EXPERT SPEAK restaurants – it ’ s no longer possible to have IT service personnel at every location .
Mitigating failures
Calculating the impact of downtime can be complex , but in 2020 , research from the Uptime Institute found that 40 % of outages cost between US $ 100,000 and US $ 1 million , and 16 % cost more than US $ 1 million .
For this reason , resilience remains one of the top management priorities when delivering Digital Transformation . IT managers especially understand that investment in reliable power protection systems not only reduce the risk of unplanned downtime , but safeguard applications and the reputation of their business .
Importantly , in its most recent survey , the Uptime Institute revealed that 76 % of respondents believe downtime could be preventable with better management , processes or configuration . Moreover , according to IDC , 40 % of end users plan to outsource their Edge initiatives , not least because business-critical Edge infrastructure is in many cases geographically distributed , difficult to manage without adequate resources and invariably requires real-time visibility .
Such are the demands and expectations placed on Edge infrastructure that it creates opportunities for partners to offer remote monitoring and management services of their customers ’ physical infrastructure and deliver a managed power service that protects their most critical applications .
Customer challenges and channel business opportunities
Emerging digital services , such as these , overcome a number of key customer challenges , including the need for real-time visibility across distributed IT and critical power sites , and greater access to trained IT support . A managed power service , for example , could comprise managed services for power , cooling , IT and physical security assets , as well as on-site maintenance , replacement and support .
These emerging digital services models or managed power services ( MPS ), can
Software and IT configuration and network issues are gaining ground as a common cause of a major IT service outage . provide a simple way for partners to address a new market requirement for backup power protection in remote edge sites , while offering expert IT support . Further , they enable channel partners to increase revenue by as much as 40 % per transaction , as opposed to traditional hardware sales .
Another key consideration is cost . Delivering a MPS expertly designed around mission-critical IT not only bridges the skills gap , it reduces costs , in some cases by up to 59 %. Without access to resilient power , diverse network connectivity and IT availability , any Digital Transformation strategy can quickly be derailed and all the more so without expert support . Interestingly , across the globe , the market spends only around 0.5 % of its total IT budget protecting servers and storage with an uninterruptible power supply ( UPS ). A small investment , when you consider the true cost of downtime .
A new era for partners
Digital Transformation spending is long set to continue , but with the cost of downtime reaching in excess of US $ 1 million per outage , customers should not only be investing in intelligent power protection and remote management software but should be looking to partners as expert support functions .
For channel organisations focused only on revenue and sales , the future looks bleak . But for those looking to take a step further and offer consultative services to customers , the opportunities are many and the numbers are in the data .
Right now , more than three quarters of end-users believe that downtime is preventable with better management , training , and processes . One might say there has never been a better time for partners to embrace new digital service models , to establish new recurring revenue streams and to add value to their customers . The demand is there , resellers just need to know where to look . •
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS Issue 49 55