CV_JanFeb_23

CYBER SCRAPPING channel v i s ionmag . com Volume 22 Issue 1 JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2023 The Voice of the Channel Sponsored by IT Spending Outlook THE ACRONYMS Partner Models Begin to Blur BEYOND

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JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2023 AT YOUR SERVICE: XAAS 8 Avoiding Disaster Organizations increasingly looking for outside help with disaster recovery By Martin Vilaboy 10 Tips to Go to Market How ISVs can scale with subscriptions, pay-per-use models By Jess Warrington BUYERS SIDE 14 Reining Investments & Robotic Processes Global tech spending dips but remains historically high heading into 2023 By Bruce Christian INTERNATIONAL AGENTS 20 Europe WLAN Market to Hit $8B By 2027 By Martin Vilaboy 24 Preparing for Tomorrow Chekhub Joins with Nomad Futurist Foundation to Launch Academy By Bruce Christian CYBER PATROL 28 There’s the Rub Web scraping is critical to the success of vital cyber threat intelligence By Andrius Palionis 32 A Matter of Policy The why and how of cyber insurance By Brady Hicks CHANNEL MANAGEMENT 38 ‘Martech’ Musings for 2023 By Peter Radizeski 40 Trusted Advisor Team Up Amplix represents a new type of partner roll-up By Martin Vilaboy 44 Beyond the Acronyms For channel marketers, partner models begin to blur By Martin Vilaboy 50 NEC ‘Cloud Cash’ Helps Partner Fill Premises-to-Cloud ‘Revenue Gap’ By Brady Hicks 52 Spectrum Partner Program ‘Elevates the Experience’ A Q&A with Spectrum VP Michelle Kadlacek CORE COMMUNICATIONS 54 Let’s Make Customers Happy The emerging SD opportunities for partners and providers By Peter Radizeski 56 Telstra Lends Technology, Expertise to Changing Telecom Needs By Brady Hicks 58 NTS Direct Can Take Your Telco Investment to the Next Level By Brady Hicks MOBILE & WIRELESS 61 Capture the Opportunity in Fixed Wireless Access with CellSmart Intelligence By Brady Hicks 62 Lucky Number 7? Wi-Fi 7 emerges as 6E is still being adopted By Bruce Christian 6 Editor’s Letter 66 Ad index CONTENTS Volume 22 – Issue 1 4 CHANNELV ISION | JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2023

If this time last year you weren’t thinking about how new marketplace models will impact your channel sales and marketing strategy, you probably were upon hearing that Pax8 just hit a billion dollars in annual recurring revenue. The brand reported working with 25,000 partners, serving more than 400,000 businesses and hosting more than 85 vendor partners in its cloud marketplace. It all adds up to more than one million transactions per month. When most executives do think about digital experiences such as marketplaces, they tend to view them as a type of “direct route” to the end user. The customer’s digital experience, in turn, is almost always designed for customers to engage digitally and directly with the vendor, argue researchers at Technology & Service Industry Association. The temptation is “to keep partners out of the planning or suggest plans to add partners at some point in the future,” write Anne McClelland and Jared Raftery, XaaS channel optimization researchers at TSIA. “It is, unfortunately, rare when the digital customer experience is designed initially for partners to engage with customers through the vendor’s digital customer experience,” said the researchers. That type of thinking won’t work moving forward, warn TSIA executives. The ability to support quality end-to-end digital customer, partner and employee experiences, all while driving value for provider, partner and customer – throughout the entire customer lifecycle – cannot simply be “bolted on” to legacy capabilities, they continue. Just as the customer has its digital journey map, so must the different partners, and those maps must start at the beginning. Not that it will be easy. Designing and developing an intuitive, engaging and successful end-to-end digital customer experience is complex enough. Adding third parties to the mix makes things incrementally complicated. But partners need data to deliver business outcomes, argue TSIA researchers. “Partner customer success teams are handicapped without access to customer usage data, telemetry and analytics.” That can include the availability of consumption analytics, customer usage data, product telemetry, access to APIs, demo platforms, and having the ability to manage partner engagement with the vendor, ideally through the vendor’s platform itself, the TSIA researchers begin. “Optimally, these tools extend to the partner management team, giving these individuals a single pane of glass to manage the entire partner experience, supporting transparent conversations with partners around what is working, what is not working and why,” they continued. TSIA points to Salesforce as a leader in digital partner enablement. Within the Salesforce digital AppExchange, for instance, ISV partners are provided with a step-bystep guide with detailed instructions regarding how to build, test and monetize integrations and applications that leverage the Salesforce platform, they reported. Salesforce outlines how partners should package and test their code, sell their applications and take payments, and monitor orders and performance. It also connects ISVs to consulting partners, should the need arise. Again, building the partner experience into the ground floor of digital experiences won’t be easy, but the marketplace competitors that successfully leverage these types of partner enablement tools will be tough to beat. Partner-Marketplace Mapping LETTER Martin Vilaboy Editor-in-Chief martin@bekabusinessmedia.com Bruce Christian Senior Editor / Event Coordinator bruce@bekabusinessmedia.com Brady Hicks Contributing Editor brady@bekabusinessmedia.com Percy Zamora Art Director percy@bekabusinessmedia.com Rob Schubel Digital Manager rob@bekabusinessmedia.com Jen Vilaboy Ad Production Director jen@bekabusinessmedia.com Berge Kaprelian Group Publisher berge@bekabusinessmedia.com (480) 503-0770 Anthony Graffeo Publisher anthony@bekabusinessmedia.com (203) 304-8547 Beka Business Media Berge Kaprelian President and CEO Corporate Headquarters 10115 E Bell Road, Suite 107 - #517 Scottsdale, Arizona 85260 Voice: 480.503.0770 Email: berge@bekabusinessmedia.com © 2023 Beka Business Media, All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in any form or medium without express written permission of Beka Business Media is prohibited. ChannelVision and the ChannelVision logo are trademarks of Beka Business Media 6 CHANNELV ISION | JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2023

