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Welcome to the MSP Radio newsletter, catching you up on some stories you might have missed!
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New Server Data for 2020
From Monday, March 30th's episode: IDC has released revised data for 2020, and now expects global spending on server and enterprise storage systems will decline by 3.4% and 5.5%, respectively.
Server revenues have taken a beating in the first quarter of this year, with an 11 percent decline on the same quarter last year, and IDC expects a lesser decline of 8.9% in Q2 before returning to growth in the second half of the year. X86 servers are down less than non-x86 ones – the non x86 servers will suffer a 16% drop in 2020.
Why do we care?
This is another data point to a very crowded list in the past few episodes. My takeaway here is that everyone should be adjusting downward all of their plans and projections, because that’s what the data says and what smart planning says to do.
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If I was a Channel Chief, what would I do? What lessons can providers take away?
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If I was a channel chief...
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Bank of America releases economic data
From Thursday, April 2nd's episode: Bank of America has released its latest economic outlook. The US economy is predicted to contract five-times greater than any other recession since World War 2 and the recovery will not start significantly until late of the third quarter or the fourth quarter.
The immediate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the U.S. economy was a 7% (annualized) decline in first-quarter economic activity. Bank of America forecasts that economic output will decline 30% in the second quarter and 1% in the third quarter. While the research report doesn’t give a forecast for the fourth quarter, other reports indicate second-half 2020 economic growth could surge as much as 19%.
This news comes as the new unemployment numbers for last week were released, with more than 6.6 million Americans filing for benefits.
Why do we care?
I’ve made my recommendations already on an extended outlook, and every new data point just says that is what will happen. This is months of impact, not days and weeks. If you see someone saying this will be over quickly, they aren’t using data to make that prediction.
Hope for the best, plan for the worst is always a sound strategy. I’m predicting rough waters.
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Do Americans mind their data being used?
From Friday, April 3rd's episode: New data out in a survey by consulting firm Oliver Wyman gives insights into Americans thinking on data usage to combat the pandemic. The short answer – they don’t want the government doing it.
While 54% of Americans surveyed March 21 to 27 said they would be comfortable sharing health stats data (such as if they had visited a doctor), this was the only type of data they would be good with sharing. Wireless data, travel data, and mass temperature scanning were all polled with less than a third offering to share.
That isn’t to say this isn’t already happening. Travel pattern maps based on location data have been released, the previously reported Social Distancing Scoreboard by Unacast is out, and Google announced their community mobility reports to help public health officials understand how people are obeying stay-at-home orders.
Why do we care?
My sense was that despite the move quickly to discuss leveraging data to track the pandemic, Americans would not be enthusiastic about the breaches of privacy. Turns out that sense is backed up by data.
The conversations about data privacy are still very relevant. It’s not safe to assume that customers will be any more comfortable with breaches or changes in data privacy. The new “normal” is the same as the old one in this regards.
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