Category Archives for "Managed Services News"

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have been a hot topic in the channel for a while now. Economic disruptions and uncertainties in 2020 might have stalled things a bit, but activity has risen during the past year and shows no signs of slowing down.

A growing number of MSP mergers and acquisitions reflects the interests of private equity in the channel. Managed services are good business. Those of us who work in the MSP world know this, and now we’re seeing larger organizations and investment firms take an interest. Especially during the pandemic, demand for IT services from remote work solutions to infrastructure to cybersecurity has soared.

Meanwhile, global IT spending—particularly in cloud computing—is only going up. By extension, MSPs and IT providers in general are sitting in a great spot with respect to long-term profitability. With increased competition and staffing challenges, MSPs themselves are taking a harder look at M&A as well, with more than 25% saying they’re looking to acquire other MSPs during the next few years.

No matter which way you slice it, M&A should be on your radar. Even if you’re not planning to buy or sell, having a potential exit strategy or a plan for when a potential buyer comes knocking is a good idea. Chances are high you’ll be hearing a lot more about MSP mergers and acquisitions in the near future.

Why Would an MSP Consider M&A?

Other than the benefit of just being good business planning, there are all kinds of reasons an MSP would consider a merger or acquisition. Regardless of whether you’re looking to take over another solution provider or managed services business tomorrow, potential M&A scenarios should still be a part of your playbook.

From a seller’s perspective, maybe you’re looking for a bigger company to help share financial burden, or maybe you want to use the profits of a sale for a new endeavour. Maybe you’re simply ready to get out of the business. Either way, the M&A market could offer an attractive option for allowing your business to live on—if stepping away is the path you choose to take.

If you’re on the buyer’s side of things, your motives are probably a bit different. Ultimately, you probably want to grow your business and generate more revenue; buying or merging with another MSP can help you achieve economies of scope and scale. To the same end, you might be looking to expand your portfolio. Acquiring another MSP that specializes in the services you want to add to your stack can be a faster route to achieving your goal, as opposed to hiring the necessary talent and building out the service internally.

Market saturation with increased competition is another reason MSPs consider an M&A strategy. Merger and acquisitions traditionally involve a certain level of risk. But in a market where it’s increasingly harder to differentiate yourself, customer acquisition costs are rising, and taking on that risk is less of a barrier. So, if you’re looking to consolidate market share or take on larger clients, merging with or acquiring another MSP could be your answer. Like they say, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

What You’ll Need on Your M&A Journey

You can’t just stumble blindly into the M&A market unless you want a disaster on your hands. Buyers and sellers should have several key elements in order before they get into the process and on-hand throughout their M&A journey.

For buyers:

• Identify your needs and requirements: Why do you want to buy or merge with another MSP in the first place? What are you looking to gain from the transaction? What kind of products, solutions or services are you after? What type of clients? These are all questions you should answer before starting down the M&A path.
• Audit your prospects: As with any big purchase, you need to do your due diligence. Sure, you have to conduct a full financial audit of any company you might buy, but don’t leave any stone unturned. You should be looking at systems and tools to make sure the integration time and training costs don’t skyrocket. Internal processes and efficiency often go hand in hand. Are those documented and replicable? Are contracts with major clients in order? Are agreements with key vendors transferrable?
• Don’t forget about culture: A bad cultural fit between combining organizations can sink…

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have been a hot topic in the channel for a while now. Economic disruptions and uncertainties in 2020 might have stalled things a bit, but activity has risen during the past year and shows no signs of slowing down.

A growing number of MSP mergers and acquisitions reflects the interests of private equity in the channel. Managed services are good business. Those of us who work in the MSP world know this, and now we’re seeing larger organizations and investment firms take an interest. Especially during the pandemic, demand for IT services from remote work solutions to infrastructure to cybersecurity has soared.

Meanwhile, global IT spending—particularly in cloud computing—is only going up. By extension, MSPs and IT providers in general are sitting in a great spot with respect to long-term profitability. With increased competition and staffing challenges, MSPs themselves are taking a harder look at M&A as well, with more than 25% saying they’re looking to acquire other MSPs during the next few years.

No matter which way you slice it, M&A should be on your radar. Even if you’re not planning to buy or sell, having a potential exit strategy or a plan for when a potential buyer comes knocking is a good idea. Chances are high you’ll be hearing a lot more about MSP mergers and acquisitions in the near future.

