SPONSORED: Most resellers don't view GDPR as a sales windfall, CRN research finds

Resellers, MSPs and consultancies questioned in a CRN/SolarWinds MSP study express ambivalence over what impact GDPR will have on their sales ledgers

A new ebook on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) lifts the lid on how resellers really feel about the incoming data protection regime, with most expressing ambivalence over whether it will light up their sales in the run up to 25 May 2018.

Available in English, German, French, Italian and Dutch, the ebook, produced in partnership with SolarWinds MSP, is free to download.

We asked reseller respondents how they viewed GDPR generally, in terms of the opportunities and challenges it represents for their business.

Relatively few IT suppliers across Europe think it will provide a ‘huge windfall', although the percentage was higher in France, the UK and the Netherlands (26, 24 and 23 per cent, respectively) than in Germany (11 per cent) and Italy (12 per cent).

This is despite IDC recently heralding GDPR as a $3.7bn annual IT security spending bonanza for the channel in western Europe.

This echoes the views of resellers that took part in a CRN panel debate on GDPR in September.

"We've all got a part to play in the execution of this," said Richard Lockey, UK country manager at Crayon, who was one of the panellists.

"But if anyone thinks they're going to walk in and solve a GDPR problem for one of their clients, and sign a contract on the back of it that says you are now GDPR compliant, good luck."

When we asked respondents to what extent they expected GDPR to boost security and storage spending among their customers, again they more often than not had fairly modest expectations.

Download the ebook in English, German, French, Italian and Dutch to view the full results.

This article was commissioned by SolarWinds MSP