Top 20 Stories in March: Microsoft Partners, IBM, Cisco, AWS Relationships
Plus, you love pictures and awards. Our Channel Influencers and CP Expo anniversary gallery made it too. But what was No. 1?
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Microsoft caught the attention of its customers and partner network when price increases for Microsoft 365 went into effect on March 1. The company last summer indicated they were coming, but most seemed unaware of exactly when.
The rate went up 10-20%, depending on the plan.
This is the first price hike for Microsoft’s core SaaS portfolio since the company released what was then known as Office 365 nearly 11 years ago.
Learn more about the price increases.
It’s still a minority opinion, but Flexera, the software company, in its 2022 State of the Cloud report, said that Microsoft Azure has surpassed Amazon Web Services for the first time.
Flexera says 95% of respondents in its survey rely on Azure to some degree, while 93% said the same about AWS. Google Cloud is in third place, at 80%.
Among SMBs, however, AWS is still No. 1, Flexera said. Of the SMBs it polled, 41% said they run significant workloads on AWS, while 31% said the same about Azure.
Go in-depth on the Flexera research.
Networking giant Cisco says it increasingly is relying on managed services for revenue. In fact, the company says it is “doubling down” to drive partner-delivered managed services. Why? It’s the fastest-growing route-to-market opportunity.
Cisco’s global channel chief, Oliver Tuszik, said that managed services have become among the most profitable for the company.
By 2025, Cisco expects its total addressable market for managed services will be $113 billion.
Get the full scoop on what Tuszik had to say about managed services.
Cloud giant Amazon Web Services is investing a big chunk of change in building and operating data centers in the U.K.
The $2.3 billion infusion over the next two years will in fact double its investment in the United Kingdom.
AWS reports that organizations of all sizes and industries in the U.K. use AWS, from fast-growing startups, to SMBs and large enterprises.
Learn more about AWS’ efforts across the pond.
Sometimes rumor about an acquisition gets more attention than the actual deal.
This story from February that Cisco would become an “overpowering cybersecurity giant” via buying Splunk was still going strong in March. Certainly it’s interesting watercooler talk, but so far, mum’s the word from both companies.
Will this be one that comes to fruition? Or will we never hear of it again?
See what the buzz is all about.
Just six stories in, and AWS already makes its third appearance in our countdown. Just who are these guys?
This news involves Presidio, the mega channel partner, signing a strategic collaboration agreement (SCA) with the cloud giant.
Presidio was already a premier consulting partner for AWS, but this SCA means AWS will funnel money, tools and support into Presidio’s operation to help it grow.
Get more information on this agreement.
The presence of traditional IT and cloud giants in the bottom half of our countdown rolls on. This one features news that IBM is rekindling its relationship with Computacenter, the large U.K.-based technology provider.
The goal is to pursue more joint customers.
The two companies, since the origins of their partnership in the 1980s, hasn’t always been in lockstep. Computacenter has acknowledged instances where IBM “was conspicuous by its absence” in its portfolio.
Learn more about their past relationship, and what IBM and Computacenter hope for the future.
Here’s some basic math.
SD-WAN is a hot topic for our audience. You also tend to love rankings. Furthermore, Cisco and Fortinet are among the companies you like to read about most.
So, 1+1+2 = … 13?
Well, in this case, yes. We told you about Dell’Oro Group’s latest SD-WAN and Enterprise Router Quarterly Report, which showed 35% growth in SD-WAN revenue last year. Among vendors, Cisco was tops, followed by Fortinet.
You can find out the other companies that made the leaderboard.
Our monthly CF 20 list, which features 20 of the top names in a particular technology category, is always a crowd favorite.
In March, you wanted to learn whom the analysts we polled ID’d among the 20 top threat intelligence providers working in the channel.
The list included some familiar names but others you might not expect.
Some of the major tech companies already featured in this countdown showed up in our monthly recap of the biggest mergers and acquisitions of the prior month.
IBM, we see you here. Same with you, Cisco.
But our M&A wrap covered one end of the channel to the other, highlighting yet another by agency gobbler Upstack and another by AppSmart, the technology marketplace.
We mentioned Upstack on the previous slide for an acqusition; it makes this slide for signing a deal with a new data center provider.
The deal with Wyoming Hyperscale White Box makes Upstack the company’s exclusive channel sales partner. Upatck customers, in return get early access to Wyoming Hyperscale’s new data center cluster, which the company is still building.
This deal is significant because it’s the first new agreement that Upstack has signed directly with a vendor.
