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8×8 has received the Partners’ Choice Award for Top Overall Supplier by Intelisys, a ScanSource company. The award, announced at Channel Connect, recognized 8×8 for demonstrating “the highest level of excellence, dedica- tion, support and value to Intelisys and its sales partners.” 8×8 partners closely with Intelisys through the 8×8 Open Channel Program, designed to ensure that every member of 8×8’s channel community, from master and sub agents to VARs, have the necessary resources to thrive, said the company. The partner program offers tiered levels of dedicated resources for lead generation and conversion, as well as customizable, white-gloved marketing campaigns. The program also includes activities such as blitz days (8×8’s channel pipeline generation initiative), account planning, product demos and custom co-brand- ed prospect events. In addition, 8×8’s best-in- partner portal, PartnerXchange, allows partners to manage all customer needs, as well as access deal information, certifications and marketing content. According to a recent study from market research firm Global Market Insights, proliferating demand for portable and compact data storage and management infrastructure, along with digitalization leading to the generation of large volumes of data, has organization searching for reliable data storage solutions that offer efficient management and data security. In turn, Global Market Insights estimates that the micro data center market could touch USD $15 billion by the year 2026. Generally, the distance between a data center and an end-user can affect the delivery of digital services with high bandwidth costs. Micro data centers solve this issue by enabling the effective deployment of edge computing, said GMI. “Colocation micro data centers offer lower costs for the overall IT infrastructure and curtail off the additional expens- es related to cooling and power devices,” said GMI analysts. “The rising popularity of colocation services will add impetus to market value considering the high development charges of new data centers that prevent small and medium enter- prises from constructing their own data centers.” In terms of application, the micro data center market is bifurcated into colocation, BFSI, government, energy, industrial, healthcare and IT and telecom. Out of these, the colocation services segment is expected to record immense traction duing the forecasted timeframe. Building a new data center can be expensive, especially for small and medium-sized businesses that have budget constraints. As a result, colocation services provide a cheap alternative for businesses to store their vital data. 8x8 Named Intelisys Supplier of the Year Micro Data Center Market Poised to Hit $5B CORE COMMUNICATIONS Don’t Forget the Upstream The overall percentage of broadband subscribers provisioned for gigabit-speed service increased 133 percent, to nearly 5 percent in 2Q20, up from 2.1% in 2Q19, according to analy- sis of broadband usage by OpenVault. It is up nearly 31 percent quarter-over-quarter. Not to be overlooked, the demand for upstream data traffic also continues to increase dramatically. Data collected from OpenVault tools that provide granular visibility into utilization levels and individ- ual subscriber usage show year-over-year percent- age growth in upstream data usage reaching 56 percent in 2Q20. “Upstream data usage trends are particu- larly important for broadband network operators to monitor, requiring continued use of network management tools to ensure an adequate customer experience is maintained as upstream demand continues to grow,” warned the OpenVault study. Upstream Data Traffic Growth Source: OpenVault Importance of SD-WAN Solutions Capabilities Source: IDG Very Important Somewhat important Neutral Somewhat unimportant Year-over-Year % Growth Multi-cloud connectivity A variety of transport/ access options Embedded secure local internet connectivity Rapid remote connectivity Centralized policy and configuration management Real-time analytics and service control Embedded UCaaS apllications Security considerations Your current IT staffing capabilities (level of ongoing support needed) Fexibility of solution (ability to customize with the Importance of Factors in Making SD-WAN Purchase Very Important Somewhat important Neutral Somewhat unimportant 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 18% 3Q19 4Q19 1Q20 2Q20 18% 48% 56% 66% 18% 64% 28% 52% 40% 52% 32% 51% 43% 51% 39% 40% 42% 54% 35% 52% 36% 70% $50 Billion Expected value of the global video conferencing market by 2026, up from $14 billion in 2020, according to market research firm Global Market Insights 42 CHANNEL VISION | September - October, 2020