The future of IT is hybrid – how can resellers turn this from threat to opportunity?

[AndrewMcNiven]

When the cloud first came about, companies were skeptical. Then there was a mad rush to move to this miraculous technology that offered so many benefits and seemingly no downsides. But then reality hit, as organisations realised that the cloud isn’t a silver bullet.

The truth is that not all data, systems or infrastructure can be moved to the cloud. Sometimes it’s too difficult (or even impossible in the case of many legacy systems) and other times it’s just not cost effective. Egress fees are another thing many enterprises failed to consider.

Hybrid is the future

Organisations have been compelled to re-examine their cloud strategy regarding what they can actually move. In most cases this means some data, systems and infrastructure need to remain on premise.

A Hybrid IT environment is the future state of most enterprises. But what does this mean for resellers? The cloud itself can either be seen as a threat or an opportunity, and the Hybrid IT environment is no different. The challenge lies in cutting through the complexity and developing the necessary skill sets to stay relevant.

The margins aren’t there from products anymore and the volume of hardware needed has decreased thanks to the cloud. The key is to deliver value over and above simply dropping product and create new revenue streams, including increasing annuity revenue.

New skills open new doors

Security, network design and network maintenance are still skills that are needed in a Hybrid environment, and resellers should gear themselves to ensure they can offer such essential services. Systems like backup, recovery and archiving remain critical and often customers need help in these areas because they aren’t IT experts.

It’s also important to upskill on new technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) and edge-level devices, so resellers can cater to this requirement going forward. Compliance is another area that will only continue to expand, and resellers can take this opportunity to become trusted partners and advisors.

What it comes down to is the fact that many customers don’t have the skills in-house to manage and maintain their IT. This has always been true, but in a Hybrid environment it becomes even more so. Having the skills and relationships in place to support customers is the crux of reseller success.

Support is critical

While the opportunities are there, resellers can’t do it on their own. They need support from vendors. For vendors this makes sense too, since the channel is often a critical extension of the sales team. They’re also the customer-facing element of the channel, and vendors need the relationships that resellers build with customers to succeed. So, what should vendors be doing to help?

In the Hybrid IT state, the customer needs the reseller to be a partner, not a supplier. It’s therefore up to vendors to help them achieve this, with resources, guidance, relevant training and upskilling and more. It’s a symbiotic relationship where everyone wins.

Vendors can also help resellers to move toward annuity revenue models rather than once off product revenues. One way this can be done is through consumption-based IT products and services. These solutions offer the benefits of the cloud in terms of agility and cost savings, while allowing customers to maintain their infrastructure on premises.

One such solution is HPE GreenLake, an IT-as-a-service offering that brings the cloud experience to organisations’ on-premises infrastructure and unifies their edges, clouds and data centres. HPE GreenLake enables enterprises to create one consistent experience across their private and public clouds for seamless integration across their entire IT estate, and allows them to rapidly deploy services, gain cost and compliance insights and simplify management.

To find out more about Greenlake, visit: https://www.hpe.com/za/en/services/flexible-capacity.html. For help with Hybrid IT environments check out Hybrid IT for Dummies.

Andrew McNiven
Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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