It doesn’t roll off the tongue like SD-WAN, but as we said before, the channel loves leaderboards. So it’s no surprise that a ranking of global 5G telco cloud-native platforms would also make the top 20 countdown.
ABI Research named VMware and Red Hat as “market leaders”; Nokia, ZTE, Canonical, Huawei, Google, Ericsson and Wind River as “mainstream”; and the companies you’ll find here as “followers.”
Oh, this was a fun one.
With the 25th anniversary of the Channel Partners Conference & Expo nearly upon us, we dug through the CP Expo archives and found some gems.
Our image gallery features pictures of some well-known attendees going back to their very first Channel Partners events.
You’re going to want to see these.
The biggest global headline last month became a tech channel headline as well.
Intel and AMD, as our story details, were among the companies to stop selling their technology in Russia.
In fact, we’ve had ongoing coverage of this issue. This article highlights Twitter, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP’s response to the conflict.
AI computing giant Nvidia was a victim of a cyberattack by the Lapsus$ ransomware gang. It was so bad that The Telegraph described it as a “devastating” attack that “completely compromised” the company’s internal systems.
Bloomberg reported that it was not connected to the crisis in Ukraine.
A Nvidia spokesperson acknowledged the incident but said “our business and commercial activities continue uninterrupted,” but that the company was working to evaluate “the size and scope.”
Read why some security companies say Nvidia is a high-profile target for cybercriminals.
We reported on a shake-up among Datto‘s key channel leadership personnel.
Eric Torres, Datto’s director of channel development, confirmed his exit. He didn’t say where he’s going but that it’s a company in the channel that doesn’t directly compete with the backup and disaster recovery provider.
Torres’ resignation comes among speculation that other senior executives might soon leave the company.
Our storied awards program is heating up as the deadline to submit applications arrives at the end of this month.
You dove into many of the articles we’ve written this winter and spring, as well as listings of the 2021 winners to get more information.
Here’s a link to the application. Be listed among the world’s best managed service providers.
We wrote a series of articles on the revamp coming to the Microsoft Partner Network. The shake-up goes into effect in October and effects the software giant’s entire channel.
Notably, Microsoft is eliminating gold and silver designations in favor of base, solution and expert partners, based on their specializations and expertise.
The program will now be known as the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program and require partners to achieve certain scores.
Get the full lowdown here; then, check out our seven fast facts about the changes and the mixed reaction from partners.
Our monthly installment of Channel People on the move was dethroned from the top spot, but not by much.
You were still very interested to see pictures of and read about the new hires and promotions at Lumen, Dell, Rubrik, RingCentral and more.
What does it take to knock Channel People on the Move off its lofty perch? Another collection of people pictures and awards, of course!
Our annual listing of Channel Influencers — some of the most important leaders in all of the channel — climbed to No. 1 in March. The list, released in February, featured Upstack’s Chris Trapp and TD Synnex’s Rich Hume as Influencers of the Year, as well as four-dozen other people making their mark.
See whom we recognized with this presigious awards program.
What does it take to knock Channel People on the Move off its lofty perch? Another collection of people pictures and awards, of course!
Our annual listing of Channel Influencers — some of the most important leaders in all of the channel — climbed to No. 1 in March. The list, released in February, featured Upstack’s Chris Trapp and TD Synnex’s Rich Hume as Influencers of the Year, as well as four-dozen other people making their mark.
See whom we recognized with this presigious awards program.
March roared in like a lion, and so did our top stories for the month. Big hardware, networking, software and cloud giants make their presences felt in our monthly countdown; notably, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft and AWS for a whole host of reasons.
For instance, one study actually found that Microsoft Azure has surpassed AWS in the could wars. But you won’t find that result everywhere. And speaking of studies, another put Cisco atop the rankings in SD-WAN, one of the channel’s hottest technologies.
But those of you more accustomed to the traditional telecom channel weren’t left out. If you’ve been coming to our channel events for a number of years, you enjoyed seeing this retrospective image gallery. (Perhaps it even inspired you to register for the Channel Partners Conference & Expo, April 11-14.)
For the second month in a row, our prestigious list of channel leaders – our top 50 Channel Influencers – made the countdown.
We determined the top stories in March by tallying online pageviews and the most popular articles in our weekly newsletter. (You can sign up for that here.)
Look no further than our slideshow above for which story was No. 1 in March. Want more nostalgia? Take a look at our top 20 from February.
Want to contact the author directly about this story? Have ideas for a follow-up article? Email Craig Galbraith or connect with him on LinkedIn. |
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