The IT market is set for strong growth this year, thanks to a boom in demand for digital transformation technologies. Here’s how our IT channel partners can help us in one of the most exciting IT markets in decades.
Even the most resilient of us could be forgiven for feeling a little shaken after last year, despite recent encouraging developments with vaccine rollout and predictions of a strong economic recovery.
Last year, customer budgets tightened due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and overall, IT spending worldwide was flat compared to 2019, according to IDC, a research company.
Now, however, there are reasons for cautious optimism. IDC has forecast that between 2021 and 2023, global IT spending will grow by at least five per cent annually, due largely to growth in new technologies, including cloud computing, analytics and artificial intelligence.
Digital Transformation Technologies – The Next Step for the IT Channel
Covid-19 created an unprecedented increase in people working from home. It also underscored how digital infrastructure, including data centers, is vital to the smooth-running of 21st century economies and societies. It’s too early to know what long-term effects the pandemic will have, but it certainly seems to have accelerated companies’ plans to invest in digital transformation technologies.
Billions more dollars have been spent in automation, artificial intelligence, analytics, and other technologies to enable remote working, improve efficiency, and take businesses in a new direction.
Spending on digital transformation is expected to grow at a compound annual growth of 15.5% from 2020 to 2023 to approximately $6.8 trillion, according to IDC.
Customers are looking for technologies that drive faster decision-making and quicker workflows. Many are turning to the cloud for these resources, with cloud spending increasing by a staggering 37% during the first quarter of 2020, according to Margarete McGrath, chief digital officer, Dell Technologies UK, who spoke last November at the 2020 Vertiv EMEA Channel Summit.
And while there has been a lot of investment in public cloud services, it isn’t necessarily to the detriment of enterprise investment. According to a recent survey from Uptime Institute, the enterprise data center is neither dead nor dying. More than half of workloads are expected to remain in on-premise data centers in 2022 and beyond.
Strong growth is also expected in Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and IoT fifth generation (5G) mobile networks.
Profit from the Network Edge
This trend has also boosted investment in Edge infrastructure. While the network Edge remains a smaller part of the infrastructure market overall, according to research by Canalys, 35% of partners said they expected customers’ Edge investments will grow.
In the IT channel market, this year is likely to see the release of pent-up demand for IT projects, especially for digital transformation projects. For many companies, digital transformation and Edge computing will be among the most challenging IT projects they’ve attempted (due to the technology affecting all parts of the business − its work culture, business processes, etc.).
Most digital transformation projects fail to achieve their objectives, according to recent research. However, our channel partners can help businesses improve their success rate for digital transformation.
Expanded Support for IT Channel Partners
Vertiv has recently expanded its portfolio for partners, which now includes comprehensive service offerings for the IT Channel edge infrastructure portfolio. With dedicated services and support, ranging from warranty extensions, to contract packages and on-site services, IT Channel partners can easily help customers simplify their critical infrastructure maintenance.
Thanks to the recently-introduced service offering, the expanded Channel portfolio will allow Vertiv partners to sell more services, including elements like Vertiv™ Power Assurance, a 5-year program for UPS which helps manage small, remote, or dispersed mission-critical IT sites, or Vertiv LIFE™ Services – the remote diagnostic and preventive monitoring service for critical applications.
What’s more, partners have the opportunity to increase their deal size and profitability using no additional resources, as the offering is part of the Vertiv Incentive Program (VIP), which includes sales support, marketing material and online training.
IT Channel partners help their customers navigate these challenges by combining their expertise with experienced strong vendors. We all know that critical IT Infrastructure as the foundation of any reliable facility requires more than simply the components of racks, PDUs, UPS, cooling and remote management. It needs a calm head, in-depth knowledge of products and technologies, industry expertise and the knack of knowing the right product for the right business.
This year and the next to come will be a crunch time for many companies’ digital transformation projects – ‘when the rubber hits the road’, as they say.
Our Channel partners will play an important role in helping organisations achieve their ambitions and by doing so, create a continued bright future for our industry.
