Mobility tops cloud in CA channel index

Vendor survey of partners indicates direction of trend travel

Cloud may be everywhere, but so are mobile devices. This is what's exciting the channel today: providers see increasing demand for enterprise mobility offerings that expedite processes and boost customer business outcomes, according to CA Technologies' Channel Index 2013.

According to the survey of 550 tech providers, 84 per cent expected to see increased spending in enterprise mobility over the next year. Almost all (94 per cent) believed the rapid adoption of mobile offerings by end users will open opportunities to help grow their businesses.

"IT projects are being driven by the need for businesses to innovate for growth, while creating new ways to serve customers. And today's IT director is expected to be the driver of these efforts," said David Bradley, senior vice president of global partner sales at CA.

"The Channel Index 2013 shows just how far [our] IT departments and channel partners have come on this journey."

Cloud computing, which remains one of the hottest trends in the technology market, ran second to mobility in the index. Slightly more than two-thirds of respondents said they expect to see more customers spending on cloud over the next year.

The second-place finish of cloud computing shouldn't be seen as diminishing the trend. If anything, cloud computing is enabling the growth of mobile technology as an enterprise offering.
Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets simply cannot store all the applications and data locally that are required for business processes.

Cloud resources makes mobile devices more efficient and practical.

Evidence of the role of cloud in mobility growth is found in the survey by the volume of providers that are adopting services.

Seventy-one per cent of the resellers asked said they've evolved their businesses to provide services above basic IT product sales.

Another 60 per cent said they have or are on their way to adopting a managed services model. Twenty-six per cent said they are considering adopting managed services as a technology delivery model.

Earlier this year, CA and the 2112 Group released a paper - "The evolving services era" - detailing how the channel will evolve from basic product sales to cloud services and, eventually, business automation.

The projection was that it will take another three years to see the true emergence of business automation as a service. The results of the CA Technologies Channel Index suggest that this trend is not just happening, but accelerating.

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