Brocade has just released the results of its annual EMEA wide channel survey and the future certainly looks bright for channel organisations who have technical expertise and capabilities in helping end-user organisations simplify their network infrastructures and increase connectivity since ‘complexity’ and ‘bandwidth provisioning’ are revealed to be the two biggest customer challenges. The research which surveyed 230 Brocade distributors and resellers from across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) throws light on technology trends in 2015, top customer and channel priorities in the coming year and most important criteria for vendor selection.
Virtualisation (72%) was identified as the top customer trend with 53% of respondents forecasting that more than 75 percent of customer data centres will be virtualised within two years. BYOD (43%) and SDN/ NFV (30%) were identified as the next two trends in order of importance. Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) will see an increased momentum and uptake in the next 2 years and this was the opinion of over 50% of the respondents. 18% of companies surveyed are now deploying SDN, 33% are currently evaluating plans to adopt SDN, and 29% plan to do so in the next 12 months. Only 18% have no future plans to consider SDN or NFV which will no doubt lead to huge missed business opportunities.
Network complexity (46%) and bandwidth provisioning (46%) are the biggest challenges for customers and Abdul Rehman Tariq, Regional Channel Manager, MENA at Brocade provides insight on this finding, “Trends like big data, virtualisation, BYOD, cloud computing no doubt bring complexities to legacy networks as well as put a huge amount of strain on network bandwidth and it is therefore not surprising that complexity and bandwidth provisioning topped the list of customer pain points. As we move into the era of the ‘New IP’, customers will be looking to the channel to act as consultants and help them transition to simplified network infrastructures that increase connectivity and can support these modern day trends. Channel organizations that develop their technical capabilities in line with these emerging technologies and trends will reap rich rewards. It should also be noted that vendors play an important role in helping their channel partners skill-up through training programmes.”
Providing insights on criteria when it comes to vendor selection, technology differentiation was cited as the most important factor in choosing a vendor (67%), followed by vendor vision and strategy (42%) and customer demand (39%).
Finally, it seems that channel organisations are getting serious about growing their businesses. This is evidenced by the fact that 64% of companies surveyed said that their current growth strategy was a top priority, followed by upgrading and expanding tech competencies (38%) and expanding into new verticals (32%).
“It is clear from the report that in order to grow, channel partners need to align with vendors that have the vision, technology and programmes in place to help customers as they look to embrace virtualisation, BYOD, SDN and NFV technologies. With its open networking philosophy and constant innovation, Brocade is leading the market transition to the New IP and at the same time providing its channel partners with the tools required to develop their capabilities so that they can capitalise on market opportunities,” concludes Tariq.
Methodology
The research, conducted by Brocade via an anonymous online SurveyGizmo survey, was cast among a wide range of individuals at partner organisations. The majority of respondents were from technical (63 percent) and sales (27 percent) job functions, with the remaining respondents in executive level (2 percent) and marketing (8 percent) functions.
