a refresh to the HPE partner portal.

The Road to Digital Transformation

The aforementioned shifts in the market are causing partners to shift their thinking. It is no longer enough to simply supply specific components of infrastructure. Customers are now more or less demanding that partners understand their business. With that comes tailoring, delivering and managing full solutions that help them solve specific challenges. It’s not just about jumping over hurdles anymore; it’s about ways to achieve key business outcomes with measurable results. This is most certainly one of the key components to digital transformation. 

So, instead of capital expenditure (capex)-focused approaches, customers now expect operating expenditure (opex) arrangements. Most importantly, this is where partners provide simple as-a-service solutions that allow them to pay only for what they need. 

The demand is indeed high for full-service partners that deliver comprehensive, ongoing support that is “made to order.” For instance, according to IDC, 76% of business-to-business customers want partners to take more day-to-day administrative and operational responsibility for infrastructure so internal IT staff can focus more on business outcomes.

Addressing Market Upheaval

The aim of HPE Partner Ready Vantage is to …

The Channel Futures NextGen 101 honors industry-leading managed service and technology providers that are driving a new wave of growth and innovation for the tech channel via the groundbreaking solutions they deliver for their customers.

The Channel Futures NextGen 101 are those companies that hold great promise given the leading-edge information technology and communication solutions they offer. Many of those business models revolve around generating recurring revenue from cloud, security, unified communications and more. Selected from our pool of MSP 501 applications, these businesses represent the future of the technology channel and IT industry. Given this, the Channel Futures NextGen 101 are some of the most watched of all organizations in the channel today.

Click through the slideshow above to see today’s second set of 2022 Channel Futures NextGen 101 winners, companies #101-#51.

What companies made #50-#1? Click here to find out.

Then, be sure to check out the top 50 of our 2022 MSP 501 winners. From there, you can link to the entire collection of 2022 MSP 501 honorees.

The Channel Futures NextGen 101 honors industry-leading managed service and technology providers that are driving a new wave of growth and innovation for the tech channel via the groundbreaking solutions they deliver for their customers.

The Channel Futures NextGen 101 are those companies that hold great promise given the leading-edge information technology and communication solutions they offer. Many of those business models revolve around generating recurring revenue from cloud, security, unified communications and more. Selected from our pool of MSP 501 applications, these businesses represent the future of the technology channel and IT industry. Given this, the Channel Futures NextGen 101 are some of the most watched of all organizations in the channel today.

Click through the slideshow above to see today’s second set of 2022 Channel Futures NextGen 101winners, companies #50-#1.

Did you miss Part 1? Click here to see who made that list.

Then, be sure to check out the top 50 of our 2022 MSP 501 winners. From there, you can link to the entire collection of 2022 MSP 501 honorees.

HPE DISCOVER AND PARTNER GROWTH SUMMIT — Customers increasingly are demanding a new consumption approach to their digital transformation. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has recently pivoted to enable customers to consume its core business as a service to better support their business goals.

In this spirit, before the official kickoff of HPE Discover 2022 in Las Vegas, the company has announced a new partner program. HPE Partner Ready Vantage builds upon the HPE Partner Ready program. To help partners weather and flourish in today’s fluctuating market, HPE Partner Ready Vantage steps in. The program focuses on partners with as-a-service practices and aims to help them adapt and grow their businesses wherever they are on their journey. 

Adapting Partner Models

In the last few years, HPE has switched its partner focus from transactional to subscription. This is no small thing, as it changes the whole makeup of the channel. As a result, it changes the definition of a successful partner, and what partners and vendors choose to invest in. Dell and Microsoft have also done this, begging the question, how has/will that strategy paid/pay off? It has everything to do with the technical requirements of partners.

HPE’s George Hope

“We’re focused on finding new ways to put partners first,” said George Hope, worldwide head of partner sales, HPE. “This means providing the choice, flexibility, the opportunity to adapt and grow at the partners’ pace. I think that it’s critical to understand that everyone operates at a different pace. And we want to accommodate the different phases. We’re going to continue to create significant resources, investments, tools and programs to meet the needs of today’s (and tomorrow’s) partner. This, of course, means supporting all of the business models, and creating a framework that that’s welcoming to all. We want to make it easier for partners to grow their business within us. So we need to be in keeping with the evolution of our as-a-service portfolio, our own transformation as a company, with our strategy.”

Updates and Refreshes

In tandem with the program, HPE also announced several updates and enhancements. These include the HPE Pro Series, Partner Connect, and a refresh to the HPE partner portal.

The Road to Digital Transformation

The aforementioned shifts in the market are causing partners to shift their thinking. It is no longer enough to simply supply specific components of infrastructure. Customers are now more or less demanding that partners understand their business. With that comes tailoring, delivering and managing full solutions that help them solve specific challenges. It’s not just about jumping over hurdles anymore; it’s about ways to achieve key business outcomes with measurable results. This is most certainly one of the key components to digital transformation. 

So, instead of capital expenditure (capex)-focused approaches, customers now expect operating expenditure (opex) arrangements. Most importantly, this is where partners provide simple as-a-service solutions that allow them to pay only for what they need. 

The demand is indeed high for full-service partners that deliver comprehensive, ongoing support that is “made to order.” For instance, according to IDC, 76% of business-to-business customers want partners to take more day-to-day administrative and operational responsibility for infrastructure so internal IT staff can focus more on business outcomes.

Addressing Market Upheaval

The aim of HPE Partner Ready Vantage is to …

D&H Distributing held its first in-person technology conference since 2019 last week. Its Mid-Atlantic Thread event took place in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

The company created a four-day program with dedicated tracks it targeted to a range of D&H’s customers. These tracks included its Partnerfi engagement community, its VAR and MSP partners, and a segment of retail/consumer partners.

Executives from Microsoft, HP, Dynabook (formerly Toshiba), Intel, Acronis, Proofpoint, NVIDIA, and Google participated. Other vendors that exhibited at the event included Acer, ASUS, AMD, AvePoint, Brother, Cisco, Dell, Lenovo, Lexmark, Seagate and Western Digital. Keynotes were from David Allen of Intel and Kate Swanborg of DreamWorks, plus speakers from Google, Microsoft, Cisco, Lenovo, HPE, among others.

The event attracted upward of 500 channel partners and more than 75 participating manufacturers across the separate programs. There were close to 50 educational sessions, workshops and mainstage presentations.

D&H’s Jennifer Walcott

Jennifer Walcott is vice president of marketing at D&H.

“We’re thrilled that travel and live events are once again a possibility for many of our MSP and VAR partners. It’s extraordinary to be able to provide the tools, training and products firsthand, from subject-matter authorities. Our partners have been eager to commune in person. We’ve worked diligently to expand our trade event and customer engagement experiences,” Walcott said.

Hybrid work, UC collaboration, ProAV, and cybersecurity continue to present a high sales potential for D&H Distributing’s partners, Walcott said. The company will develop new ways to support them in its ongoing mission to meet the needs of this market. Read more about the conference by viewing the slideshow above.