Category Archives for "Managed Services News"

Abe Ankumah

COVID-19 sent shockwaves through enterprises, and IT organizations are still scrambling to adapt. As the pandemic pushed millions to full-time work-from home, IT leaders had to accelerate strategies for enabling a more distributed and cloud-connected workforce. IT vision-setters expected steady growth in remote workers, and to see more applications move to the cloud and edge. But they hadn’t planned on seeing a decade’s worth of that evolution squeezed into mere weeks.

Overhauling the enterprise operating model so quickly spawned growing pains, especially pertaining to managing networking and security. Suddenly, IT needed to support a different workforce and application stack. But in many cases, staff are still relying on tools designed for a pre-pandemic world. Worse, they face new security requirements that legacy approaches can’t address, leading to extra effort and complexity in the best cases, and dangerous blind spots in the worst.

Secure access service edge (SASE) is a new way to manage enterprise networking and security that’s designed for distributed workforces and applications. SASE enables a cloud network operations model that’s suited to the way modern businesses work. And it’s becoming a mission-critical technology for the post-pandemic enterprise.

Turbocharging Change

Historically, enterprise IT architectures revolved around centralized corporate data centers since that’s where the business applications and security lived. But what happens when most users suddenly work from home, accessing mostly cloud-based applications? As enterprises discovered trying to adapt their operating model on the fly, serious problems became obvious. Problems such as:

• Poor application experiences: Home-based workers might connect from anywhere. If you’re still routing all their traffic through a centralized data center, you introduce latency that diminishes application performance, especially for real-time video applications such as Zoom.
• Increased risk: Adding thousands of user-owned devices to the IT environment makes it harder to protect against threats. Shifting architectures also make it easier for policies set by security teams to get lost in translation by network admins tasked with implementing them. Additionally, more workers may download web-based productivity applications that haven’t been cleared by corporate security and could pose a threat.
• Operational complexity: As IT scrambled to connect home-based workers, they found themselves navigating a patchwork of legacy management and security solutions, struggling to understand interdependencies, and swiveling between tools to fix problems.
• Pressure to support environments outside IT’s control: Users now access business applications from personal devices, connected to spotty Wi-Fi, over aging last-mile broadband networks. Problems can arise in any link of that chain — problems that users still expect IT to fix — even though IT has no visibility into most of that infrastructure.

If you’re trying to solve these issues using tools designed for yesterday’s architectures, you’re going to struggle. To get to a point where you can spend more time focusing on business outcomes, instead of chasing down trouble tickets, you need a different operating paradigm, one built for the distributed enterprise.

Cloud Network Operations

Navigating these changes requires a modern, cloud-centric IT operating model. Implementing SASE is the most important step you can take to enable it. SASE combines multiple networking and security technologies within …

Technology vendors big and small are launching offerings that channel partners can sell.

The IT and telecommunications markets continue to turn to indirect sales for growth.

We saw new SD-WAN offerings from the recently integrated Comcast Business and Masergy. One of those targets the enterprise, and the other specifically supports reseller partners. A much-discussed remote monitoring and management provider launched two new business continuity solutions. And one of the big UCaaS providers took another step into the CCaaS space with a platform partnership.

In the meantime, Microsoft unveiled its latest version of Microsoft 11.

Scroll through the 18 images above to see the latest products and services partners can sell.

Also check out the March edition of the new services roundup.

Technology vendors big and small are launching offerings that channel partners can sell.

The IT and telecommunications markets continue to turn to indirect sales for growth.

We saw new SD-WAN offerings from the recently integrated Comcast Business and Masergy. One of those targets the enterprise, and the other specifically supports reseller partners. A much-discussed remote monitoring and management provider launched two new business continuity solutions. And one of the big UCaaS providers took another step into the CCaaS space with a platform partnership.

In the meantime, Microsoft unveiled its latest version of Microsoft 11.

Scroll through the 18 images above to see the latest products and services partners can sell.

Also check out the March edition of the new services roundup.

Amazon Web Services channel partners offering Databricks lakehouses now can take advantage of new benefits.

On Tuesday, AWS and Databricks, the cloud data software provider, said they’ve expanded their longtime collaboration. That means AWS managed service providers, global system integrators and resellers benefit, primarily by being able to deliver a “pay-as-you-go” option. Users pay only for the resources they consume and bill against their AWS Enterprise Discount Program commitment.