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8 CHANNELV ISION | JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2023 Events of the past few years have made the need for disaster recovery planning crystal clear. A worldwide pandemic, subsequent lockdowns, power outages, wars and cyberattacks have exposed organizations that were not fully prepared to respond to disruptions. But many IT organizations do not have the resources or the capability to handle disaster recovery all in-house? “A successful in-house disaster recovery plan is severely dependent upon the expertise of organizations’ dedicated IT teams and costly hardware infrastructure,” said analysts at Los Angeles-based Avasant Research. “Because of that reality, many organizations find value in disaster recovery outsourcing, where a service provider is responsible for off-site data storage, recovery data centers or redundant systems.” After remaining relatively flat during the past few years, outsourcing of disaster recovery functions significantly increased in 2021, according to a recent report on the topic by Avasant Research. The percentage of organizations outsourcing this function has spiked to 46 percent in 2021, up from 36 percent in 2020 and 34 percent in 2019. “It appears that the pandemic has shown us that not all disaster recovery scenarios involve major natural events or malicious attacks,” said Avasant researchers. With the implementation of hybrid and remote worker models, as well as cloud computing, “several organizations have opted to reduce internal workloads to an external service provider with the significant experience, specialized skills and appropriate facilities to reduce disruption risks.” Indeed, the uptick in outsourced disaster recovery is not hard to understand. As the Avasant report pointed out, the amount of business transacted online continues to expand, even for traditional brick-and-mortar organizations, making the cost of downtime more expensive. Factories and distribution centers, meanwhile, are increasingly automated, and operations can grind to a halt if a disaster strikes. A network outage also can be disastrous for healthcare providers that increasingly rely on digital images and electronic medical records for patient care. Moreover, in some industries, such as banking, disaster recovery capabilities are mandated by law. All the while, it’s become readily apparent that not all disaster recovery scenarios involve so-called “disasters” such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes or terrorist attacks. Rather, disruptions are more likely to involve public-grid power outages, network outages, transit failures, simple human errors, or system failures, suggested the Avasant study, “It is important that IT managers not lose sight of the more mundane incidents that can disrupt business operations,” warned the report. So while the outsourcing of DR functions has significantly increased, more surprising to Avasant researchers is the high percentage of organizations that have yet to adopt this strategy. “Some CIOs may have decided that disaster recovery is too important to outsource despite the high service and cost success,” said the report. “Others have invested in cloud in hopes that many of their disaster recovery responsibilities have shifted to their provider.” o Organizations increasingly looking for outside help with disaster recovery AVOIDING DISASTER By Martin Vilaboy Outsourcing Frequency: Disaster Recovery Services Source: Avasant Research Power shoppers are adopting marketplaces at an a Source: Mirakl 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% % of shopping done on marketplaces Power sh ppers: consumers that shop online once a week or more Average Consumer Power S opp r France Australia UK Spain U.S. 34% 34% 34% 36% 46% AT YOUR SERVICE: XaaS

