Partner Pulse – June 22

We’re pleased to share with you the Ultima Partner Pulse, bringing together the latest updates from some of the key partners we work with.

If you have queries on any of the below or would like to discuss anything further, please contact your Account Manager or enquiries@ultima.com.

Microsoft 

As we enter Microsoft’s new financial year (July – June), we reach the time of year when key updates are announced in terms of their strategy, technology stack and social agenda. Their premier partner event Inspire is running from 19th – 20th July and, in line with experience from previous years, we’re expecting many of these to be made then. Please keep your eyes on our blog pages herefor developments from Inspire as they’re revealed. If you would like to attend Microsoft Inspire, please register here.

In more news, Microsoft has indefinitely pushed back the date for which Cloud Solution Providers can sell automatically renewed “legacy” subscriptions. Microsoft had previously set a deadline of the 11th of July for the end of auto-renewals of those subscription, meaning CSP partners would then have to transact everything though Microsoft’s New Commerce Experience. However, with the date being pushed back indefinitely, the auto-renewal function will remain supported until Microsoft says otherwise. Microsoft still plan on terminating monthly incentive rebates to partners on active “legacy” CSP commercial seat-based subscription from the 1st of January 2023.

VMware

As part of their agreement to acquire VMware for $61B, Broadcom have agreed to rebrand and consolidate their Software Group division under the VMware banner. By incorporating their existing infrastructure and security software solutions as part of an expanded VMware portfolio, it is understood that the leadership team at Broadcom are trying to demonstrate the value they see in VMware’s brand, culture and go-to-market strategy. Whilst acquisitions of this scale are never without their nuances, feedback from their Software Group President that they want to “embrace” and continue to support their channel, and through that their customers, is bound to be of some reassurance to VMware users who have raised questions around long term investment. We’ll continue to keep you posted on developments here as things progress, watch this space!

HP Inc

In 2021, HP Inc announced its most comprehensive and ambitious Sustainable Impact agenda. With the release of its 2021 Sustainable Impact Report and Executive Summary, HP reports its first progress towards its 2030 sustainable impact goals. Here are some of the highlights:

• Paving the Road to Net Zero: The company achieved a 9% absolute greenhouse gas emissions reduction across HP’s value chain since 2019, as HP aims to achieve net zero GHG emissions by 2040.
• Eliminating Plastics: HP reduced single-use plastic packaging by 44%, since 2018, well over half the way toward achieving its goal to eliminate 75% of single-use plastic packaging by 2025 and making progress toward its goal to reach 75% circularity for products and packaging by 2030.
• Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: HP increased the number of Black/African American executives by 33% over the previous year, which gets HP about one-third of the way to achieving its goal to double the number by 2025.
• Empowering Workers in HP’s Supply Chain: In 2021, HP set a goal to reach one million workers through worker empowerment programs by 2030—and, by year’s end, HP was more than a third of the way there, reaching 349,000 workers through 2021.
• Accelerating Digital Equity: HP accelerated digital equity for 4.3 million people in 2021, by providing hardware, skills training, and access to quality content in partnership with organizations like Girl Rising, NABU, and MIT Solve. This is the first year HP reported progress toward its goal to accelerate digital equity for 150 million people by 2030.

HPE 

HPE Discover conference took place from the 28^th – 30^th of June in Las Vegas, where HPE discussed adding more robust “seamless” edge to cloud capabilities with the addition of 12 new cloud services to its GreenLake edge to cloud service platform.

“The experience that you see from GreenLake is no different from what an end user gets when they consume from public cloud,” said Vishal Lall, senior vice president and general manager of HPE GreenLake Cloud Services solutions in a press briefing on the GreenLake announcements at Discover. “That has kind of been the North Star- the user experience is the key. Users and enterprises – whether it is the CIO or developers or lines of business- can use the stack to build and run applications and then consume it as a service.”

HPE GreenLake now has 70 plus services and 80 Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) – including SAP, Nutanix and Veeam- in its cloud marketplace. The HPE cloud services run the gamut from network as a service with Aruba to block storage as a service and artificial intelligence and machine learning.