Databricks’ Joel Minnick

“This new offering not only benefits the end customer but also lowers barriers and makes it easier for partners in our ecosystem to better support their AWS customers with new deployments of Databricks’ Lakehouse,” Joel Minnick, vice president of marketing at Databricks, told Channel Futures.

Plus, users gain “seamless integration” between existing AWS configuration and security and Databricks, the companies said. That’s significant because previously, deploying Databricks on AWS required a lot of hands-on setup and configuration. Now, the process of implementing a Databricks lakehouse entails a few clicks in the AWS Marketplace console. In addition, partners can integrate Databricks administration and billing with the rest of their AWS management and billing.

Channel Implications

But according to Databricks and AWS, there’s even more on the channel side as a result of the new arrangement.

“This also allows consulting and SI partners to see a broader view of a customer’s current data and AI use cases, and identify future use cases to pursue,” Minnick explained. “Ultimately, we want to enable these partners to build and offer new data lakehouse solutions and services that are tailored for Databricks on AWS.”

Stephen Orban, head of AWS Marketplace, agreed.

“By using channel programs already available through AWS Marketplace – including the Solution Provider Private Offer and Consulting Partner Private Offer programs – MSPs, GSIs and resellers can offer discounts extended by Databricks to their AWS customers, and maintain the contractual relationships established when they joined the AWS Solution Provider partner program,” Orban told Channel Futures.

AWS-Databricks Lakehouse Opportunity ‘Exciting’ for Partners

On top of that, Orban said, the new offering related to Databricks lakehouses “opens up an exciting opportunity for our partner community to list Databricks professional services in the AWS Marketplace catalog.”

Overall, though, Orban said, the new Databricks listing “helps our partners expand existing AWS Marketplace ISV portfolios, and delivers more value to our partners’ customers by equipping them with industry-leading products that run seamlessly in AWS customer environments.”

The Databricks Lakehouse Platform pay-as-you-go option is now available. Moreover, there’s a 14-day free trial, too.

“We are excited to evolve our longtime strategic relationship with AWS and bring the power of Databricks’ Lakehouse Platform to more customers with an integrated, streamlined experience on AWS Marketplace,” said Andy Kofoid, president of global field operations at Databricks.

For its part, AWS continues to expand the ways in which it delivers cloud infrastructure to end users. For example, last month, the world’s largest public cloud provider made its EC2 and S3 instances available through Pax8, giving it more access to the SMB market.

Amazon Partner Network and the AWS Marketplace recently celebrated their 10-year anniversary. Click here for Orban’s thoughts on that milestone, as well as insights into Ruba Borno’s first 120 days on the job as AWS channel chief.

Red Hat Summit 2022 is Tuesday and Wednesday. Just in time for the event, the company released an avalanche of news. Channel partners who specialize in open-source platforms and services will want to get the scoop on those announcements. We’ve compiled those into the slideshow above just as Red Hat Summit kicks off.

Want some teasers for what’s happening at Red Hat Summit? Here you go.

Red Hat has a new version of its hybrid cloud platform, Enterprise Linux 9. Find out what it does differently from previous editions, and why the Red Hat Summit features so much emphasis on the new software. (Hint: It has to do with huge projections tied to enterprise spending.)

There’s also an important change to Red Hat Cloud Services and the security portfolio.

Next, find out how Red Hat is playing in edge computing and how the channel fits in.

There’s news, too, on the Ansible platform, as that relates to one of the Big 3 public cloud computing providers, plus a big announcement from Red Hat and Accenture.

Look for more from Channel Futures on the Red Hat Summit 2022 this week as the event continues.

Fortinet has unveiled several updates to the Engage Partner Program that it launched in 2020. The updates aim to create even more growth opportunities for global partners of all types.

The security provider announced the Engage partner program updates during its Accelerate 2022 virtual event on Tuesday. Jon Bove is Fortinet’s vice president of channel sales. He said there are two goals behind the program updates.

Fortinet’s Jon Bove

“We wanted to truly globalize the partner program,” he said. “We think that’s important. We’re a global company, we’re a global channel, and I think we needed that level of global consistency.”

Beyond Reselling

Second, the Engage partner program originally was mostly a reseller-driven program and the “market’s kind of moved beyond that,” Bove said.

“The foundation of our first introduction was introducing three tracks,” he said. “So we want partners to self-identify and we want to make sure we can build value for each. So we’ve got an integrator track, which is your traditional VAR and IT channel, an MSSP track and a cloud track. And then on top of that we built specializations.”

