‍Presented by Jeff Garrett, Opkalla VP of Solutions Architecture

At Opkalla, we provide technology analysis and assessments in order to help our customers make the best decision possible for their organizations. While that is our core, the best part of this job is the natural collaboration and information sharing that comes from those engagements.  As we neared the close of 2022 and looked ahead 2023, I wanted to find a way to better share some of my thoughts and takeaways from these conversations in order to engage the wider technology community in the conversation and garner more insights.

Now … we have a very talented group at Opkalla and admittedly there are many that are far better than I am at producing content. But I think a Vincent Van Gogh quote I came across sums it up best – “What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” So, with that in mind, let’s attempt something. I present the first Opkalla Month in Review – a look at the top 5 solution categories we discussed with customers in January and my thoughts on the topics. I look forward to bringing these to you each month and engaging in a little sharing of knowledge.

1. Infrastructure

Did that get your attention already? Infrastructure, a top conversation in a cloud-based world. How can that be? The answer lies in organizations looking for more cost-effective transitions.

Two specific topics came up more than any others around infrastructure –

1. How do we get prolonged life out of what we already have until we move more workloads to the cloud?
2. Can someone provide a traditional virtualization stack as a service so we can focus on more business-critical issues and/or our cloud transition?

Organizations are attempting to avoid both the costs of full lift-and-shift into the public hyperscalers as well as long-term infrastructure refreshes to fall somewhere in between as they strategically plan where their applications will reside.

2. ISP/WAN/Aggregation

Somewhat related to the topic above, connectivity is king once applications begin their move to public cloud or SaaS.

Aside from core business applications, productivity suites and communication platforms used for day-to-day work are now all beyond the organization’s four walls. That means the need for fast and reliable communications is at an all-time high.

It’s no wonder then that in January we had so many conversations about the connectivity to get to those platforms. Reliability (use of multiple circuits) and performance (need for higher speeds) were very big factors in these conversations, but cost control was also key.

3. Disaster Recovery & Backup

This topic is not surprising given the ongoing increase of cyber-attacks, and more specifically – ransomware based cyber-attacks. What may be a little surprising is the specific area these conversations covered.

Nearly 70% of our Disaster Recovery and Backup opportunities were around Microsoft 365. While heavily based around email protection, there is also a growing need for SharePoint and OneDrive protection.  Organizations are making use of the capacity granted in their E3, E5 and Business Premium licenses to move away from on-prem file servers and become more cloud native in their operations (see above topics for other areas that path may impact).  

4. Managed Cybersecurity

This area was not only in the top 5 for January conversations, but it is also leading the way by a wide margin in project work with customers scheduled to take place in 2023.

An ever-increasing cybersecurity landscape is becoming too much for SMB to Mid-Enterprise organizations to manage on their own. This coupled with continued talent retention woes specific to security analyst and engineers is leading these organizations to look for 24x7 assistance from Managed Detection & Response providers.

While on-prem infrastructure, cloud infrastructure, applications and networks are all on the table to be monitored and protected, the vast majority of customers are starting at the endpoint.

5. Endpoint Security

These conversations in January centered around moving from traditional Antivirus/Endpoint Protection tools to Next Gen solutions based in Endpoint Detection & Response.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that these conversations are in direct correlation with the topic of Managed Cybersecurity. Most MDR providers require higher levels of EPP/EDR tooling for their services to get the streaming data needed for real time 24x7 insights.

With so much focus on detection and response at the endpoint, it’s no wonder we’re beginning to see the lines blur and EDR providers become XDR providers crossing over to offer MDR services.

That’s our top five for January! Get involved in the conversation and share your thoughts and questions.

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