The Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data will be significant trends, at least for some resellers, within 24 months, according to a survey conducted by Brocade among its channel partners.
Within the next year, 29 percent believe IoT will be a significant trend, although 40 percent believe it will be a significant trend only for some specialized resellers.
Within five years, on the other hand, 67 percent believe that IoT will be a significant trend, whereas 23 percent believe it will be a trend limited only for some specialized resellers.
Network security
Network security, followed by managing hybrid clouds and data center bandwidth requirements, are seen by Brocade channel partners as the three biggest customer challenges in 2016.
Network security is anticipated as one of the biggest customer challenges (by 27 percent of channel partners). Managing security in hybrid cloud environments is anticipated as one of the biggest customer challenges by 21 percent of channel partners.
Nearly 22 percent of channel partners believe solving needs around disaster recovery between data centers is the third-most-anticipated challenge.
Drivers of end-customer spending
The top three anticipated drivers of end-customer spending for 2016 are hybrid cloud, followed by network virtualization and increasing data volumes.
Twenty-four percent anticipate that the desire to adopt hybrid cloud will drive end-customer spending. Another 24 percent anticipate that the desire to adopt network virtualization will drive end-customer spending.
Meanwhile, 14 percent anticipate that the competitive pressure to deliver better services will drive end-customer spending.
Business priorities
The five top business priorities for channel partners in the next five years include:
- 44 percent are continuing with their current growth strategy.
- 40 percent plan to expand into new vertical/industry markets.
- 33 percent are upgrading and/or expanding their technical competencies.
- 27 percent plan to expand into new geographic regions.
- 21 percent plan to enter a new practice area, focused on a new vendor brand or solution type.
Reasons to adopt data center networking
Channel partners believe their customers are driven by the following top three reasons to adopt data center networking technologies based on open source standards:
- 49 percent believe agility/flexibility/innovation drive the need for open source standards.
- 14 percent believe creating cross-vendor solutions is easier with open source standards.
- 10 percent believe that decreased vendor lock-in is driving interest in open source standards.