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20 Nov 2009
NetApp has warned VARs they will lose business if they fail to embrace cloud computing.
The vendor used its European partner conference in Athens to outline its aim of being crowned the top EMEA storage and data management player by 2012. Partner acquisition would be key to that, it stressed.
Julie Parrish, vice president of worldwide channel sales at NetApp, told attendees that cloud was “definitely coming” and that resellers who resist it will be left behind.
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“Customers want the cloud and if resellers are not willing to provide it as a service, they will simply go off and find someone else who will.”
According to Gartner, the worldwide software-as-a-service market will boom from $7.5bn this year to $14bn by 2013 and Parrish advised resellers not to bury their heads in the sand.
“The worst possible thing to do is fight it because, in this case, the hype is appropriate because of the percentage of IT infrastructure spend that we are seeing shift in its [the cloud’s] direction,” counselled Parrish.
Clive Longbottom, service director at market watcher Quocirca, said resellers are right to be cautious when it comes to cloud computing.
“As a reseller, I would not like to bet the farm on cloud at the moment but I would certainly want to make sure that cloud could be rapidly included in my offerings as I go forwards,” he said.
“Cloud is a market-changing area, but the vendors, the analyst community and the media run the risk of killing the golden goose before it has laid its first egg by confusing the markets with vague discussions and definitions as to what cloud really means to the end user.”
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