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There is a clear opportunity for the channel to seize a competitive advantage in the industry by strategically advising global enterprises and organisations on hybrid Cloud networks, datacentre bandwidth management, and network virtualisation, according to networking company, Brocade.
The company mentioned the findings in its annual channel trends survey that was completed by more than 1200 global Brocade channel partners from its distributor and reseller communities. The survey was conducted to better understand the changing needs of customers and learn how Brocade can help its partners provide more strategic networking solutions.
The study found that IoT and Big Data will be significant trends, at least for some resellers, within 24 months. Within the next year, 29 per cent said IoT will be a significant trend, although 40 per cent indicated it will be a significant trend only for some specialised resellers.
On the other hand, 67 per cent mentioned IoT will be a significant trend, whereas 23 per cent said it will be a trend limited only for some specialised resellers within five years.
The study also showed network security, followed by managing hybrid Clouds and datacentre bandwidth requirements, are seen by Brocade channel partners as the three biggest customer challenges in 2016.
27 per cent of channel partners said network security is anticipated as one of the biggest customer challenges, while 21 per cent said it is managing security in a hybrid Cloud environment and 22 per cent picked solving needs around disaster recovery between datacentres.
In addition, the top three anticipated drivers of end-customer spending for 2016 include hybrid Cloud (24 per cent), network virtualisation (24 per cent) and increasing data volumes (14 per cent).
“In 2016, Brocade will continue to provide partners with innovative technologies built for the new IP, along with market-proven solutions and vibrant brand recognition,” Brocade vice-president of global channel sales and marketing, Pete Peterson, said.
“The communities within the Brocade partner network have provided great insight, as it will help us to better support them via Brocade’s programs, solutions, and engagement.”
Other findings of the study include:
- Business priorities for channel partners in the next five years are: continuing current growth strategy (44 per cent); expanding into new vertical/industry markets (40 per cent); upgrading and/or expanding technical competencies (33 per cent); expanding into new geographic regions (27 per cent); and entering a new practice area, focused on a new vendor brand or solution type (21 per cent).
- Channel partners said customers are driven by agility/flexibility/innovation (49 per cent), creating cross-vendor solutions (14 per cent), and decreased vendor lock-in (10 per cent) to adopt datacentre networking technologies based on open source standards.
