I hope you enjoyed your summer, or maybe you are reading this somewhere fun such as poolside, at the beach or en route back from a memorable destination. Here are some end of summertime thoughts on opportunities for our channel. One of the fastest-growing segments of business in our channel is outsourcing or managed services. Managed services are among the stickiest, most valuedriven offerings in our channel today. These products add value to commodity offerings such as network access and transform overlay solutions such as hosted VoIP and UCaaS into strategic, customer-centric services by reducing internal staffing demands. The hottest managed services today fall under what we at NHC call the Intelligent Edge Networking family, which includes three key solution areas: Edge security – Featuring unified threat management (UTM), secure access service edge (SASE) and zero trust segmentation. SD-WAN – Delivering WAN optimization, zero touch provisioning and hybrid uplink support. Edge routing & connectivity – Offering lightweight, flexible hardware with centralized management. Search “managed SASE forecast” in your browser, and you’ll see that several industry analysts predict 15 percent to 35 percent compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2030. This is a massive opportunity that our channel is exceptionally well-positioned to seize. For CSPs including NHC, this moment is exciting because we can provide a rich variety of managed solutions for our TAs and TSDs to sell to their end customers. The market is now flooded with reliable, virtualized solutions from a growing list of top-tier vendors and upstream service providers. These are battle-tested offerings we can package for our channel partners and manage on behalf of their end customers. Gone are the days of cobbling together custom solutions from boutique providers – projects that took forever to deploy, ran significantly over budget and created ongoing support headaches. At NHC, we call this new era of Intelligent Edge Network services “STACKedge.” There are 10 reasons why end customers have outsourced or plan to outsource their edge networking needs: 1. Talent Shortages and Skills Gaps • There is a global shortage of skilled IT professionals, particularly in areas like cybersecurity, cloud and network infrastructure. • End customers struggle to hire and retain top IT talent, especially within our channels target sweet spot of small to mid-size businesses, which makes outsourcing to specialists more appealing. 2. Cost Optimization • Managed services offer predictable subscription-based pricing that helps businesses control IT costs. • Outsourcing reduces the need for large capital expenditures on infrastructure and in-house resources. 3. Cloud Complexity • As more businesses adopt multi-cloud and hybrid environments, managing them internally becomes more complex and time-consuming. • Managed service providers (MSPs) and communications service providers (CSPs) such as NHC, as THE Communications STACK Provider, offer expertise in optimizing and securing the network edge. We have the in-house talent supported by the best of breed suppliers that most end customers do not have. 4. Rising Cybersecurity Threats • With ransomware, phishing and data breaches on the rise, cybersecurity is no longer optional. • Many organizations lack in-house expertise and turn to managed security services providers like NHC for 24/7 monitoring, incident response and compliance. 5. Need for Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery • MSPs and CSPs offer robust backup, disaster recovery and continuity solutions to help end customers recover quickly from downtime or data loss. Voice (hosted VoIP and managed UCaaS) and internet access redundancy is our channel’s bread and butter. • Also consider why these services are critical for regulated industries or those reliant on uptime. 6. Focus on Core Business • Businesses want to free up internal IT teams to focus on innovation, growth and strategic initiatives germane to their core business. • Outsourcing their intelligent edge networking helps shift from a reactive to proactive IT strategy. 7. Scalability and Flexibility • As businesses grow or scale down, CSPs like NHC can accommodate for expansion or contraction without the end customer needing to invest heavily in staff or in-house infrastructure. 8. Regulatory Compliance • Regulations like HIPAA, PCI DSS and GDPR require strict data and reporting protocols. • Our channel is full of expertise to help reduce the risk of fines or audits. 9. Remote/Hybrid Workforces • The shift to remote work has greatly increased the need for secure, remoteaccess infrastructure, end point protection and support. • CSPs like NHC can provide secure connectivity, device management and end-user support remotely. 10. Proactive Monitoring and Automation • Managed services often include 24/7 monitoring. This can range from managing and monitoring the whole intelligent edge like our family of STACKedge solutions or providing inexpensive proactive management of access circuits through our STACKguard service. • This reduces downtime, improves performance and helps prevent problems before they occur. Selling managed network communications services will play an increasing role within our channel because these solutions fit so naturally with the consultative approach successful technology advisors use with their customers every day. TAs working with their TSDs should look for trusted communications services providers like NHC to manage these network edge solutions. Glen Nelson is a 40-year veteran of the telecommunications industry and is co-founder, VP marketing & business development at NHC, The Communications Stack Provider and one of the largest partnerexclusive network resellers in North America. CHANNEL MANAGEMENT By Glen Nelson Let The Channel Manage It 30 CHANNELVISION | SUMMER 2025
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