Why Would an MSP Consider M&A?

Other than the benefit of just being good business planning, there are all kinds of reasons an MSP would consider a merger or acquisition. Regardless of whether you’re looking to take over another solution provider or managed services business tomorrow, potential M&A scenarios should still be a part of your playbook.

From a seller’s perspective, maybe you’re looking for a bigger company to help share financial burden, or maybe you want to use the profits of a sale for a new endeavour. Maybe you’re simply ready to get out of the business. Either way, the M&A market could offer an attractive option for allowing your business to live on—if stepping away is the path you choose to take.

If you’re on the buyer’s side of things, your motives are probably a bit different. Ultimately, you probably want to grow your business and generate more revenue; buying or merging with another MSP can help you achieve economies of scope and scale. To the same end, you might be looking to expand your portfolio. Acquiring another MSP that specializes in the services you want to add to your stack can be a faster route to achieving your goal, as opposed to hiring the necessary talent and building out the service internally.

Market saturation with increased competition is another reason MSPs consider an M&A strategy. Merger and acquisitions traditionally involve a certain level of risk. But in a market where it’s increasingly harder to differentiate yourself, customer acquisition costs are rising, and taking on that risk is less of a barrier. So, if you’re looking to consolidate market share or take on larger clients, merging with or acquiring another MSP could be your answer. Like they say, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

What You’ll Need on Your M&A Journey

You can’t just stumble blindly into the M&A market unless you want a disaster on your hands. Buyers and sellers should have several key elements in order before they get into the process and on-hand throughout their M&A journey.

For buyers:

• Identify your needs and requirements: Why do you want to buy or merge with another MSP in the first place? What are you looking to gain from the transaction? What kind of products, solutions or services are you after? What type of clients? These are all questions you should answer before starting down the M&A path.
• Audit your prospects: As with any big purchase, you need to do your due diligence. Sure, you have to conduct a full financial audit of any company you might buy, but don’t leave any stone unturned. You should be looking at systems and tools to make sure the integration time and training costs don’t skyrocket. Internal processes and efficiency often go hand in hand. Are those documented and replicable? Are contracts with major clients in order? Are agreements with key vendors transferrable?
• Don’t forget about culture: A bad cultural fit between combining organizations can sink…

Illumio, the zero-trust segmentation provider, is now working with MSPs for the launch of its new MSP partner program. It aims to help SMBs reduce the risk of suffering from ransomware attacks and other breaches.

Illumio launched the partner program with multiple MSP partners, including FusionTek and Straight Edge Technology.

MSPs that partner with Illumio can:

• Protect their customers from ransomware and other attacks by preventing lateral movement with Illumio Edge’s zero trust segmentation at the endpoint.
• Experience quick time-to-revenue by deploying in hours through Illumio’s user interface (UI).
• Access a new, self-service, multi-tenant portal that streamlines operations for MSPs. It also enables managed support across thousands of clients with distributed environments, including work-from-home.

Addressing MSPs’ Challenges

John Ryan is Illumio‘s vice president of Americas channel sales.

Illumio’s John Ryan

“With the Illumio MSP program, we wanted to ensure simplicity across deployment, usage, management and procurement,” he said. “Many members from Illumio’s team who designed this program come from an MSP background. So we deeply understand and empathize with the challenges MSPs face. That’s why we built this program with ease of use in mind. We wanted to be accessible to MSPs and ultimately customers.”

Last year showed how catastrophic ransomware attacks can be, especially for SMBs, Ryan said. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security found that 50-70% of ransomware attacks target small businesses. They struggle to recuperate and resume their business operations after they’ve been hit.

“That’s in part why awareness around zero trust has skyrocketed over the past year, especially among SMBs,” he said. “On a foundational level, Illumio’s passion for bringing zero-trust architecture to SMBs, on top of the growing market demand, prompted the development of our MSP program. Many businesses are also turning to zero trust strategies to better navigate the new normal of working in hybrid and multicloud environments. However, we are not yet seeing widespread deployment of zero trust architecture amongst SMBs.”

Through its partnerships, Illumio aims to provide that infrastructure and help SMBs make progress on their security goals, Ryan said.

“One of the best ways to enable that progress is by working hand in hand with our MSP partners,” he said.

Zero Trust Strategy Daunting for SMBs

Designing and implementing a zero trust strategy can be daunting, especially for small businesses, Ryan said. MSPs can help break down barriers to adoption, particularly for SMBs.