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AT YOUR SERVICE: XaaS Business user behavior often mirrors what consumers are doing. Similar to consumers, business buyers want consumption on demand, shopping online and flexibility in choices. Also similar to consumers, B2B buyers are turning to the convenience of subscription and pay-peruse models more and more. With the increasing popularity of subscription and pay-per-use models, the time is ripe for independent software vendors (ISVs) to jump in. There’s plenty of room to swim with the big fish such as Amazon and Zoom if you know where to go and what to do once you get there. What will help technology vendors be successful is to remember that B2B buyers are consumers at heart. Switching to a subscription or pay-per-use model provides ISVs with a more predictable way to manage revenue, essentially shifting a one-time sale to perpetual billing. In order to be successful at this, ISVs need to make sure their back-end IT and font-end IT align to handle billing from a consumption-based model. Unlike the legacy software vendor model, with a subscription model, sales teams don’t have to replicate that one-time sale to grow their businesses. Instead, a consumptionbased model allows vendors to record baseline consumption, add users and grow over time. Businesses do not have to react to spikes in revenue because they’re building a steady stream. A vendor’s success is dependent on modifying its financial model to support subscription and pay-peruse models. Subscription or pay-per use models also allow tech vendors a way to How ISVs can scale with subscriptions, pay-per-use models TIPS TO GO TO MARKET By Jess Warrington 10 CHANNELV ISION | JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2023 Outsourcing Frequency: Disaster Recovery Services Source: Avasant Research Power shoppers are adopting marketplaces at an accelerated rate Source: Mirakl 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% % of shopping done on marketplaces Power shoppers: consumers that shop online once a week or more Average Consumer Power Shopper France Australia UK Spain U.S. Italy Singapore Germany Brazil 34% 34% 34% 36% 46%

motivate their channel partners to sell their solutions. Vendors will have to alter their compensation plan to incentivize their sales team, but the result will be far more worth the effort. For instance, if Dell Technologies wants to ship 1,000 devices to a business customer, it also can attach an entire suite of solutions such as endpoint protection or Office 365. This outcomebased sale encourages channel partners to assist with a vendor’s go-to market strategy. Digital marketplace ecosystem Building a digital marketplace ecosystem is essential to optimizing subscription and pay-per-use models. These marketplaces represent a powerful additional channel for the marketing and sales of products, creating new trading partners and reducing costs. It’s the future of B2B sales. Growth in software-as-a-service (SaaS) spending is predicted to give businesses an estimated 20 percent boost a year on top of other sales and marketing efforts. Investing in a SaaS platform gives the independent software vendor the ability to publish once and propagate into many marketplaces. Using a cloud marketplace platform provides technology to connect players in a vendor’s target audience and enables its digital transformation into the subscription economy. With easy access to a vendor’s core market, a cloud marketplace platform enables businesses to accelerate their time to revenue by managing subscriptions, the catalogs, order fulfillment and billing across multiple channels. Customers are offered roundthe-clock service and a more transparent shopping experience. They can compare prices and products in a single source and consolidate the payment process. Tech vendors can set themselves up in the right marketplaces, positioning themselves to remain competitive, generate higher and regular revenue, and benefit from larger margins as well as gaining flexibility. Room to grow A digital marketplace doesn’t have to conflict with classic channel sales or the marketplaces of giants including ASW, Azure and Google Cloud. Building an ecosystem allows tech vendors to customize their reach – both on marketplaces that target their core market and allowing them to be seen on the larger marketplaces. In addition, tech vendors are often dependent on the volume of products or software solutions sold and have more opportunities to increase sales in the shared ecosystem. With global product reach and access to attractive annual recurring revenue streams, it is important for tech vendors to join marketplaces that have a customer base that is core to their go-to market strategy, as well as being seen on a hyperscaler marketplace such as ASW. As tech vendors grow and expand into international markets, central management is required for all sales support and the addition of subsidiaries. Medium-sized vendors, in particular, are often not yet well positioned in terms of their international expansion. By selling solutions in a digital marketplace ecosystem, companies can be profitable and successful in different countries. Many complex tasks around legal requirements and guidelines of other countries are automated by the software infrastructure behind digital marketplaces, so that companies can focus on running their core businesses. Leveraging a cloud platform Businesses are consuming technology solutions and products like consumers shop for goods, with just a few clicks of a mouse. When implementing a subscription or pay-per-use model, tech vendors are recognizing the operational efficiency of adopting an ecosystem of partners. This community of developers can create custom add-ons to refine their products and make them more appealing to channel partners. These communities help identify new use cases to drive business and expand into new verticals and integrations. Partners can build their own multichannel marketplace and manage both their inventory catalog and that of thirdparty providers. This makes it easier for tech vendors to place their products where their customers already are shopping for solutions. Investing in subscription and pay-per-use models will set tech vendors on a smoother path forward. The automated management of subscription models allows seamless communications with partners and billing to be handled in the background, while providing accurate real-time insights into customers’ contracts, projects and profitability. At the same time, a cloud marketplace platform puts tech vendors where they need to be – connected to an ecosystem that allows businesses to leverage marketplaces filled with their target audience from vendors and distributors on to resellers. As with consumers, B2B buyers recognize the benefits of one-stop shopping to grow their businesses. o Jess Warrington is general manager, North America for Cloud Blue, a marketplace platform for everything-as-a-service solutions. Top Four Challenges to XaaS Provider Success High total cost of ownership 19% Low integration with existing software stack (ERP, CRM, RIM, etc.) 18% Rigid business practices (company culture) 16% Company has too many billing systems/systems of record 16% Source: SaaSPath 2022: Worldwide Banner Book, 2022 AT YOUR SERVICE: XaaS 12 CHANNELV ISION | JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2023

