The MSP (managed service provider) sector is set for growth as IT becomes more vital to a business - and the vastness of the IT umbrella overwhelms both the IT department and business owners.
Last year, HP broke up into 2 units. Now one of those units is in a mega-merger. USA Today reports that, "Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), run by Meg Whitman, late Tuesday said it was spinning off its enterprise services business, and merging it with Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC), to create an IT services firm with $26 billion in annual sales." This will create the world's third largest SI with 5000 clients. IBM and NTT are probably taking notice.
NTT's Dimension Data acquired Ceryx Inc., a Microsoft-based service provider out of Toronto. Everyone needs to add a Microsoft division to cover Office 365, Exchange, SharePoint and Skype for Business.
AirTight Networks, a vendor for EarthLink, renamed as Mojo Networks, which is kind of confusing because we already have Mojo in telecom. The company has tightened its focus to cloud managed wi-fi.
More re-branding: Dell Technologies is the new name for the company being formed from last year's merger of Dell and EMC. Went out on a limb there with that one.
Tech Data Launches Cybersecurity Unit for Channel Partners. It will showcase all the cyber vendors in one section. TD resellers "will gain access to customer enablement tools, including security assessments and professional services, to build security practices and increase their overall knowledge of the market." Yeah, and that just like that everyone is selling security.
If Cox thinks that Netflix and a few other OTT players have made its life rough, wait for the roll out of SD-WAN. Once that happens, businesses will have reporting to know what the throughput really is on their circuits. And the SLA credits will mount. Usually to get an SLA credit a business has to catch the carrier breaking the SLA, open a ticket and then chase down the credits. Now, with SD-WAN or with circuit monitoring that a few companies have launched, businesses will have the reports to show to the carrier on the mess that is the network today.
If every OTT player graded carriers like Netflix does, carriers couldn't hide any more. That kind of transparency would force a better network.
BIG RUMOR
Avaya was taken private in 2007 by two private equity firms, TPG Capital and Silver Lake Partners, for $8.2 billion. Since then, Avaya has acquired Esna, Radvision and Nortel assets, while not exactly gaining ground on the changing landscape of global UCaaS, which is becoming dominated by Microsoft and Cisco. So the PE firms are exploring a sale! They are looking for a valuation between $6 billion and $10 billion, including debt, based on "adjusted (EBITDA) earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization last year reaching $900 million. However, its interest expense of more than $400 million every year has been pushing it consistently into loss." Yeah, might have to take a haircut on that one.
