The “use it or lose it” deadline for federal buying season is almost here. With less than four weeks left until federal agencies are forced to part with their 2018 budgets, it’s time for Value Added Resellers (VARs) to connect unfulfilled agency needs with available technology. IT modernization, digital transformation, and security are just a few trends driving the buying habits of federal agencies. VARs who offer buyers innovative technologies that streamline compliance, workflow, and automation are likely to see sales success in the final weeks of the 2018 federal buying season.
The Modernization of Cybersecurity
The government’s incredibly large IT infrastructure includes a great deal of legacy equipment that lacks the defenses needed to secure information against growing cyber threats. Many of these systems require hours of work to ensure basic compliance and security, which is driving Federal CIOs to modernize their technology. A tool they are employing is Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM), which enables CIOs to understand their networks from the ground up. CDM helps users understand what and who is on the network, what is happening throughout the network, and how data is being used and protected.
“Government’s eight- to 10-year legacy life has vulnerabilities that we don’t even monitor anymore,” said Dan Kent, Public Sector CTO and SE Director at Cisco Systems.
Read more here.
Tips for VARs from Comstor Executive federal Summit
Each spring, the Comstor Executive Federal Summit connects its reseller partners with IT industry leaders to explore the possibilities of federal buying season and identify potential sales opportunities. In this short video from the event, Comstor experts offer VARs tips and trends to help plan their sales tactics. Presenters at the Federal Summit urge VARs to jump into federal buying season because 2018 offers vast opportunities backed by a large federal IT budget set aside by the administration.
“We have access to some high-level presenters, people who have been in key positions within the government, sharing with resellers the status on the budget environment and the trends in the technology,” said Jay Denton, VP/GM Comstor U.S. on the benefits of the Federal Summit.
Read more here.
A recent survey by the Enterprise Storage Forum, Entitled Data Storage Trends 2018, polled agencies and businesses to understand their upcoming data storage and security plans. The results revealed that data storage is a growing concern across all sectors. With in-house storage becoming increasingly expensive, agencies are looking to cloud storage to decrease cost and manpower. When asked how their data storage has grown in the last two years, respondents shared:
• 21% purchased cloud storage or HDD
• DR came in at 14% and Flash/SSD at 12%
Read more here.
The $1.3 trillion 2018 funding package has given some agencies, including the departments of Commerce, Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, and Transportation, a 10-percent increase in budget from last year. That increase is $143 billion, and some agencies may struggle to spend the allotted funds before the “use it or lose it” date of September 30. To take advantage of these increased funds before then, VARs can take the following steps to success in the last days of federal buying season:
• Focus on core capabilities
• Prioritize expansion with current clients
• Analyze the market trends
• Get “ready-to-go” proposals in as many hands as possible
Read more here.
Want to keep up on the latest federal buying season news? Click here.