Fortinet’s security fabric is broad in nature, Bove said. It has solutions for network from SD-WAN to data center, to endpoint around zero trust, endpoint detection and response (EDR) and network access control (NAC), and then around cloud and overlaying security operations.

“So what we introduced was the specialization,” he said. “So this concept that a partner could go specialize through certifications, training and specific tracks … and not that you need to specialize in everything.”

Fortinet recognizes that services drive profit for partners, Bove said.

“And so we want to drive services enablement through practice adoption,” he said. “We think that’s very important because the days of partners being able to show up, and build and run their business on the transaction, those partners are dying. And maybe some of them are already dead and they just don’t know it. So it’s very important for partners to be able to show up and deliver whether it be consulting services, managed services, deployment services or data support services.”

Engage Partner Program Updates

• For partners with a mature, established professional services practice, the Engage Preferred Services Partner (EPSP) program provides direct vendor support. It also offer additional accreditation to increase service sales and delivery excellence. Qualified EPSPs receive access to specialized training and direct assistance from Fortinet experts to build new skills and expand their confidence in providing advanced end-to-end security support for their customers.
• There are more entry points to make it easier for partners interested in joining the Engage Partner Program and adopting the MSSP business model. For example, Fortinet no longer requires Select partners to have a security operations center (SOC) in place. Going forward, for Select partners who have completed the MSSP business model’s NSE certification requirements, Fortinet will now provide a free FortiCloud premium license so these partners can more efficiently deliver essential managed services.
• Fortinet now offers two cloud productivity kits for Engage partners. Those include a cloud starter kit and a cloud enterprise kit. Organizations can acquire and implement the technology they need to create an online environment to demonstrate how with Fortinet they can secure data applications and users in the cloud.
• A new enterprise agreement program for MSPs initially launching in the United States. It aims to provide a more predictable cost structure and revenue stream. It also helps partners simplify the management of their estate of assets. That includes the assets they own, the ones being delivered as a service, and those they inherit to manage. That makes it easier to centrally coordinate all assets under their control, the company said. This will help partners streamline business operations and create efficiencies.

Feedback Drove Engage Partner Program Updates

Partner feedback played a key role in the program updates, Bove said.

“The enterprise agreement for MSPs came directly out of feedback that we got from …

Unitas Global is buying the INAP network business in a deal that expands its expertise and customer base.

Unitas Global’s Patrick Shut

The deal, for which Unitas did not disclose financial details, brings together INAP’s intelligent routing software, Unitas’ design and pricing platform, and Unitas’ global network. “Thousands” of enterprises now join Unitas’ customer base as a result.

“We are thrilled to have completed the acquisition of INAP’s Network Business and excited to welcome their customers, vendors and employees to the Unitas Global team,” Unitas Global CEO Patrick Shutt said.

Unitas chief technology officer Grant Kirkwood said the provider aims to lead the market in “redefining an agile hybrid cloud for the enterprise.”

Unitas Global’s Grant Kirkwood

“The disruptive nature of Unitas’ networking services strategy that enables hybrid cloud environments has become increasingly self-evident in the market,” Kirkwood said.

@UnitasGlobal made a big move today… super proud and excited for the future. https://t.co/toDwIr6oAL

— Grant Kirkwood (@prolixity) May 9, 2022

“The transaction is a true win-win for everyone involved. Unitas Global will continue to provide the high-quality services that customers enjoy today while investing in new solutions to enable further network transformation tomorrow,” INAP CEO Mike Sicoli said. “We also look forward to partnering with Unitas Global to bring an expanded portfolio of connectivity offerings to our colocation and cloud customers.”

INAP’s Michael Sicoli

INAP now functions as a strategic Unitas Global customer. Virginia-based INAP will still offer connectivity, colocation and cloud solutions, leveraging Unitas’ recently signed PacketFabric partnership.

Background

Unitas, a two-time MSP 501 awardee, in February 2021 launched a software-defined network. Unitas Reach touches 900 data centers and 30 million business locations. The managed network services provider also in 2021 launched a marketplace for cloud-connecting enterprise edge locations.

Private equity firm Digital Alpha Advisors in April completed its acquisition of Unitas’ connectivity division.

“The global data networking marketplace offers a significant opportunity for companies with the vision and the capability to enable critical end-to-everywhere services,” Digital Alpha managing partner Rick Shrotr said. “We look forward to adding Unitas Global’s Connectivity Business assets to our portfolio and building on its already strong foundation.”

Privately held Unitas launched in 2011. On the other hand, INAP, better known as Internap, is a publicly traded company that was founded in 1996.

