7 Channel People Making Waves This Week at AWS, BlackBerry, More
Two analysts made it this week, plus two security executives and an MSP owner.
May 27, 2022
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He may have big shoes to fill by replacing AWS’ Sandy Carter, but Jeffrey Kratz is making a mark in his own way. Kratz, general manager of AWS’ worldwide public sector partner program, gave the keynote speech this week at the AWS Public Sector Summit in Washington, D.C., geared toward, well, public sector partners.
His speech made waves for highlighting how AWS is teaming with SAP NS2 Labs, SAP and Verizon. (SAP built NS2 Labs specifically for the national security community.) Together the companies will deploy a 5G cell within NS2 Labs in Chantilly, Virginia, for computing use cases that rely on 5G and the edge.
AWS will provide its Outposts infrastructure and services for the effort.
“The combination of Verizon 5G with AWS Secure Hybrid Edge capabilities will allow partners and customers in all locations — in both the commercial and public sector — to process larger amounts of data while meeting compliance requirements around data sovereignty,” Kratz said.
Get more from Kelly Teal’s reporting.
What are characteristics of vendors that are valuable to partners? Flexibility? Creativity? Being direct and honest? It was a topic of discussion among participants of the MSP roundtable at the 2022 Channel Partners Conference & Expo this spring.
Neil Medwed is executive director of strategic partnerships at Meriplex. He made waves at the roundtable for his take on relationship building.
“Have those conversations with your customer base and your clients and say, ‘Hey, this is the situation; these are alternatives that we can do’ and let them make that choice. Many times they’re gonna say, ‘This is a business need that we have; we need to solve this business requirement.’ You can outright solve this business requirement, or do the good old Texas two-step and do it in parts, and then pivot down the road to something different as time goes on. Reality is reality. As long as you’re communicating those, the relationship will flourish.”
Read more from the roundtable here.
Top SD-WAN providers need to offer more than just MPLS replacement to stay relevant in today’s highly competitive market, writes Channel Futures’ Edward Gately.
Managed services are playing a bigger role in the market and numerous acquisitions have reshaped the industry in recent years. In addition, the hybrid work model facilitated by the COVID-19 pandemic has changed what customers demand from SD-WAN providers.
In our second annual “CF List” focused on top SD-WAN providers, we got expert opinion from people like Mauricio Sanchez of the Dell’Oro Group. Sanchez made waves for his assessment that SD-WAN providers can’t just lie back and relax.
“I think the definition of a cutting-edge SD-WAN provider continues to evolve and expand,” he said. “No longer can an SD-WAN provider rest on their laurels and just focus on how they can replace MPLS with commodity internet links at branch offices. While this is still a valid use case, the leading SD-WAN provider now needs to be able to show greater value across a number of different domains.”
Go here to find out which providers made the list.
Avant’s acquisition of PlanetOne continues to send shockwaves through the channel.
The companies last week announced the tie-up, which will bring Arizona-based PlanetOne under Chicago-based Avant’s brand. Vendor channel leaders spoke about how TSB consolidation impacts their outlook for the upcoming years.
Francesca Bowen serves as global head of partnerships for Darktrace and made waves for explaining how the deal benefits her business. The AI-based cybersecurity partner entered the advisory channel earlier this year through a partnership with PlanetOne.
Bowen said the acquisition doubles the number of sales partners Darktrace works with. Bowen also said the transaction provides more third-party customer resources.
“Culturally, it is a great fit because Avant and PlanetOne both take a consultative approach and love to solve real-time business challenges with cybersecurity rather than just selling products,” Bowen said. “We’re thrilled to be a premier security partner for a company that is on the road to becoming a $1 billion partner organization. As Darktrace continues to grow our channel and global presence, we are excited to see Avant growing the same way.”
Read other reactions to the deal here.
Nine out of 10 Barracuda partners now identify as MSPs, according to CEO Hatem Naguib.
He made waves this week for being so candid about the role MSPs have played in his company’s growth.