“Illumio’s approach to zero-trust segmentation helps organizations take incremental steps to implement their security controls — meaning they can make progress quickly,” he said.,

While zero trust can’t be achieved with one technology or vendor alone, segmentation is a key pillar of any zero trust architecture, Ryan said.

“With Illumio, our partners are better equipped to attract new customers and help them act on their security goals to ultimately prevent breaches from becoming cyber disasters,” he said.

Doug Miller is Straight Edge Technology‘s CEO.

“Illumio Edge fills a gap in our offerings and adds a necessary layer of security for our customers,” he said. “The solution provides visibility into endpoint network usage and allows us to not only see where we can tighten up endpoint traffic, but also proactively prevent lateral movement, both of which are critical for cyber resilience today.”

Zoom has launched Zoom Contact Center, an omnichannel contact center solution. The company optimized it for video and it integrates into the same Zoom experience.

Now available, the platform combines unified communications and contact center capabilities with the usability of the Zoom platform. It supports customer service use cases and workflows using channels like video and voice, with SMS and webchat in beta.

As for channel partners, the contact center is available in the United States and Canada via the company’s Referral Partner Program. This includes the Zoom Master Agents Program, Direct Agent Program, and Standard Referral Program.

Innovation Through Video

The platform has more than 100 agent, supervisor and contact center administrator features at launch. Future investments will include additional channels, CRM and workforce management integrations, and AI/ML to optimize agent productivity. This new offer extends traditional capabilities typically optimized for voice. This is to provide a unique end customer experience through channels like video, the company said.

COMMfusion’s Blair Pleasant

Blair Pleasant is president and principal analyst of COMMfusion.

“Zoom understands the importance of bringing together UC and multichannel contact center into the same experience,” Pleasant said. “Zoom is known for great video, which is important for high-touch customer scenarios and internal use cases like IT help desk, employee helpline and revenue-generating activities. But the fact that Zoom Contact Center supports routing, additional channels, and the agent functionality organizations need, means that [the platform] could become the modern contact center solution of choice.”

Contact center agents who work remotely still need to navigate multiple communications tools. The platform streamlines inefficiencies by bringing communications into one central hub. Agents can collaborate with peers, supervisors or other employees right in Zoom Chat and channels.

Ensuring Ease of Deployment and Use

The contact center is simple for administrators to configure and deploy, including a graphical drag-and-drop IVR designer. Zoom says contact center administrators can easily create menus, greetings and prompts in the same Zoom Admin portal. It can also integrate chat and video into an existing digital presence, such as a website. This helps organizations have conversations with customers in the right context and at the right time.

Zoom’s Oded Gal

Oded Gal is chief product officer of Zoom.

“Previously, contact center infrastructure was complex to deploy, expensive to operate and time-intensive to upgrade. Zoom Contact Center was carefully designed to meet the needs of the modern agent and end customer, both of which expect a personalized, digital, and effective contact center experience,” Gal said.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have been a hot topic in the channel for a while now. Economic disruptions and uncertainties in 2020 might have stalled things a bit, but activity has risen during the past year and shows no signs of slowing down.

A growing number of MSP mergers and acquisitions reflects the interests of private equity in the channel. Managed services are good business. Those of us who work in the MSP world know this, and now we’re seeing larger organizations and investment firms take an interest. Especially during the pandemic, demand for IT services from remote work solutions to infrastructure to cybersecurity has soared.

Meanwhile, global IT spending—particularly in cloud computing—is only going up. By extension, MSPs and IT providers in general are sitting in a great spot with respect to long-term profitability. With increased competition and staffing challenges, MSPs themselves are taking a harder look at M&A as well, with more than 25% saying they’re looking to acquire other MSPs during the next few years.

No matter which way you slice it, M&A should be on your radar. Even if you’re not planning to buy or sell, having a potential exit strategy or a plan for when a potential buyer comes knocking is a good idea. Chances are high you’ll be hearing a lot more about MSP mergers and acquisitions in the near future.

Why Would an MSP Consider M&A?

Other than the benefit of just being good business planning, there are all kinds of reasons an MSP would consider a merger or acquisition. Regardless of whether you’re looking to take over another solution provider or managed services business tomorrow, potential M&A scenarios should still be a part of your playbook.