Although 87 percent of digital leaders expect an economic downturn within the coming year, global tech spending is set to grow at its third fastest rate in more than 15 years, as more than half (52 percent) of the digital leaders surveyed expect their technology budget to rise, and only 12 percent expect their budget to fall, finds the world’s largest and longest running survey of senior technology decision makers. But the annual Nash Squared “Digital Leadership Report,” done in collaboration with CIONET, found investment has slowed in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, threatening opportunities to innovate through global economic instability. “The reasons for this are understandable,” said Nash Squared CEO Bev White, “but organizations should be careful not to cut back too deeply – they run the risk of falling too far off the pace to catch up again, leaving a long-lasting dent to their competitive positioning.” Economic headwinds are gathering, and indicators are turning negative, continued White, “but despite or even because of this, businesses know that investment in technology remains Global tech spending dips but remains historically high heading into 2023 REINING INVESTMENTS & ROBOTIC PROCESSES By Bruce Christian BUYERS SIDE 14 CHANNELV ISION | JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2023

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crucial. Both to maximize the efficiency of what they already have and to become more agile and responsive in highly unpredictable conditions, technology is the key enabler.” Although investment remains strong in cloud (63 percent reporting large-scale usage), companies are cutting their investment back in other technologies that are key to innovation and to gaining a competitive advantage. Amid the investment in the cloud, more than a third (41 percent) of digital leaders report the cloud creates security headaches because of complexities it can create, especially for large, distributed organizations, according to the report. The report also shows that 52 percent of the largest organizations (total IT budget of more than $250 million), recorded a major cyber-attack in the last two years. Meanwhile, global unrest and a growing awareness of the politicization around cyber warfare has led to more than a third of digital leaders (40 percent) fearing an attack from foreign powers. In retrospect, only 12 percent of those leaders believed it could happen just five years ago. “An area that truly demands ongoing investment is cybersecurity,” White said. “The threat environment is highly charged, and the rise in concerns about foreign power activity is striking. The world has become a more dangerous place in 2022. Businesses must take robust defensive steps accordingly.” The report also found that a shortage of cyber talent continues to be a significant issue for digital leaders. Cyber skills are the second most sought after technology skill in the world. This shortage and the increasing cyber threat have left less than a third (29 percent) of digital leaders feeling confident they have all reasonable risks covered. Indeed, the war for talent and keeping pay demands reasonable emerges as a big challenge. Seventy percent of digital leaders state that a skills shortage prevents them from keeping up with the pace of change, the largest percentage ever recorded. Sixty-two percent think organizations never will have enough technology staff and a similar number (60 percent) feel the rising cost of living has made salary demands unsustainable. Government policies aren’t helping, as a staggering 74 percent of digital leaders feel their government’s policies are ineffective at tackling the skills shortage. “Businesses run on people – but the technology sector simply can’t find enough of them,” White explained. “While the skills shortages afflicting the sector are nothing new, it is a concern that they’re worsening rather than getting better. However, what we see in our research is that organizations are taking innovative steps to ease the challenges.” Interestingly enough, robotic process automation increasingly is a way to plug BUYERS SIDE Change in Emerging Tech Spend Implementations 2022 2021 YoY Chg Quantum computing 5% 3% 2% Cloud 89% 90% -1% Blockchain/Distributed ledger 8% 9% -1% Augmented/virtual reality 12% 13% -1% AI/Machine learning 33% 37% -4% IoT 33% 38% -5% On-demand marketplace platforms 26% 33% -7% Robotic process automation 34% 42% -8% Big data/Analytics 55% 65% -10% Source: Nash Squared ‘Digital Leadership Report 2022’ Source: Avasant Research Power shoppers are adopting marketplaces at an accelerated rate Source: Mirakl The Technology Maturity Matrix Source: Nash Squared ‘Digital Leadership Report 2022’ 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% % of shopping done on marketplaces Power shopper : consumers that shop online once a week or more Average Consumer Power Shopper France Australia UK Spain U.S. Italy Singapore Cloud Big data/analytics Internet of Things Robotic process automation On-demand marketplace platforms Artificial intelligence/ machine learning Augmented reality/virtual reality Quantum computing Blockchain/distributed ledger Metaverse 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 4% 10% 55% 19% 15% 10% 81% 11% 65% 19% 72% 18% 37% 18% 13% 21% 12% 33% 40% 20% 14% 17% 9% 23% 25% 19% 26% 7% 4% 9% 6% 6%3% 3% 19% 14% 24% 10% 18% 17% 32% 23% 5% 26% 63% Have not considered Actively considering Piloting Small-scale Large-scale 34% 34% 34% 16 CHANNELV ISION | JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2023