“When we created an MSP business unit we put behind that all of the components that allowed our MSP partners to engage with us,” Hatem said. “[Managed services is] where we’ve made the most strategic M&A,” said Naguib. “Because we feel this is the tip of the iceberg. For us, it’s one of the key growth levers from here to the next seven years.”
He added: “We continue to invest to make sure that whatever consumption option the customer wants, they can leverage the products to engage with them.”
Find out what Barracuda’s Partner of the Year for 2022 had to say about this topic.
BlackBerry is accelerating its work with MSSP partners as the managed security services marketplace is expected to skyrocket through 2030.
That’s according to Colleen McMillan, BlackBerry’s vice president of global channel sales. She leads the company’s global channel strategy. McMillan made waves for her assessment that the managed security services market should grow from about $22 billion to over $77 billion from 2020 to 2030. That’s good news for BlackBerry MSSP partners.
“That’s a pretty good indicator that we’re going to see more and more growth around the managed service marketplace,” McMillan said. “So obviously we’re making tremendous investments there to support our MSSPs. We’ve doubled the team.”
Read the rest of the Gately Report here.
Broadcom acquiring VMware was undoubtably the most-read story of the week.
VMware will keep its brand, incorporating the assets from the Broadcom Software Group. Broadcom has bought several software companies over the last five years, including Symantec and CA Technologies.
According to Roy Illsley, Omdia’s chief analyst of IT ecosystem and operations, deals have not gone well for the companies Broadcom has acquired. (Informa Tech is the parent company of both Omdia and Channel Futures.) He made waves for being frank about the VMware deal.
“To be honest, Broadcom has killed CA and Symantec as brands (although these have helped Broadcom’s overall financial position), so I do not see any value other than they (Broadcom) may have cash to burn and need to make an investment that will also add to its overall financial performance,” Illsley said. “I would see this as Broadcom acquiring a ‘cash cow’ in VMware, but beyond that am struggling to see any real synergies.”
To read our ongoing coverage of the deal, go here, here and here.
Broadcom acquiring VMware was undoubtably the most-read story of the week.
VMware will keep its brand, incorporating the assets from the Broadcom Software Group. Broadcom has bought several software companies over the last five years, including Symantec and CA Technologies.
According to Roy Illsley, Omdia’s chief analyst of IT ecosystem and operations, deals have not gone well for the companies Broadcom has acquired. (Informa Tech is the parent company of both Omdia and Channel Futures.) He made waves for being frank about the VMware deal.
“To be honest, Broadcom has killed CA and Symantec as brands (although these have helped Broadcom’s overall financial position), so I do not see any value other than they (Broadcom) may have cash to burn and need to make an investment that will also add to its overall financial performance,” Illsley said. “I would see this as Broadcom acquiring a ‘cash cow’ in VMware, but beyond that am struggling to see any real synergies.”
To read our ongoing coverage of the deal, go here, here and here.
Channel People Making Waves focuses on seven individuals who made a difference in the community this week, including those at AWS, BlackBerry and more. Our picks coincide with the most-read stories of the week.
Over the last seven days, two stories received ongoing coverage from the Channel Futures team. Both involved major acquisitions, including one deal worth $61 billion, a landmark for the industry.
In other news, it seems as if MSSPs are taking a more prominent role in the channel. The managed security services marketplace is expected to skyrocket through 2030 and companies such as BlackBerry are taking advantage. Find out what Colleen McMillan, BlackBerry’s vice president of global channel sales, had to say about that.
Also, what are the characteristics of vendors that are valuable to partners? We explore that question in our coverage of the MSP roundtable as part of the 2022 Channel Partners Conference & Expo. It was one of our top stories. To read about the individuals behind the news, click on the slideshow above.
If you didn’t catch the previous Channel People Making Waves, you can find it here.
Want to contact the author directly about this story? Have ideas for a follow-up article? Email Claudia Adrien or connect with her on LinkedIn. |
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