From a seller’s perspective, maybe you’re looking for a bigger company to help share financial burden, or maybe you want to use the profits of a sale for a new endeavour. Maybe you’re simply ready to get out of the business. Either way, the M&A market could offer an attractive option for allowing your business to live on—if stepping away is the path you choose to take.

If you’re on the buyer’s side of things, your motives are probably a bit different. Ultimately, you probably want to grow your business and generate more revenue; buying or merging with another MSP can help you achieve economies of scope and scale. To the same end, you might be looking to expand your portfolio. Acquiring another MSP that specializes in the services you want to add to your stack can be a faster route to achieving your goal, as opposed to hiring the necessary talent and building out the service internally.

Market saturation with increased competition is another reason MSPs consider an M&A strategy. Merger and acquisitions traditionally involve a certain level of risk. But in a market where it’s increasingly harder to differentiate yourself, customer acquisition costs are rising, and taking on that risk is less of a barrier. So, if you’re looking to consolidate market share or take on larger clients, merging with or acquiring another MSP could be your answer. Like they say, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

What You’ll Need on Your M&A Journey

You can’t just stumble blindly into the M&A market unless you want a disaster on your hands. Buyers and sellers should have several key elements in order before they get into the process and on-hand throughout their M&A journey.

For buyers:

• Identify your needs and requirements: Why do you want to buy or merge with another MSP in the first place? What are you looking to gain from the transaction? What kind of products, solutions or services are you after? What type of clients? These are all questions you should answer before starting down the M&A path.
• Audit your prospects: As with any big purchase, you need to do your due diligence. Sure, you have to conduct a full financial audit of any company you might buy, but don’t leave any stone unturned. You should be looking at systems and tools to make sure the integration time and training costs don’t skyrocket. Internal processes and efficiency often go hand in hand. Are those documented and replicable? Are contracts with major clients in order? Are agreements with key vendors transferrable?
• Don’t forget about culture: A bad cultural fit between combining organizations can sink…

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have been a hot topic in the channel for a while now. Economic disruptions and uncertainties in 2020 might have stalled things a bit, but activity has risen during the past year and shows no signs of slowing down.

A growing number of MSP mergers and acquisitions reflects the interests of private equity in the channel. Managed services are good business. Those of us who work in the MSP world know this, and now we’re seeing larger organizations and investment firms take an interest. Especially during the pandemic, demand for IT services from remote work solutions to infrastructure to cybersecurity has soared.

Meanwhile, global IT spending—particularly in cloud computing—is only going up. By extension, MSPs and IT providers in general are sitting in a great spot with respect to long-term profitability. With increased competition and staffing challenges, MSPs themselves are taking a harder look at M&A as well, with more than 25% saying they’re looking to acquire other MSPs during the next few years.

No matter which way you slice it, M&A should be on your radar. Even if you’re not planning to buy or sell, having a potential exit strategy or a plan for when a potential buyer comes knocking is a good idea. Chances are high you’ll be hearing a lot more about MSP mergers and acquisitions in the near future.

Why Would an MSP Consider M&A?

Other than the benefit of just being good business planning, there are all kinds of reasons an MSP would consider a merger or acquisition. Regardless of whether you’re looking to take over another solution provider or managed services business tomorrow, potential M&A scenarios should still be a part of your playbook.

From a seller’s perspective, maybe you’re looking for a bigger company to help share financial burden, or maybe you want to use the profits of a sale for a new endeavour. Maybe you’re simply ready to get out of the business. Either way, the M&A market could offer an attractive option for allowing your business to live on—if stepping away is the path you choose to take.

If you’re on the buyer’s side of things, your motives are probably a bit different. Ultimately, you probably want to grow your business and generate more revenue; buying or merging with another MSP can help you achieve economies of scope and scale. To the same end, you might be looking to expand your portfolio. Acquiring another MSP that specializes in the services you want to add to your stack can be a faster route to achieving your goal, as opposed to hiring the necessary talent and building out the service internally.

Market saturation with increased competition is another reason MSPs consider an M&A strategy. Merger and acquisitions traditionally involve a certain level of risk. But in a market where it’s increasingly harder to differentiate yourself, customer acquisition costs are rising, and taking on that risk is less of a barrier. So, if you’re looking to consolidate market share or take on larger clients, merging with or acquiring another MSP could be your answer. Like they say, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

What You’ll Need on Your M&A Journey

You can’t just stumble blindly into the M&A market unless you want a disaster on your hands. Buyers and sellers should have several key elements in order before they get into the process and on-hand throughout their M&A journey.

