In the course of writing an article about the new channel landscape (yes, it’s that time of the year/decade again) for the latest issue of Irish Computer, I had an interesting discussion with one of the contributors about the potential impact of the software defined phenomenon on the role of channel partners.
Software defined is one of those terms that some people are starting to get excited about. It’s the next logical step when storage, the network and data centres are virtualised and delivered as a service. Basically, software defined refers to an era where the relevant infrastructure will be managed and defined by the software rather than the hardware.
The current vendor strategy of tying software to proprietary hardware will founder as it becomes possible to run the software on commodity hardware. This brings benefits to customers in terms of cost savings and greater flexibility as they will be able to buy cheaper hardware and no longer be captive to a vendor’s proprietary upgrade roadmap.
This could cause a lot of disruption to channel partners as they are forced to re-evaluate the value of their vendor relationships. Why tie themselves to the mast of a particular vendor’s cause if the product map no longer provides a reliable course to navigate their futures by?
On the other hand, it could help to redefine the vendor/channel partner/customer dynamic in a way that is more advantageous to the channel. One of the phrases most used to describe the role played by channel partners is ‘trusted adviser’ but, for the most part, they don’t quite live up to the billing. That’s not their fault. The fact is that with so much technology out there, channel partners have to make some decisions on which vendors to strike a relationship with.
Once they commit to a particular vendor’s cause, resellers tend to find themselves investing more time and resources in that vendor and its ecosystem at the expense of other options. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it does mean they can become too heavily identified with one vendor and, in instances where there are better products available from rival suppliers, fail to fulfil the role of trusted adviser by acting in the interests of the vendor rather than the customer.
In the era of software defined computing, channel partners will have an opportunity to break their over-reliance on a specific vendor because the hardware element will be removed from the equation. Vendors will have to accept that they can’t deliver products across the whole stack. And even if they do, everyone else will be all too aware that, without the shackles of the proprietary lock-in, other products are available that could do a much better job.
Channel partners will have more freedom to recommend the best products for the job rather than the best products from the vendor they have the closest links with. This will help them to live up to the billing of “trusted advisers” to their customers. Everyone will be happier (except, probably, the vendors).
That’s the theory anyway.
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