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the gap in the tech talent market. On average, digital leaders plan to use digital labor to automate around one in six of their workforces during the next five years. The study also reconfirmed notions that hybrid working is now commonplace in tech, with two to three days a week in the office the average requirement. This has helped with a positive impact on the number of women in the global tech sector, said the report. Female leaders are up to 14 percent globally, and almost a quarter (23 percent) of tech teams comprise female workers. What’s more, 28 percent of new hires in this field during the last two years have been women. Not surprisingly, the report also found that a quarter (26 percent) of digital leaders say remote work has enabled them to recruit talent from overseas. Sustainability in tech was expected to play a greater role this year, but little has changed. A quarter of digital leaders (23 percent) think sustainability has only a negligible or no part to play, and a similar number (22 percent) are using technology to measure their carbon footprint to any great extent. The report asks whether digital leaders have their heads firmly in the sand around this issue – or if it was their executive leadership that was not focusing them on this issue. Does the move to the cloud mean that organizations are viewing energy usage in running tech as somebody else’s (the cloud provider’s) problem? One challenge the report highlights is realizing the potential from data. Although almost two-thirds (64 percent) of digital leaders think big data and analytics will be among the top two technologies to deliver competitive advantage this year, only a fifth (21 percent) feel they are “very” or “extremely” effective at using data insights to generate more revenue. Both figures are down when compared to last year’s report. Another challenge is getting the right skills, with 43 percent of digital leaders hampered by a skills shortage in this area. Regarding remote and hybrid working models that emerged rapidly when the pandemic hit, they appear here to stay, the report concluded. And although these models have delivered “a much-improved work/life balance” for the tech team (64 percent of digital leaders reporting an improvement), the good news story around hybrid working has become more complicated. While more than four in 10 report an increase in productivity from hybrid working, this is in decline from last year ’s results where half of digital leaders saw a boost. Mental illness issues surrounding distributed workers also remains an issue, but digital leaders report that it has marginally improved compared to last year. “Amidst so much change, it will inevitably take time for organizations to find the optimal model for their people proposition and talent strategies,” White said. “Remote and hybrid working are delivering some real benefits, but there are signs that these may be moderating as time passes.” She added, “The mental well-being challenge remains real and is very concerning. This all means that employers must continue to really think hard about their working models, to find the right balance between the flexibility of remote working and the in-person creativity and engagement of asking people to be in the office. “ White said many organizations are redesigning their hiring offers to include enhanced benefits packages and even unlimited holiday policies. “Businesses that are truly open-minded about what’s needed are most likely to find solutions that work both for them and the talent they rely on,” White concluded. o BUYERS SIDE What are the biggest barriers to driving digital innovation in your organization? Select up to 3 A lack of focus/too many distractions 53% Under resourced internally 44% Generating and prioritizing ideas 28% Proving a return on investment 24% Validating the business case 23% Capturing business requirements 21% Technology – not agile enough 18% A lack of senior buy-in to digitization 18% Driver wider adoption of new solutions 14% Rising costs/inflation makes it too expensive 14% Developing a proof of concept 7% Source: Nash Squared ‘Digital Leadership Report 2022’ Source: Mirakl The Technology Maturity Matrix To what extent do you expect the following disruptors will directly impact your organization? Source: Nash Squared ‘Digital Leadership Report 2022’ Source: Nash Squared ‘Digital Leadership Report 2022’ 30% 20% 10% 0% % of shopping done Power shoppers: consumers that shop online once a week or more Shopper Franc Australia UK Sp in U.S. Italy Singapore Germany Brazil Cloud Big data/analytics Internet of Things Robotic process automation On-demand marketplace platforms Artificial intelligence/ machine learning Augmented reality/virtual reality Quantum computing Blockchain/distributed ledger Metaverse 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 4% 10% 55% 19% 15% 10% 81% 11% 65% 19% 72% 18% 37% 18% 13% 21% 12% 33% 40% 20% 14% 17% 9% 23% 25% 19% 26% 7% 4% 9% 6% 6%3% 3% 19% 14% 24% 10% 18% 17% 32% 23% 5% 26% 63% Have not considered Actively considering Piloting Small-scale Large-scale Economic disruption/downturn Political disruption & conflict Disruption from our own employees (e.g. unexpected resignations) General supply chain issues IT hardware supply chain issues (e.g. chip availability) New business models in your sector 14% 31% 32% 37% 42% 44% 50% 53% 42% 44% 43% 19% 15% 21% 15% 13% 53% 33% Little/no extent Some extent Great extent 18 CHANNELV ISION | JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2023