For buyers:

• Identify your needs and requirements: Why do you want to buy or merge with another MSP in the first place? What are you looking to gain from the transaction? What kind of products, solutions or services are you after? What type of clients? These are all questions you should answer before starting down the M&A path.
• Audit your prospects: As with any big purchase, you need to do your due diligence. Sure, you have to conduct a full financial audit of any company you might buy, but don’t leave any stone unturned. You should be looking at systems and tools to make sure the integration time and training costs don’t skyrocket. Internal processes and efficiency often go hand in hand. Are those documented and replicable? Are contracts with major clients in order? Are agreements with key vendors transferrable?
• Don’t forget about culture: A bad cultural fit between combining organizations can sink…

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have been a hot topic in the channel for a while now. Economic disruptions and uncertainties in 2020 might have stalled things a bit, but activity has risen during the past year and shows no signs of slowing down.

A growing number of MSP mergers and acquisitions reflects the interests of private equity in the channel. Managed services are good business. Those of us who work in the MSP world know this, and now we’re seeing larger organizations and investment firms take an interest. Especially during the pandemic, demand for IT services from remote work solutions to infrastructure to cybersecurity has soared.

Meanwhile, global IT spending—particularly in cloud computing—is only going up. By extension, MSPs and IT providers in general are sitting in a great spot with respect to long-term profitability. With increased competition and staffing challenges, MSPs themselves are taking a harder look at M&A as well, with more than 25% saying they’re looking to acquire other MSPs during the next few years.

No matter which way you slice it, M&A should be on your radar. Even if you’re not planning to buy or sell, having a potential exit strategy or a plan for when a potential buyer comes knocking is a good idea. Chances are high you’ll be hearing a lot more about MSP mergers and acquisitions in the near future.

Why Would an MSP Consider M&A?

Other than the benefit of just being good business planning, there are all kinds of reasons an MSP would consider a merger or acquisition. Regardless of whether you’re looking to take over another solution provider or managed services business tomorrow, potential M&A scenarios should still be a part of your playbook.

From a seller’s perspective, maybe you’re looking for a bigger company to help share financial burden, or maybe you want to use the profits of a sale for a new endeavour. Maybe you’re simply ready to get out of the business. Either way, the M&A market could offer an attractive option for allowing your business to live on—if stepping away is the path you choose to take.

If you’re on the buyer’s side of things, your motives are probably a bit different. Ultimately, you probably want to grow your business and generate more revenue; buying or merging with another MSP can help you achieve economies of scope and scale. To the same end, you might be looking to expand your portfolio. Acquiring another MSP that specializes in the services you want to add to your stack can be a faster route to achieving your goal, as opposed to hiring the necessary talent and building out the service internally.

Market saturation with increased competition is another reason MSPs consider an M&A strategy. Merger and acquisitions traditionally involve a certain level of risk. But in a market where it’s increasingly harder to differentiate yourself, customer acquisition costs are rising, and taking on that risk is less of a barrier. So, if you’re looking to consolidate market share or take on larger clients, merging with or acquiring another MSP could be your answer. Like they say, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

What You’ll Need on Your M&A Journey

You can’t just stumble blindly into the M&A market unless you want a disaster on your hands. Buyers and sellers should have several key elements in order before they get into the process and on-hand throughout their M&A journey.

For buyers:

• Identify your needs and requirements: Why do you want to buy or merge with another MSP in the first place? What are you looking to gain from the transaction? What kind of products, solutions or services are you after? What type of clients? These are all questions you should answer before starting down the M&A path.
• Audit your prospects: As with any big purchase, you need to do your due diligence. Sure, you have to conduct a full financial audit of any company you might buy, but don’t leave any stone unturned. You should be looking at systems and tools to make sure the integration time and training costs don’t skyrocket. Internal processes and efficiency often go hand in hand. Are those documented and replicable? Are contracts with major clients in order? Are agreements with key vendors transferrable?
• Don’t forget about culture: A bad cultural fit between combining organizations can sink…

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have been a hot topic in the channel for a while now. Economic disruptions and uncertainties in 2020 might have stalled things a bit, but activity has risen during the past year and shows no signs of slowing down.

