IBM, Fujitsu and Kaspersky Lab have completed the Platinum sponsor line-up for the UK Managed Services and Hosting Summit 2018 on 19 September in London (www.mshsummit.com ). The companies join Avast, Cogeco Peer, Datto, Highlight and Watchguard in the top ranked tier of support. Other event sponsors include: Altaro, China Telecom ConnectWise, Continuum, Identity Maestro (Service Control), Kaseya, Mimecast, Park Place Technologies, RapidFireTools, Redstor, SolarWinds MSP, Trend Micro and Volta.
“The weight of support for this event, now in its eighth year, shows just how important the managed services business is in the IT industry,” says John Garratt, MSH Summit content director and editor of IT Europa. “We know from talking to MSPs that they have many questions, some about technology implementation, but also about how they run their businesses. This year we are having a special focus on the marketing and business growth in the sector. Our keynote speaker from Gartner will identify the trends in customer behaviour and buying patterns which mean that MSPs need to really think about their differentiation and what makes clients identify them as a good supplier.”
The London event follows the successful European Managed Services & Hosting Summit 2018 held in May in Amsterdam (pictured). There, the issues of building scale in the market and customer relationships were discussed among the two hundred plus attendees, and the themes will continue in London. Other key topics will include building company value in a fast-developing merger and acquisition environment for MSPs, and the continuing evolution of the security aspects of managed services.
A key part of the event, identified as very valuable by attendees, is the sharing of ideas and finding out what works best for other service providers. There is a spirit of co-operation among service providers and other partners which is encouraged by the Summit. Susan Bowen, VP & GM, EMEA, Cogeco Peer 1 says, “We are an MSP and we are also sitting behind large integrators, and partnering with the likes of Fujitsu, Dell and HPE, being vendor-agnostic. This event for us is about connecting with the ecosystem of providers, both OEM and hardware specialists as well as services.”
Ruediger Frickenschmidt - Head of the EMEIA service provider and IoT business at Fujitsu is building momentum with partners in this segment. “MSPs need to look at new solutions, and partnering co-operation is important in this. There is an ecosystem forming and that is one of the reasons Fujitsu is at this event,” he said after the Amsterdam event.
In addition, this year, the inaugural Managed Services & Hosting (MSH) Awards will take place at the end of the UK Managed Services & Hosting Summit 2018, providing a great way to bring to a close what promises to be another must-attend event. The 2018 MSH Awards consists of seven broad categories, allowing both Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Vendors to receive recognition for their work in the managed services sector. The awards are open now and any MSP or vendor may submit an entry into as many relevant categories as they wish, completing an entry form for each submission. Entries will be assessed by a judging committee comprising a range of independent industry experts. For more details visit: http://www.mshsummit.com/awards/
The UK Managed Services and Hosting Summit 2018 will take place at 155 Bishopsgate, London, on 19 September 2018. MSPs, resellers and integrators wishing to attend the convention and vendors, distributors or service providers interested in sponsorship opportunities can find further information at: www.mshsummit.com
For further information contact:
Alan Norman
Tel: +44 (0) 1895 454 604
Email: alan.norman@iteuropa.com