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EUROPE WLAN MARKET TO HIT $8B BY 2027 By Martin Vilaboy The European enterprise WLAN (wireless local area network) market is expected to more than double by the end of this decade, according to new findings by Graphical Research. Having crossed the $3 billion (USD) mark in 2020, the industry is set to record a compound annual growth rate of more than 15 percent during the next several years and reach a valuation of $8 billion by 2027. Analysts for Graphical Research attribute the growth to the growing demand for high-speed internet; the regions significant population of smartphone users, which automatically results in a high demand for a strong and uninterrupted network connections; and the rising number of wireless hotspots across the region, thereby fueling the use of enterprise WLAN components. There is also the introduction of new wireless technology, such as Wi-Fi 6, also known as 802.11ax. In August of 2021, for instance, Extreme Networks launched its first Wi-Fi 6E access point dubbed AP4000. The unit delivers an aggregate data rate of up to 3.9 Gbps using one 2x2 for each of the 2.4 GHz, 5GHz & 6GHz bands. And in August 2020, Juniper Networks expanded its Wi-Fi 6 portfolio by adding Mist AI-powered Wi-Fi 6-enabled access points to deliver cost-effective connectivity products for smaller businesses and remote workers. Moreover, government organizations in European countries, such as the UK, Germany and France, among others, are promoting free Wi-Fi connectivity for their citizens in public places, such as health centers, museums, public buildings, and others, through WiFi4EU, which is an initiative that supports the implementation of Wi-Fi equipment in every European village and city. INTERNATIONAL AGENTS 20 CHANNELV ISION | JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2023