A growing number of MSP mergers and acquisitions reflects the interests of private equity in the channel. Managed services are good business. Those of us who work in the MSP world know this, and now we’re seeing larger organizations and investment firms take an interest. Especially during the pandemic, demand for IT services from remote work solutions to infrastructure to cybersecurity has soared.

Meanwhile, global IT spending—particularly in cloud computing—is only going up. By extension, MSPs and IT providers in general are sitting in a great spot with respect to long-term profitability. With increased competition and staffing challenges, MSPs themselves are taking a harder look at M&A as well, with more than 25% saying they’re looking to acquire other MSPs during the next few years.

No matter which way you slice it, M&A should be on your radar. Even if you’re not planning to buy or sell, having a potential exit strategy or a plan for when a potential buyer comes knocking is a good idea. Chances are high you’ll be hearing a lot more about MSP mergers and acquisitions in the near future.

Why Would an MSP Consider M&A?

Other than the benefit of just being good business planning, there are all kinds of reasons an MSP would consider a merger or acquisition. Regardless of whether you’re looking to take over another solution provider or managed services business tomorrow, potential M&A scenarios should still be a part of your playbook.

From a seller’s perspective, maybe you’re looking for a bigger company to help share financial burden, or maybe you want to use the profits of a sale for a new endeavour. Maybe you’re simply ready to get out of the business. Either way, the M&A market could offer an attractive option for allowing your business to live on—if stepping away is the path you choose to take.

If you’re on the buyer’s side of things, your motives are probably a bit different. Ultimately, you probably want to grow your business and generate more revenue; buying or merging with another MSP can help you achieve economies of scope and scale. To the same end, you might be looking to expand your portfolio. Acquiring another MSP that specializes in the services you want to add to your stack can be a faster route to achieving your goal, as opposed to hiring the necessary talent and building out the service internally.

Market saturation with increased competition is another reason MSPs consider an M&A strategy. Merger and acquisitions traditionally involve a certain level of risk. But in a market where it’s increasingly harder to differentiate yourself, customer acquisition costs are rising, and taking on that risk is less of a barrier. So, if you’re looking to consolidate market share or take on larger clients, merging with or acquiring another MSP could be your answer. Like they say, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

What You’ll Need on Your M&A Journey

You can’t just stumble blindly into the M&A market unless you want a disaster on your hands. Buyers and sellers should have several key elements in order before they get into the process and on-hand throughout their M&A journey.

For buyers:

• Identify your needs and requirements: Why do you want to buy or merge with another MSP in the first place? What are you looking to gain from the transaction? What kind of products, solutions or services are you after? What type of clients? These are all questions you should answer before starting down the M&A path.
• Audit your prospects: As with any big purchase, you need to do your due diligence. Sure, you have to conduct a full financial audit of any company you might buy, but don’t leave any stone unturned. You should be looking at systems and tools to make sure the integration time and training costs don’t skyrocket. Internal processes and efficiency often go hand in hand. Are those documented and replicable? Are contracts with major clients in order? Are agreements with key vendors transferrable?
• Don’t forget about culture: A bad cultural fit between combining organizations can sink…

IBM spinoff Kyndryl has bagged the last, and biggest, U.S. hyperscaler as part of its plan to capture $510 billion in addressable market share for various managed services.

The new partnership between Kyndryl and AWS marks the final one in Kyndryl’s public cloud pipeline (at least in the United States). Once separated from Big Blue, Kyndryl signed similar contracts late last year with Amazon Web Services competitors Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

Now, AWS is following suit — about three months later than it had planned.

Long Time Coming

Chris Niederman, general manager of global account sales and strategic alliances at AWS, said the vendor initially wanted to share the Kyndryl news in December at re:Invent — right after the Mainframe Modernization Service announcement, in fact. But that didn’t pan out.

AWS’ Chris Niederman

“We have been in discussions with Kyndryl for quite some time and wanted to take the time to get it right for our customers and Kyndryl versus rushing to bring something to market that isn’t fully fleshed out and [as] impactful for our customers as we believe it can and should be,” Niederman told Channel Futures.

There are, of course, some significant differences between what Kyndryl is doing with AWS, and what it’s doing with Azure and Google Cloud.

