The survey also examined the areas where leaders expect to see new technology growth, with the results suggesting we’re going to see a significant modernisation of many aspects of channel technology. When asked which of the following technologies do you think will experience the greatest sales growth by 2020, 25% of respondents identified artificial intelligence, 18% IoT, 16% DevOps, and 20% 3D printing.
“The results are in one part supporting and another contrasting much of the rhetoric around technology change that we’ve heard in recent years,” commented Agilitas CEO Shaun Lynn. “What we can see is that there is a clear appetite for new technology and innovation in the channel. But, the research also makes an interesting point around the cloud and hardware.”
Lynn continues: “As our report explains, the reason we’re seeing continued demand for hardware is because the cloud is inherently reliant on it to function. Despite the cloud being an always-on fully accessible piece of technology, data still needs to be stored somewhere. As a result the big cloud firms are continuing to build data centres. Amazon and Microsoft for example have both opened data centres in the UK in recent months.”
The research further supports this view revealing that channel leaders expect almost half of support contracts to be focused off-premise and in remote data centres by 2020.
Disruption is also a major theme in the report, with much of the research examining technology support contracts and how these are managed and operated. It revealed that resellers expect to be selling 35% more multi-vendor solutions, with just 20% believing single solution driven operations will be a business priority by 2020.
“All of our data points to a growing trend” concludes Agilitas CEO Shaun Lynn, “Resellers are taking back control from vendors. With customer expectations on the rise, performance will be the priority, and we can expect plenty of new opportunities for channel disruption as we approach 2020.”
The research commissioned by Agilitas and carried out by OnePoll surveyed 100 senior level executives at leading IT Resellers, Managed Service Providers and Independent IT Providers, and marks the second in a series of quarterly investigations into the future of the channel.