The large enterprises segment dominated the European WLAN business, accounting for more than 55 percent of the market share in 2020 due to the higher deployment of wireless technologies and the surging need for transforming the digital infrastructure of organizations, said Graphical Research. In particular, large enterprises are adopting WLAN solutions to expand coverage throughout the enterprise and to resolve security, design and implementation issues, as well as management and scalability issues of the organizations. Various companies also are providing advanced and ultra 5G wideband capabilities for indoor and outdoor facilities to customize 5G experiences, said the research note. Small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs), meanwhile, held more than 30 percent share of the regional enterprise WLAN industry in 2020. SMEs across Europe likewise are moving toward digitization and are adopting a secure and reliable internet connection in this regard, said analysts at Graphical Research. “With the help of wireless technologies, small and medium-scale businesses can enhance their productivity and performance, which can ultimately expand their customer base, thereby escalating the implementation of enterprise WLAN solutions,” the report continued. Breaking things down by sector, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) led the way, as the BFSI sector applications accounted for a revenue share of more than 10 percent in the Europe enterprise WLAN market in 2020. According to analysts at Graphical Research, many banks and financial institutions are using digital solutions and advanced software to store tons of data that can consist of confidential financial information of their customers and employees. “The BFSI sector is boosting its investments to develop a safe and robust internet security infrastructure by partnering with companies that specialize in offering high-quality cybersecurity solutions,” said the research firm. “Advanced technologies, such as AI, IoT and 5G are being deployed on a large scale to enable the use of wireless technologies.” In terms of the market by country, both Germany and the United Kingdom enterprise WLAN market share is expected to reach or exceed $1 billion by 2027. In Germany specifically, growth is encouraged by strong smartphone sales and the concept of bring your own device (BYOD) picking up steam in many organizations across the country. “This scenario has raised the need for a network connection that provides good coverage inside office spaces, which will bolster the deployment of enterprise WLAN solutions,” said Graphical Research. In the U.K., meanwhile, the government focus on promoting efficient competition and investment in digital networks has impacted the WLAN market, said the research firm. In June 2020, for instance, the UK government invested $5.59 billion in UK broadband. The objective behind the investment is to create 40,000 job opportunities and ensure that every home can access a gigabit-capable broadband service by the end of 2025. Much like in the U.S., crossing the digital divide of high-speed access will require fixed wireless networks. o Europe Enterprise WLAN Market Size, By Organization Size, 2016-2027 (USD Million) Source: Graphical Research Large Enterprise SMEs 2,360.60 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 Global Cyber Insurance Market ($bn), 2015-2025 Source: GlobalData $ $5 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021f 2022f 2023f 2024f 2025f 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% $10 $15 $20 $25 $20.56bn $16.86bn $13.73bn $11.09bn $8.92bn $7.01bn $5.25bn $5.05bn $4.75bn $3.53bn $2.02bn 74.6% 34.56% 6.3% 3.9% 33.5% 27.3% 24.3% 23.8% 22.8% 22.0% Total Growth rate INTERNATIONAL AGENTS 22 CHANNELV ISION | JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2023 Prominent WLAN Software, Hardware and Services Providers ADTRAN, Inc., Aruba Networks Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Boingo Wireless, Inc. Cambium Networks Cisco Systems CommScope, Inc. Dell Technologies Extreme Networks Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd Juniper Networks Netgear, Inc. Source: Graphical Research

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INTERNATIONAL AGENTS PREPARING FOR TOMORROW Chekhub Joins with Nomad Futurist Foundation to Launch Academy By Bruce Christian Chekhub, a work-enablement software provider that helps companies scale their capabilities, announced on Jan. 11, that it will partner with the Nomad Futurist Foundation as the Learning Management Systems (LMS) platform to aid educational and training initiatives for the Nomad Futurist Academy, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded by Nabeel Mahmood, SCB Global’s director in the Americas region. “The Nomad Futurist Foundation came to fruition after years of leaders talking in the industry about making a change and creating more awareness about the industry through education as well as addressing the human capital deficit,” Mahmood said during a recent interview. “The stark reality is that the younger generation doesn’t know that this industry we rely on exists. There is a dire need to bridge that gap as well as encourage the leadership of tomorrow and create opportunities for the younger generation.” Mahmood said a core driver for starting the organization was three heart attacks he suffered, in which he “flatlined.” In medical terms, that means Mahmood’s electrical system failed causing his heart to stop pumping. He recalled that during his recovery from the near-death experience, he tried to figure out “my premise here on earth.” After his release from the hospital, Mahmood said he and Phil Koblence, the chief operating officer at New York Internet, wanted to bring “more awareness to the industry and showcase the diverse backgrounds” that it offers. Originally, the two started a podcast inviting various industry leaders to participate in interviews. “We wanted something very organic, so there was one rule on the podcast, no talking or advertising about products and services,” Mahmood said. “Our podcasts and media platform continue to give listeners insight on how diverse and talented this industry is, but hosting it has also pushed me to further my 24 CHANNELV ISION | JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2023