For one thing, Kyndryl is establishing an AWS Cloud Center of Excellence. Centers of Excellence enable professionals to create platforms by following best practices and connecting with people who provide expertise and guidance. (While not ubiquitous, they’re growing more common in the indirect channel.) To that point, Kyndryl’s AWS Cloud Center of Excellence will feature solutions and services for supporting infrastructure, modernizing applications and workflows, and more. Kyndryl channel partners worldwide can take advantage of the Center of Excellence to tweak and optimize the ways their customers use AWS.

Kyndryl does not offer a Center of Excellence through Azure or Google Cloud. It does, though, have a co-innovation lab with the former and an academy with the latter.

Kyndryl, AWS Tackle On-Premises VMware Deployments

A second unique aspect of the Kyndryl partnership with AWS centers around VMware. The effort calls for Kyndryl and AWS to develop an accelerator for VMware Cloud on AWS. That means channel partners who have end users running VMware on-premises soon will have an expedited way to move those customers into the cloud. Kyndryl says it has a “high concentration” of premises-bound VMware clients.

VMware’s Raghu Raghuram

“VMware, AWS and Kyndryl bring together a unique combination of customer focus, technology innovation and industry leadership that, together, will accelerate customers’ application modernization and cloud initiatives,” said Raghu Raghuram, CEO of VMware. “AWS is VMware’s preferred public cloud partner for vSphere workloads, and Kyndryl and VMware have a partnership built on more than two decades of collaboration. Together, our companies will help customers successfully navigate complex cloud journeys that lead to greater digital innovation while retaining enterprise control.”

Other Projects Kyndryl and AWS Will Pursue

The new partnership between Kyndryl and AWS contains some other elements, too. For example, as Kyndryl builds more of its own infrastructure, it says it will use AWS as its preferred cloud provider. In addition, because of the arrangement, AWS now becomes a Kyndryl Premier Global Alliance Partner. The two companies also will educate more than 10,000 Kyndryl services professionals by the end of this year.

“Organizations everywhere are choosing AWS to transform their businesses and tackle some of the world’s most difficult challenges — from putting automated vehicles on our streets, to improving health care outcomes, to addressing climate change,” said AWS CEO Adam Selipsky. “By combining forces with Kyndryl, we are helping customers of all sizes to modernize faster than ever before, grow their businesses and transform what’s possible. Together, we are committed to educating, empowering and enabling thousands of AWS certified practitioners and developing joint solutions that will accelerate customers’ journeys and help them innovate.”

Kyndryl, for its part, already was a Premier Global Alliance Partner and MSP-certified member of the AWS Partner Network. The newly announced partnership just expands the providers’ relationship.

“Our ability to freely explore and unleash the combined benefits of AWS cloud services with Kyndryl’s … industry-specific managed services and expertise will provide an unprecedented level of knowledge and innovation,” said Martin Schroeter, chairman and CEO of Kyndryl. “Together, we will invest in enhancing Kyndryl’s expertise in AWS to help companies modernize, innovate and compete.”

AT&T Cybersecurity has unveiled its 2022 Global Partner of the Year Awards. Softcat leads the way, taking the award for global partner of the year.

Softcat has received the honor for two years in a row. AT&T said Softcat aggressively grew its business and achieved “truly impressive” results in 2021.

Jordan Redd is AT&T Cybersecurity‘s senior sales director, MSSP.

AT&T Cybersecurity’s Jordan Redd

“At AT&T Cybersecurity, we will continue to focus on enhancing our channel programs to provide partners the ability to not only scale their businesses and increase profitability, but most importantly deliver on their infosec promise to their client base,” he said. “Together, we will do so in both a consistent and progressive manner, evolving with the ever-changing security market we all serve. We look forward to another year of success working closely with our partners.”

Matthew Helling is Softcat‘s head of cybersecurity services.

“We are so proud of the collaborative partnership we have developed with [AT&T] over the last four years,” he said. “And this award is a testament to that and the significant growth we have delivered with them during what has been a challenging year. It also reflects our ambition to always provide our customers with the best managed security information and event management (SIEM) solution available in the marketplace.”

AT&T Cybersecurity Partner Awards

Other AT&T global partner awards include:

• Growth Partner of the Year: STN
• New Partner of the Year: Brennan IT
• Distributor of the Year: CMS Distribution

AT&T also handed out regional partner awards. These recognize partners that had the highest sales bookings in each of the four regions last year.

The awards include:

• North American Partner of the Year: Binary Defense
• EMEA Partner of the Year: Six Degrees
• APAC Partner of the Year: Kordia
• Latin American Partner of the Year: GB Advisors