Jason Baden (F5 Networks)
Amid the global shift to the cloud, one region in particular outside of the USA is drawing F5 Network's attention as a market leader in cloud adoption: Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ).
This is according to F5 regional vice president Jason Baden, who shared with Reseller News updates on how F5 is seeing its ecosystem grow through F5's evolved partner program, and his assessment of opportunities and challenges in the market in the coming months.
Launched in 2020, its partner program Unity+ aims to create long-term profitable partner growth by enhancing partner opportunities and incentives, capturing new revenue streams, and driving tighter collaboration to help customers through technology transformation.
Unity+ gives current and new partners the flexibility to sell F5 solutions in a way that meets the needs of their customers, while also allowing them to align with the transaction model that fits their core business.
Baden highlighted trends that F5 has recognised following the September closure of its financial year. He said that the A/NZ region is more closely aligned with trends seen on the West Coast of the USA.
“Across APAC, they're very focused on hardware, and I think we're still seeing that. You know that there is a strong on-premises requirement in some of those regions.
“However, a lot of the US companies [on the West Coast] are very much aware that they can put that application anywhere. We seem to be much more tied to the forefront of where the application is.
“We’re not so wedded to having the on-prem or having to have the hardware. So, there are some interesting dynamics within the A/NZ market that are probably a little bit further ahead than wider APAC in where they’re doing with the cloud”.
While Baden recognises the economic headwinds felt across the industry, he notes that the requirements of customers remain the same regardless of external pressures.
“It may delay a project, or slow it down, or take some time to go through that process," he said. "But ultimately, when you're moving applications from either on-prem into the cloud or expanding your data centre, it does still go ahead,” he said.
Despite a generally positive outlook for opportunities in the market, Baden also notes this as the biggest upcoming challenge for the channel: remaining agile in the face of a rapidly changing environment.
Where there might have been a “big infrastructure play”; what Baden calls something like a big data centre builds – where channel partners may have traditionally been involved on a contract or one-off purchase basis, there is a shift towards flex-consumption environments.
“That goes back to the point: where is that application sitting? If it's just going into the cloud, then is that purchase only for software? Is it a monthly purchase? Is it a yearly purchase?
“We're changing from one big purchase to a subscription or enterprise licence agreement.
“What that means for the channel partner is that you've actually then got to be able to change your business model with that. You might be implementing services much, much quicker, and they have to be addressed more regularly.”
However, Baden is quick to pivot and highlight the market opportunities that exist in the face of the shift towards high-touch engagement.
He said that F5 has had some “pretty substantial” software product acquisitions over the last two years, totalling around US$2 billion.
“What we're seeing from our channel partners is that as the market evolves, they've really got to follow where is the best place for that product to sit and then have the skill sets to be able to work with that,” he said.
Using F5’s Distributed Cloud Services product as an example that is currently being rolled out, he said that they have seen channel partners approaching F5 for support with the initial rollout of the product before they take ownership of the service and go out on their own.
It has been encouraging to see channel partners rising to the challenge of adapting to a new product and expanding on it, he said.
F5 plans to continue to invest in the channel by evolving its training programs and relationships with partners to ensure ease of delivery of new products.
