Technology Reseller v26

PREDICTIONS 01732 759725 28 channel company from the extraordinary provider in a highly competitive market. Channel companies that can adapt to the changing landscape will also find opportunities in consolidation; advances in AI; IoT; and new cybersecurity technologies that allow partners to monetise threats in new ways based upon how SMBs consume applications. Technologies likely to have the biggest impact on the channel industry in 2020 include SD-WAN technologies that are helping small businesses become more dependent on distributed applications (SaaS apps) to run their business, as opposed to traditional networking solutions. Compliance The rise of the DPO Frank Krieger , VP Governance, Risk and Compliance , iland 1 As data privacy evolves globally, demand for Data Protection Officers (DPOs) will soar CCPA and GDPR will drive major demand for DPOs to roll out and enforce global security policies. 2 Brexit will bring big residency issues for UK-based DPOs DPOs serving European organisations and residing in the UK will be forced to relocate to maintain their role. 3 More rulings will bring clarity to DPO priorities, but consistency will be scarce DPOs will need to amass country-specific knowledge to advise their regional business units. 4 Ransomware will get worse as hackers get smarter and insurers get stricter Cybercriminals are getting smarter about who to attack based on their targets’ preparedness to pay. 5 Cyber insurance is poised to spike and be tougher to get We can expect to see a market correction as insurers implement tighter rules around breaches and ransomware. 6 Demand for audits and certifications will increase Sophisticated hackers and selective insurance companies will drive greater demand for security audits and certifications. As partners look to automate processes and become trusted advisors, we will see the emergence of platforms designed to bring together multiple technologies guaranteed to work together. For example, combining security, backup and workload technologies with an automated billing platform based on a partner’s integration capabilities. Channel providers will need to have a very clear plan for the technologies they want to integrate, which will require them to understand a vendor’s roadmap and its integration technologies. This year is also likely to see more mergers and acquisitions as cloud service providers (CSPs) drive hyper growth. The launch of AWS Outposts will take enterprises by storm and accelerate the move towards a hybrid cloud strategy. As businesses move more workloads to the cloud, the channel will evolve from simply managing SLAs to offering a more profitable and consultative approach. The channel will be able to use its understanding of an organisation’s business to offer advice on how to secure data in the cloud, move it around to remain agile and generate further insights. All of this will help the channel build more long-term relationships with customers and a bigger role for themselves. Challenges and opportunities Jim Lippie , SVP, Channel Development , Kaseya Many small businesses are adopting SaaS solutions that generally cut channel providers out. This creates a big challenge for channel players, but also the opportunity to look at how they insert themselves into the SaaS conversation with value added solutions that they can monetise. Another challenge for the channel in 2020 is to understand where the next emerging security threat is coming from and to work through the crowded market of cybersecurity products and programmes to find the one that offers the best protection. Doing so will also give you an opportunity to discover the best way to monetise threats and to separate out the average Channel Trends Shifting sands Jamie Farrelly , VP EMEA Channels at Veritas Technologies As the IT industry accelerates at a faster rate than ever, the role of the channel partner is shifting. Traditionally, channel partners have aimed to understand customers’ problems and find solutions to reduce risk and complexity while increasing revenues. While this aspect hasn’t changed, the evolving digital business landscape means that customer challenges are changing and, as a result, partners now need to work with a variety of solutions and platforms they haven’t worked with before. Vendors, too, need to realise that they can no longer exist solely within their own technology bubble and that they are part of a much wider ecosystem. With this realisation comes the need to think beyond their own area of expertise. It’s no longer just about working with partners, but also with other vendors to create ecosystem solutions that solve bigger customer issues. Integration and specialisation mean everything to the modern customer, so working with other vendors is a must. Expect to see more integration and collaboration in the channel in the year ahead. As we move into 2020 and towards greater integration, the channel’s next big consideration will be to simplify the user experience. There’s already a move towards generalist IT, and this will continue next year. Businesses will want to democratise their IT environments, adding security and backup functions to their existing technology stack, with the confidence that the backend processes and policies are taken care of by specialist technology partners. The channel is vital to this. It can embrace automation and enable customers to adapt to change by delivering services that are independent and decoupled from the underlying infrastructure or operating system, integrating multiple technologies that are guaranteed to work together through a single user interface. Jamie Farrelly Jim Lippie Frank Krieger What will be the dominant trends in 2020? Here are what the experts are predicting, from the rise of the DPO to the death of capitalism itself 2020 Vision