HPE unveiled HPE GreenLake for Data Fabric, a managed service that now includes a single data store for hybrid cloud. The data fabric lets customers “manage the data they have across those deployment models and run unified analytics” so they can maximize the value of their data, said Lall. HPE’s Ezmeral GreenLake Data Fabric ensures that customers can manage data from the edge to the cloud across public clouds like AWS to on premise data centres or at the edge, said Lall.

Furthermore, HPE also continued its ecosystem build out with a blockbuster partnership with open source titan Red Hat, a deeper integration with SUSE Linux that opens up edge computing opportunities for partners and an HPE GreenLake for Backup and Recovery offering for Amazon Web Services. “We’re adding more services and capabilities, adding more partners, making that experience richer for our customers,” said Lall.

HPE now has thousands of software engineers working on the edge to cloud platform, said Lall. “We’re super excited about the momentum we are experiencing in the market,” he said.

Palo Alto Networks

Whilst we’re in the business of giving IT advise rather than financial, we were pleased to see Morgan Stanley analyst Hamza Fodderwala report that Palo Alto shares are currently “underpriced” in a recent report. Following a review of the market earlier in the year, we have made the decision to invest and grow our Professional Service capability in this space due to the benefits we believe they uniquely offer. As any organisation investing in a technology stack know, ongoing support in the mid-to-long term is a key consideration and we’re delighted that Wall Street shares our excitement around the potential that Palo Alto offer to our customer-base.

Cisco

Cisco Live returned to Las Vegas between the 12th – 16th of June. The conference was teeming with topics, including network security, infrastructure transformation, cloud-based network management and open-source tools. If you missed this fantastic event you can watch sessions that were covered on demand here or watch our latest YouTube video, where you can find Ultima’s Network Solutions Architect, Slawek Kunach, run through the core highlights from Cisco Live.

Hitachi

Hitachi, Ltd. has announced the launch of Hitachi Green Bondframework as their effort to achieve carbon neutrality by FY2030 at business sites (factories and offices), one of their long-term environment targets called “Hitachi Environmental Innovation 2050”.

The framework is established in alignment with the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) Green Bond Principles 2021 (GBP)etc. and provides information about the four core components of the GBP ( Use of Proceeds, Process for Project Evaluation and Selection, Management of Proceeds and Reporting). Hitachi has obtained a second opinion from Rating and Investment Information, Inc. (R&I) on the alignment of the framework. For more information read here.

Dell 

Dell Technologies announces financial results for its fiscal 2023 first quarter. Highlights included:

• Revenue was a first quarter record of $26.1 billion, up 16%, with growth across Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG) and Client Solutions Group (CSG).
• The company generated record first quarter operating income of $1.6 billion, a 57% increase, and record non-GAAP operating income of $2.1 billion, up 21%. Net income from continuing operations was $1.1 billion, up 62%, and non-GAAP net income was $1.4 billion, up 36%, both driven by growth in operating income and lower interest expense due to reduced debt balances.
• Diluted earnings per share was $1.37, up 63%, and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share was $1.84, up 36%.

Dell Technologies ended the quarter with remaining performance obligations of $42 billion, up 14% year-over-year, deferred revenue of $27.4 billion, and cash and investments of $8.5 billion. Recurring revenue for the first quarter was approximately $5.3 billion, up 15%.

Read Dell’s quarterly blog from Bill Scannell, Dell Technologies president of Global Sales & Customer Operations, to learn more about how we are helping customers with their digital transformations.

Check Point

Recent third-party research undertaken by Check Point has found that 61% of cyberattacks are phishing, focussing on targeting the human element rather than technical vulnerabilities. This is causing a massive shift away from traditional SEG (Secure Email Gateway) technology to API-based solutions, with Gartner reporting by 2025 20% of anti-phishing solutions will be delivered this way, as opposed to the less than 5% we have today. Check Point’s recent integration of Avanan (acquired on 1st September last year) into their Harmony Email & Collaboration is a strategic decision to enable the vendor to continue to offer best-of-breed protection to this growing threat. Please speak to your Account Manager if you’d like to understand more about the options available here.