PARTNERS ’ PERSPECTIVE
Part of the Lynchpin Media team , Manda Banda has more than 20 years of experience working for channel publications . He shares the knowledge he has learnt during that time in this monthly column for Intelligent Tech Channels .
Why resellers should take the data centre interconnect opportunity seriously
Manda Banda , Deputy Managing Editor , Lynchpin Media
Manda Banda is Lynchpin Media ’ s Deputy Managing Editor and Editor of Intelligent CIO Middle East and Intelligent CIO Africa .
The data centre ecosystem is evolving rapidly and witnessing more disruption as organisations embrace advanced technologies . While virtualisation of the IT infrastructure continues steadily in data centre environments , the dominance of IoT , Big Data and Machine Learning will continue to fuel innovation in this segment and offer new digital revenue streams for solution providers . How is this evolution compelling partners to innovate and why should they take the data centre opportunity interconnect seriously ?
The rapid and exponential growth in the amount of data consumed by various businesses , individuals and organisations has resulted in the rise in the demand for data storage . With increasing business needs , organisations are looking for expanding on one ’ s data storage capacity . Moreover , many large organisations such as Facebook , Google , Apple , Microsoft , Amazon , Oracle and certain government agencies , are consolidating the traditional data centres into gigantic mega data centres or have migrated to the cloud .
In order to minimise the cost associated with operations of a data centre , and to maximise the profit , various channel organisations are coming up with more scalable and efficient solutions which can serve the enormously increasing demand for data storage . This surging demand for data storage is nurturing the market for data centres . This also , presents potential opportunities for numerous vendors and their army of resellers serving the data centre market .
In the Middle East and Africa ( MEA ), transformed IT organisations are placing strategic bets on a broad array of modern technologies , from high-performance , easy-to-scale storage systems , through pre-packaged , easy-to-integrate converged and hyper-converged systems , to flexible , software-defined architectures .
For solution providers , supplying data centre infrastructure solutions requires them to have expertise and understanding on how businesses can realise long-term cost savings on operations and maintenance of data centre infrastructure .
According to MarketsandMarkets , the global data centre interconnect market size is projected to grow from US $ 7.9 billion in 2020 to USD 14.0 billion by 2025 ; and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.1 % from 2020 to 2025 . Drivers such as the migration towards the cloud and the growing
With some technologies having had the most profound impact on the progression of the data centre interconnect market in the region , channel partners must make the right decisions on which solutions best suit their clients ’ needs . borderless nature of global economy and opportunities such as the deployment of 5G and proliferation of applications are expected to fuel the growth of the data centre interconnect industry .
That being the case , the era of “ datafication ” in which information management and data analytics drive business competitiveness is the biggest driver for data centre interconnect infrastructure growth . From government agencies to theme parks , organisations need to store , secure and analyse more data than ever before .
Clearly , the data centre interconnect market in the region has been growing significantly with a trajectory for growth in investments , data centre infrastructure expected to continue going up in MEA . From flash storage arrays to scale-out architecture and converged or hyper-converged systems , organisations are investing heavily to modernise and automate their infrastructure and in the capabilities of a data centre to drive business growth and accelerate Digital Transformation .
That ’ s why data centre modernisation ranks as the top IT investment by more than half of Middle East organisations , nearly double the rate of organisations across Europe , Middle East , and Africa ( EMEA ), according to recent VMware research . However , modernising data infrastructure should not be done on its own . MEA organisations need to work with channel partners to ensure data centre modernisation is done in line with Digital Transformation and digital skills development . The biggest business
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