INAP exited chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020, having cut more than $160 million in debt.

Technology vendors big and small are launching offerings that channel partners can sell.

The IT and telecommunications markets continue to turn to indirect sales for growth.

We saw new SD-WAN offerings from the recently integrated Comcast Business and Masergy. One of those targets the enterprise, and the other specifically supports reseller partners. A much-discussed remote monitoring and management provider launched two new business continuity solutions. And one of the big UCaaS providers took another step into the CCaaS space with a platform partnership.

In the meantime, Microsoft unveiled its latest version of Microsoft 11.

Scroll through the 18 images above to see the latest products and services partners can sell.

Also check out the March edition of the new services roundup.

Gartner has released a cloud computing report that suggests cloud leaders should consider four emerging solution providers to complement their existing architectures.

The 2022 Cool Vendors in Cloud Computing features information on the startups that are disruptive or provide opportunity not typical in the marketplace. Gartner’s process for selecting Cool Vendors isn’t completely transparent, but this brief review helps readers better understand how these analytics solutions will fit into the marketplace of the future.

Prosimo

Prosimo delivers multicloud infrastructure for distributed enterprise cloud. This stack combines cloud networking, performance, security, observability and cost management. It’s all powered by data insights and machine learning models with autonomous cloud networking. General Catalyst and WRVI Capital are among the marquee investors to back Prosimo. The Prosimo Next partner program empowers vendors, systems integrators and resellers globally to deliver autonomous cloud networking solutions that transform business, the company said.

Stacklet

Stacklet offers a commercial cloud governance platform. The company is built with an open core model around popular open-source project Cloud Custodian. The firm’s founders are the creative team behind Cloud Custodian. Stacklet provides best practice operations of Cloud Custodian, access to pre-built policies and, in the future, a fully hosted version of Cloud Custodian. Cloud Custodian is an open-source cloud security and governance project that came out of Capital One’s journey to the public cloud.

Stateless

Stateless offers network automation for hybrid and multicloud. State and processing are decoupled from network functions in this new patented architecture. This is then broken down into micro-network functions to enable simple, scalable and dynamic networking. Stateless is the recipient of the Inno on Fire Award, Best Colorado Companies to Watch award, is a Best Company to Work For for the last two years.

Upbound

Upbound is the company behind open-source Crossplane — the cloud-native alternative to infrastructure as code. Upbound’s product offerings are available via a subscription model that currently has two tiers. The first is a free tier catering to individuals getting started with control planes and who need tooling to debug and share their Crossplane providers and configurations. Upbound’s enterprise tier unlocks additional value across the product portfolio. The company partners with cloud providers, technology partners and consultancy and SI partners.

Open Systems has collaborated with Microsoft to develop Microsoft Security Experts. It’s a new set of managed threat hunting and response security service offerings.

Microsoft Security Experts, an expansion of Microsoft’s existing portfolio, launched Monday.

Open Systems’ Managed Detection and Response Plus (MDR+) platform allows organizations to mitigate both threats and risks. It does so by leveraging the Microsoft security tool stack as a multicloud, multi-device control plane.

Big Opportunities for Open Systems Partners

Alex Berger is Open Systems’ senior director of product marketing.

Open Systems’ Alex Berger

“Partners will be able to offer customers Open Systems MDR+ as a complement to … Microsoft Security Experts managed extended detection and response (MXDR) service. Using both, … our partners’ customers get the benefits of Microsoft’s standardized threat detection and alert triage augmented with tailored protection and localized response delivered by MDR+.”

In addition, Open Systems can help partners’ customers adopt core Microsoft security technologies required by the Microsoft Security Experts services.

The combination of Microsoft Security Experts and Open Systems MDR+ is an “extremely compelling” managed security services solution, Berger said. Unlike competitive solutions, it “leaves no stone unturned” thanks to the combination of globalized threat detection and alert triage with localized response.

“To realize these benefits, the Microsoft MXDR service will provide additional signals and data for integration into MDR+, to enable a seamless experience for customers,” he said.

More to Come From Collaboration

Andrew Conway is Microsoft’s vice president of security marketing.

Microsoft’s Andrew Conway

“Open Systems has played an important role in helping shape the direction of Microsoft Security Experts,” he said. “We look forward to helping to protect our mutual customers through integration with Open Systems’ industry-leading security MDR services offering.”

Berger said Open Systems is continuing to co-innovate with Microsoft and both companies will share more details at Inspire, Microsoft’s worldwide partner conference in July.