FUTURE TECHNOLOGY
management. Digital transformation is
another key driver.
Transformation of the channel
should go in hand to hand with the
transformation NetApp is presently
undergoing, which is focused on flash
storage, converged infrastructure, hyper-
converged infrastructure, and software
components. These focus areas are
also NetApp’s fastest-growing market
segments, and the company wants to
help partners build service and recurring
revenue opportunities around them.
Making partners and end customers
understand digital transformation and
equipping them with skill sets to adapt to
the changing demands of the ecosystem is
another key area of focus.
Forecast
1. Data will continue to be the core
as business processes depend on
converting data into actionable
insights. Organisations must make
investments in cloud while also
adopting data services for hybrid
cloud, in order to thrive in the digital
transformation era.
2. The local ICT industry will witness
massive growth driven by opportunities
in the government sector ahead of
Expo 2020. The overall ICT spending is
expected to cross $20 billion by 2020,
with the Middle East region becoming
one of the fastest growing ICT markets
in the world for the next few years,
according to IDC.
3. Demand for storage facilities is also on
the rise with most Middle East countries
investing significantly in the security of
people, along with both IP and physical
security gaining importance. This will
present the largest opportunity for
channel partners . ◊
PURE STORAGE
Flash from Pure Storage, connecting
channel with service providers
I
n terms of Pure Storage’s partner
programme, the vendor added a
number of benefits to its P3 solution
provider programme and also introduced
a new category for service providers. For
some select P3 partners, the vendor now
offers beta testing to provide early hands-
on access to upcoming products, solutions
and features.
Pure Storage partners are leading the
way into new workloads and use cases for
Pure’s portfolio and the related feedback
is incredibly valuable as the vendor
continues on the path of developing
innovative technology for the cloud era.
Scorecard
For all P3 partners, Pure is extending
its range of enablement tools to help
drive success in the market; including
training, demo gear discounts and
deal registration. The programme also
offers a variety of sales and marketing
resources, including access to MDF funds,
a self-service marketing platform called
Pure Demand, and the Pure On The
Go app, which allows partners to easily
access sales resources, and the ability to
configure, price and quote, all from their
mobile devices.
Landscape
In terms of service providers, Pure has
a rich history of successful partnerships
with service providers globally, including
a number who also have hosting
practices. The vendor has designed
a programme that will allow service
providers to offer their customers the
ability to consume Pure as part of a
managed or cloud deployment.
The benefit of the new service provider
feature is Service and Technology
Coherence, aligning technical capability
with partner services activity to deliver the
most effective and efficient offerings. As
such, the focus is not the programme itself,
but the results and outcomes it generates
for the service provider partner.
Forecast
There are three key trends going into 2018
that the channel needs to plan for:
1. Hybrid cloud architectures will
dominate. The debate around whether
to use cloud technologies is history.
Multi-cloud deployment has now
become the norm. As the transition
from virtualisation to cloud-native
and containerised applications gathers
momentum there will be an increasing
focus on seamless private public
cloud application and data mobility
through to 2020. Partners that have
these technologies, which are able to
integrate security with performance and
multi-tenancy to enable this mobility
on-demand, will become the market and
mind-share leaders.
2. AI and Machine Learning. Data
from Forrester suggests that 70% of
enterprises expect to implement some
form of AI over the next year. However,
across the full range of businesses, the
benefits of machine learning are going
to be felt more immediately. Machine
learning’s quick wins will be lower
down in the business technology stack.
Machine learning-based automation
is already proven to save hours each
day in the routine administration
of IT infrastructure. Instrumenting
systems, via the Internet of Things,
and using machine learning to analyse
the data delivers valuable, actionable
information which can be used to
automatically resolve issues before they
have a business impact. Channel players
looking to gain a competitive advantage
and grow their revenue streams must
start partnering with vendors that focus
on AI Machine Learning technologies
and investing in talent that have related
skills and expertise.
3. Storage conversations should
become data conversations.
Technically, and commercially,
the problem of delivering high
performance, robust, simple and
scalable storage has been solved.
2018 will be seen as a tipping point,
where automation and orchestration
technologies abstract modern
infrastructure technology operations
into a REST API call from Ansible,
Chef, Puppet, Kubernetes. For partners,
this will require a change in business
model and how they approach the sale.
Partners will pivot away from being
box-pushers and start positioning
themselves as business consultants . ◊
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