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Canon U.S.A. is jumping into the managed IT services (MITS) market in a big way by partnering with Canada-based Supra ITS to provide a comprehensive suite of managed IT and cybersecurity solutions to its direct customers. The collaboration aims to address the growing IT challenges faced by businesses today, including evolving cybersecurity threats, regulatory pressures, and the complexities of hybrid cloud environments. This strategic move follows Canon Canada’s equity investment in Supra ITS in 2021 and subsequent rollout of similar services in Canada.
Mike Betsko (Senior Director of Business Planning & Strategy at Canon U.S.A.) noted that customers have expressed a need for proactive, 24/7 cybersecurity monitoring and ways to strengthen their IT capabilities without expanding in-house staff. “Customers have been telling us that they have tight budgets and a lack of in-house IT resources—especially when it comes to cybersecurity,” Betsko said in a call with industry analysts to announce the news.
Founded in 2000, Supra ITS has 25 years of experience and a team of 600+ professionals across the US, Canada, Europe, and India. The company is known for its “Public Cloud Neutral” approach, allowing it to manage IT systems across various environments—including customer data centers; private clouds; and public cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud. A key differentiator for Supra ITS is its Network Security Operations Center (NSOC), which centralizes the monitoring of security and network health for faster threat detection and remediation.
Justin Folkerts (COO of Supra ITS) used an air traffic control analogy to illustrate the importance of this combined approach. Just as you would not want the control tower to have one group monitoring departing flights and a separate group monitoring arriving traffic, so, too, is it less than ideal to split the monitoring of network activity and cybersecurity issues.
The managed IT and security services portfolio offered through this partnership includes:
Managed IT Services:
- 24/7/365 help desk and IT support
- Proactive IT infrastructure management
- Cloud consulting, migration, as well as hybrid and private cloud hosting and management
- Data backup and protection
Managed Security:
- Managed detection and response
- Managed vulnerability assessment services
- Ransomware response
- Network penetration testing
- Virtual CISO
Initially, these services will be made available to Canon’s direct customers through a newly established dedicated sales team, with the potential for future expansion to channel reseller partners. For Canon customers, this partnership will offer scalable and flexible solutions, simplify vendor management by consolidating services under a single provider, and help businesses reduce overhead costs. Notably, Canon’s existing customers can consolidate leasing and billing through Canon Financial Services Inc., streamlining invoicing and contract management.
The partnership moves Canon U.S.A. in league with other industry leaders that have also augmented their MITS offerings over the years. Ricoh USA did so with its acquisition of mindSHIFT Technologies more than a decade ago, and Konica Minolta Business Solutions has been adding to its All Covered IT Services division for even longer. Most recently, Xerox completed the addition of ITsavvy, which effectively doubled the size of its Xerox IT Services division.
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