Colorado Springs – Although today’s marketplace is presenting some tough economic challenges, Mike Hurst, vice-president and general manager of Avnet Technology Solutions Americas, Sun Solutions Group (NYSE: AVT), is confident that Avnet’s channel partners will remain profitable regardless of the state of the economy, as long as they continue working in markets such as virtualization and storage.
During his keynote speech Tuesday at New Frontiers, Avnet’s conference for its Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) partners, Hurst said the channel typically experiences gains during times of economic challenge.
“Where there are losers, it just stands that there has to be winners,” he said. “During the last recession, vendors relied on the channel for their revenue. The IT industry continues to evolve and solutions around consolidation show no signs of slowing down.”
Along with consolidation, Hurst also said the virtualization market is heating up due to decreased server prices, increased energy prices, and a renewed awareness of environmental issues. Hurst explains that end-users are turning towards hardware and software virtualization solutions to enable them to run multiple operating systems on a single server. For channel partners, he said the profit opportunities are in the network virtualization and security spaces.
“Demand for security is soaring,” Hurst said. “De-duplication and storage virtualization are becoming the new buzz words in the industry.”
Avnet also launched a new training program for VARs called VirtualPath University to support and empower partners in the virtualization market. By utilizing the three-day training course, Hurst said partners will gain a better market understanding and will learn how virtualization works through instruction and role-playing. The cost to attend VirtualPath University is US$799 per student and US$599 for each additional student from the same company. The first class is set to take place from Sept. 8 – 10 in Roseland, N.J.
Janet Waxman, vice-president of infrastructure channels and alliances at IDC, said virtualization has led to a shift in the entire IT industry.
“Because virtualization is becoming available to a broader base of customers, it’s clear that everything’s going to become virtualized,” Waxman said.
Partners working in the virtualization market should go after the industry-standard x86 market for SMBs which, she says, is still a vastly untapped market. Partners that work in this space will see huge opportunities for implementing virtualization solutions plus services for customers.
In support of its channel partner community, John Fowler, executive vice-president of systems at Sun, said the company has made its Try and Buy Program available to its partners. Through Try and Buy, Fowler said Sun hopes to gain net new customers in new markets, in addition to leveraging off of its current install base.
“Install base refreshes represent enormous opportunities for the channel,” Fowler said. “We want the install base to be much more efficient than it is today with the help of our partners, provided we give (them) the tools and access to leads. We’re going through some logistic issues and other challenges right now, but Try and Buy is about allowing (partners) to try our hardware at no risk at the customer-level.”
Sun’s Try and Buy Program has been one that’s been very successful for HighVail Systems says Bradley Brodkin, president of the Toronto-based VAR and an Avnet and Sun partner.
“We’re not a big business,” Brodkin said. “I have seven people with two more starting in September. We do business with our customers as their trusted advisors, so it’s important for us to leverage all of the services, marketing efforts and tools put forth by the distributor and the vendor.”
As the consolidation market continues to ramp up, Hurst said solutions will only become more complex. That’s why he said partners need to identify customer needs in order to come up with technology solutions to bridge the two.
“The channel has always stood for partnership, and now more than ever, you need partners to help craft a winning strategy,” Hurst said. “One thing is clear, and that’s that together as partners, we will emerge as winners.”
