Avnet plays matchmaker on IoT

Distributor pushes new ecosystem to help partners and vendors find each other for increasingly complex IoT solutions

Avnet is making moves to help its reseller and vendor partners find each other to work together on Internet of Things (IoT) projects - something it claims both are finding difficult at the moment.

The distributor has been active in the IoT space for a number of years, but is now boosting its efforts in the space as the trend takes off, holding an event and introducing partner tools in the coming months.

Craig Smith, Avnet Technology Solutions' director of IoT, cognitive computing and analytics, told CRN that typically, up to 10 companies need to work together on a single IoT project due to its complexity and far-reaching requirements. This, he said, means that distributors play a key role in connecting partners with companies they might not have otherwise known of.

"We see distribution playing a really important role within IoT solutions," he said. "The vast majority, if not all, of the IoT engagements we are being brought into involve multiple vendors and multiple partners. So it's the skill base across those partners and the technology provided by the vendors - typically there are between four and 10 parties involved in one particular engagement.

"If you think about an IoT solution where you're delivering from edge to enterprise, at the edge we have sensors and gateways, and then we have connectivity connecting that data into the enterprise, then IoT platforms managing that data. We're seeing the ecosystem, from an Avnet perspective, being able to bring all those partners and vendors together to deliver the overall solution."

Avnet already runs its own Cloud Marketplace scheme, promoting cloud services through its partners. Smith told CRN that its IoT offering links in with this.

Although many vendors, including Cisco, have been talking up the IoT for a number of years, some partners have told CRN they are reluctant to be the first to move in the space, due to its complexity and difficulties in replicating IoT solutions among multiple customers, meaning bespoke offerings are required for each deal.

Smith acknowledged this challenge and said this was partly the rationale behind the new IoT push.

"That's really what we're trying to do: driving a much more proactive ecosystem around IoT," he said. "Many of our traditional partners are finding some of the challenges of bringing all that together difficult. We want to round out those partners. We have examples of networking partners bringing opportunities to Avnet saying 'I am being approached by my customers; we are in there from a connectivity perspective, but they're asking us about IoT. How can we drive a programme of work with that customer and how can you help support that?' Through a variety of programmes we are developing, we're able to bring in services and expertise to run an innovation workshop to sit down with the customer, discuss the art of the possible, and help the partner articulate the road map for IoT. We're there to help support them in that development."

"Trying to hold onto the market yourself will only stunt growth through a lack of resource and imagination. By taking people who are best of breed - and we focus on connectivity - you know best, and you can work with others through partnership who are good in other areas. It's going to be the best way to push IoT."

Margaret Adam, IDC's programme director for European channels and alliances, said the IoT ecosystem is "particularly complex".

"Not only do you need to connect a diverse range of technology, endpoint and equipment companies, but also specialist IT companies within specific horizontal technologies and/or verticals," she said. " All of these elements also need to brought together in some kind of IoT platform. The good news is that it presents a large opportunity for the channel, but it would be hard to find a single partner that can do it all. So this would mean partnering and forming alliances from both within the IT ecosystem. The more micro-vertical you get in this, the easier to find the right partners."

Quocirca analyst Bob Tarzey welcomed the idea of distribution trying to bring companies together on IoT.

"It's a complex ecosystem and it involves the ability to pull in devices as well as the networking and security to go with them," he said. "Another important thing is that IoT is a solution. It's not 'here is what you need' - it's applications for industrial monitoring systems, developing smart transport options, and at the other end of the spectrum, protecting networks from unexpected things.

"I welcome initiatives such as Avnet's if they help partners focus on talking to their customers about what they could achieve by embracing IoT tech. What is important is making sure it is not one size fits all, but having different solutions and different offerings."

Partner plans

Partner-to-partner is an emerging trend in the channel, with vendors such as Microsoft and Cisco both encouraging resellers to work with one another to plug gaps in their expertise. Smith said this is a trend which lends itself to the IoT, where a wide range of companies are required to deliver a solution.

"I think there will definitely be more of that on an IoT perspective," he said. "An IoT solution includes sensors and gateways, so we need hardware partners - people who understand how to design and manufacture silicon onto boards and design that scale and do all the certification and testing you do when you create that kind of bespoke hardware - all the way through to companies which specialise in data management to connect those devices to the cloud and the IoT platform. [We also need] the more traditional partner space where it becomes about data residing in the enterprise or the cloud, to run analytics into that data."

Jack Wetson, product manager at machine-to-machine expert Bamboo, said that his firm focuses specifically on the connectivity aspect of the IoT, and agreed that numerous experts need to work together in order to succeed in the space.

"It's absolutely important, especially where the IoT is so new and exciting," he said. "There is so much to explore. Trying to hold onto the market yourself will only stunt growth through a lack of resource and imagination. By taking people who are best of breed - and we focus on connectivity - you know best, and you can work with others through partnership who are good in other areas. It's going to be the best way to push IoT."

In the past, working with another vendor or reseller on the same offering might have been viewed as an unorthodox move, and Wetson said some people were reluctant to do so. But he added that when it comes to such a broad topic as IoT, companies are more than happy to link arms.

"It has certainly been interesting," he said. "When we talk about IoT, people have a completely different approach and are more open, which is really refreshing. Most people understand the opportunity here and they know they need to work with one another."