Logicalis U.S. CEO Jonathan Groves: 6 Big Bets For 2022

The solution provider is expecting major growth in areas such as Microsoft Security, HPE GreenLake and Cisco Plus, as well as offerings from IBM Red Hat, Pure Storage and NetApp.

Logicalis U.S. is continuing to double down on its major Microsoft partnership with a new offering around Microsoft security, while the solution provider powerhouse is also expecting strong growth in as-a-service offerings from the likes of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Cisco, according to Logicalis U.S. CEO Jonathan Groves.

As-a-service offerings that Logicalis U.S. is bullish about include the trailblazing HPE GreenLake offering and Cisco Plus, Groves said in a recent interview with CRN.

[Related: Logicalis CEO On Microsoft Azure Surpassing His ‘Wildest Expectations’ For Growth]

“I think GreenLake, Cisco Plus — those types of solutions are going to continue to mature, those models will mature. And we in the partner community are going to mature with them,” he said.

Ultimately, when it comes to buying IT infrastructure as a service, “with the agility of it, the value of it, the consumption that’s easier for IT professionals to embrace—I think it’s going to keep growing,” Groves said.

Along with Microsoft Security, HPE GreenLake and Cisco Plus, other vendors and offerings that Logicalis U.S. is betting big on include Pure Storage, NetApp FlexPod and IBM Red Hat, he said. New York-based Logicalis U.S. ranked at No. 59 on CRN’s Solution Provider 500 list for 2021, and is a division of U.K.-based Logicalis Group.

What follows are edited comments from Groves on six big bets from Logicalis U.S. for 2022.

Microsoft Security: Secure OnMesh Solution

“Secure OnMesh is going to bring Microsoft’s trust-but-verify type of model. It’s going to bring a managed service around it so that we provide SOC services around that. We have five SOC managed services offerings around the globe. So we’ll be able to provide a true managed offering around Microsoft Security.

When you start looking at Microsoft’s position in the infrastructure, they have to have a strong security message. There’s always been this perimeter view of security—“Let’s keep the bad guys out and trust everybody inside.” I think what Microsoft is doing is really helping us change the game around trust-but-verify kind of models—versus, if you’re inside you’re safe. That’s not true, because the No. 1 issue we have a security is somebody sitting in front of the keyboard. It’s the human it’s not the platform in and of itself. So that’s why I say Microsoft has to be part of that secure solution. That’s why we’re building one of our global go-to-markets really around that. We feel that that is core. Microsoft gets blamed for a lot, but I think it’s because of their pervasiveness. But their pervasiveness is also part of what’s going to fix the security challenges that we face. So, we’re all-in on it.”

HPE GreenLake

“We have a very big bet with HPE. We do quite a bit of GreenLake with them—for their as-a-service data center model. So they’re a key partner for us. That [as-a-service approach] is where the market’s going to go, and GreenLake and HPE are obviously a big part of that. The need is clear. It’s the consumption model, and it’s how [customers] want to consume their data center assets. And so I think that that flexibility is what GreenLake brings.

GreenLake is one of the first on the market—so it’s getting traction on that front ... We’re going to figure out how to add value around it, we’re going to figure out how to add services to it. We’re going to figure out how to provide the managed services with it—just like we do with Microsoft.”

Cisco Plus

“When you look at Cisco Plus, you’re really looking at the consumption model of as-a-service hardware infrastructure, data center, and SD-WAN. With all these changes in the data center—where your data is, how it’s living, where it’s going to be—we have completely changed traffic flows on these infrastructures … So the idea of being able to buy an SD-WAN infrastructure as a service, and be able to add to that capacity dynamically, that’s an appealing thing for an IT professional.

I think we’re doing a lot of things with Cisco that are innovative. We’re one of their top software partners. And so, a lot of our services and our offerings around adoption, capabilities, customer care, those types of things, and those are areas where we’ll continue to invest. Their software push is around their enterprise agreements and bundling of capabilities inside of enterprise agreements. And then of course, our customer adoption services that we wrap around that, ensuring consumption—that’s part of what we’re doing with Cisco. And so it’s the way they’re bundling and licensing their EAs. Cisco Plus is a part of that.”

Pure Storage

“We’re doing a ton of work with Pure. And from a supply chain perspective, I don’t have any delivery issues with them, which is amazing. We’ve seen a lot of adoption from customers on that front.

Their storage efficiency, their ease of use, you can check all those boxes [with Pure Storage]. The adoption of their technology is very easy. But I think what is really driving a lot of Pure’s business is they are getting access to components and they’re able to deliver their products. So the wait time is not a challenge right now. I think that’s a tailwind for them right now.”

NetApp FlexPod

“NetApp is an area where we do a lot. Obviously you can tell we have quite a bit of data center business in our portfolio. So NetApp is a core partner for us as well.

The FlexPod model that they’ve gone to market with, with Cisco, we see that still being consumed quite a bit in our user community.”

IBM Red Hat

“With IBM, for Logicalis U.S., we’re really looking at it from a workload perspective. I do a lot of hardware—a lot of platform work—with IBM. But we think the real value is really that Red Hat OpenShift model, where we can truly provide an industry-hardened approach to application modernization. Building out that capability inside our organization is important to us. So we see that the Red Hat relationship, and that the commitment to the Red Hat OpenShift model, is going to be core for us going forward.”