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work on making sure that people understand the importance of this industry.” To that end, education became the main focal point. Accessible education “I want to highlight a space where education regarding this industry is accessible to all ages, starting with the younger generation, so we can continue to grow this ever-expanding industry and make it more sustainable for the future,” Mahmood explained. It is the reason the Foundation launched the Nomad Futurist Academy. “This platform will be free educational content for all ages,” Mahmood said. “From getting kids excited about the industry to adults that are just getting into the industry, the academy will provide educational content sourced from the leaders and experts of the industry.” With Checkhub’s announcement, Koblence and Mahmood are heading in the right direction. Nabeel Mahmood Rooted in the data center industry, Checkhub’s partnership embraces the goal of building the leaders of tomorrow by developing scholarship funds and an education platform for underdeveloped communities globally. A Technavio study reports the data center industry is forecast to increase by $616 billion by 2026, with an estimated growth rate of 20 percent year over year. However, the percentage of data center owners/operators having difficulty finding qualified candidates for open positions rose in 2020 to 50 percent, according to Uptime Institute. Phil Koblence Chekhub’s Data Center Operations Platform is designed to empower the data center industry workforce. The recent addition of the LMS module allows users to create custom training materials, add qualifications to individual profiles and to ensure work is being assigned to qualified people. For these reasons, Chekhub’s expertise and ambitions align with Nomad Futurist’s mission and goals for the academy, making the company the optimal partner to introduce the industry to the next generation of data center professionals. “It’s been Chekhub’s mission since inception to support the training and development of the workforce in this industry,” explained Jon Trout, founder and CEO of Chekhub. “Our team is honored and excited to be part of this initiative and be the LMS platform used by the students of the Nomad Futurist Academy.” Word of mouth Mahmood is careful to separate the foundation from his regular job by saying the organization is a “non SCB initiative.” He added, however, that “being a part of the organization and the mass data center and information technology sector has helped us engage them. “Obviously being an IT industry influencer helps with the recruitment effort,” Mahmood continued. “With word of mouth and, again, the desire to create and provide a sustainable change that will help this industry grow.” This may be why the four-member Nomad Futurist Foundation’s Advisory Board comprises industry personnel – Zachary Smith, managing director at Equinix; Mark Thiele, CEO of Edgevana; Bill Kleyman executive president at Switch; and Jezzibell Gilmore, co-founder of PacketFabric. Mahmood warned, “If we don’t continue to hit the pavement and get the younger generation excited about this industry, we are at risk of losing a lot of knowledge that can be passed down from the leaders of the industry today. “The great thing about this industry is that many people are aware of this problem and want to help in any way they can,” he continued. “It is a matter of putting words into action.” That word-of-mouth action along with constant banging on doors to rally people has helped to put Mahmood’s words into action. “The goal of our foundation isn’t to reinvent the wheel, it’s to bring together the people of our industry and create something that will be sustainable for the future of this industry,” he explained. “There are plenty of other organizations such as iMasons, Loyality Foundation, E2D that have a focus on human capital. One of our goals is to bring other NGO’s and nonprofit initiatives together, find a common thread among all the organizations, whereby the education message comes across clearer and stronger and creates even more opportunities for people to learn about the industry.” But he implored the Foundation needs all the help It can get. “Exposure and mass outreach is imperative, as well as financial contributions are important to fund the initiatives, including and not limited to scholarship, computing devices (laptops, tablets etc.) and creating content,” Mahmood said. “Getting in front of people and sharing my story and the initiative at the main stage will be helpful. Creating awareness and partnerships will get the message out and help us do good and give back. “A strategic partnership heretofore helps your organization with the philanthropic efforts and addresses the biggest issue of human capital deficit, secondary markets, global reach and just being good citizens,” he concluded. o For information on how to sponsor the organization, go to nomadfuturist. org/sponsorship INTERNATIONAL AGENTS 26 CHANNELV ISION | JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2023

The internet is far deeper and more expansive than most people imagine. Most users browse the easily-accessible pages of the “surface web” – approximately 10 percent of internet space – while being completely oblivious of the “deep” and “dark” web where the majority of data lives. The terms “dark web” and “deep web” tend to be used interchangeably, however they are fundamentally different. While both are hidden from the public and inaccessible with standard search engines, the content on each varies considerably. According to a report by Dr. Gareth Owen from the University of Portsmouth, the majority of dark web content comprises illegal activity. In contrast, most deep web content is legal and hidden behind password-protected login forms, including online banking services, social media profile pages, streaming entertainment and webmail. Since the deep web is a repository of valuable financial, governmental and personal data, it is most often the target of organized crime, as much as an estimated at 80 percent, according to a recent Verizon report. As more businesses put their databases on the deep web, cybersecurity threats continue to grow. According to sources referenced in a recent Oxylabs threat intelligence report, 36 billion records were exposed via data breaches by the end of Q3 2020, while the global information security market was expected to reach $170.4 billion by 2022. In turn, the majority of enterprise executives planned to increase cybersecurity budgets. Besides compromising security and taking systems down, cybercrime directly cuts into business profitability. According to an IBM report, the average cost of a data breach is $3.92 million at $150 per record, with an average size of 25,575 records lost per incident. Numerous factors contribute to security vulnerabilities that lead to data breaches. According to IBM, the five most common include extensive cloud migration, thirdparty involvement, system complexity, compliance failures and issues with operational technology. Threat intelligence is critical to reversing this trend by helping organizations obtain data to use in security strategies. In addition to ensuring that adequate security Cyber threat intelligence is a vital strategy that prevents attacks, and web scraping is critical to its success CYBER PATROL THERE’S THE RUB By Andrius Palionis 28 CHANNELV ISION | JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2023

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