AI, managed services, and sustainability in datacentres: Channel leaders list their top trends for 2024

From Tapas 2 driving public sector procurement, to an explosion in AI support services, here is what the channel will be keeping an eye on in 2024

AI, managed services, and sustainability in datacentres: Channel leaders list their top trends for 2024

As 2023 draws to a close, it is difficult to pick the longer-term trends to watch out for of all the rapid technological, business and geopolitical changes vying for the channel's attention.

Nevertheless, we've asked channel and tech leaders to do just that - separate the wheat from the chaff to give us their biggest trends to watch in 2024.

AI, sustainability, public sector procurement and services will drive growth for the channel

Alex Tatham, executive director, Westcoast Limited

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"In 2024, the development of AI will accelerate, thanks to increased access, new projecs and investments, improved chip availability, as well as growth in storage and cooling. The latter, storage and cooling, will become a much more important focus alongside wider sustainabiity efforts.

"Widespread adoption of Windows 11 will drive a significant number of refreshes as well as downgrade services.

"Meanwhile, the Tepas 2 framework, allowing for increased flexibility in public procurement, will mean that public sector bookings for resellers and MSPs is set to increase as well.

"The relative availability and convenience of ink tank printers will drive business for printer and copier-focused partners.

"And of course, the growth of management services and the transition of resellers along this track is set to continue at pace."

AI, managed services, and sustainability in datacentres: Channel leaders list their top trends for 2024

From Tapas 2 driving public sector procurement, to an explosion in AI support services, here is what the channel will be keeping an eye on in 2024

Data sovereignty and sustainability will dominate the agenda

Emma Dennard, VP of Northern Europe, OVHcloud

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"In 2024, data sovereignty will change how we think about the online world. Most of the data economy today doesn't have the individual at its heart, but this is changing fast. The combined momentum of UK-GDPR and the sentiment of legislation like the Data Act means that organisations now understand that their customer and business relationships are not built around trust - and this needs to change.

"Next year our definition of data sovereignty will become broader and include further considerations of data portability, contract periods, use of open-source software, integration and even choice of hardware. This is a worthy goal: it's only when we have full control and transparency over information that the data economy will become a fairer, more human-centric place.

"In 2024, the complexity of our global sustainability issues will become clearer. We've made progress, but the urgency of the matter is reaching crisis point, and the rampant greenwashing, accusations of greenwashing, and over-simplification of complex discussions often leads to a slowdown in actually taking on the issues. Every little helps, and the scope of the challenge is often misunderstood.

"For example, it takes 39,000 gallons of water to produce a single car. An average DC uses 390,000 gallons of water, and there are over three quarters of a million cars produced every year in the UK, so it'd take 86,000 conventional DCs to come close to that figure. Appreciating the scope and complexity of the problem helps us to properly understand the issue, and then take steps, even small ones, to tackle the real issues in a meaningful way.

"Furthermore, the industry is making datacentres as efficient as they can be, but this is just a small part of the equation. The industry needs power-efficient software, more renewable energy sources, to recycle more and think of smart ways to use waste heat and conserve water. In 2023, great strides were made towards understanding the complexity of the situation, and in 2024, this hard work will start to pay off."

AI, managed services, and sustainability in datacentres: Channel leaders list their top trends for 2024

From Tapas 2 driving public sector procurement, to an explosion in AI support services, here is what the channel will be keeping an eye on in 2024

Managed services to continue making strides, driven by SMB growth

Greg Jones, VP of business development, EMEA, Kaseya

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"MSPs are currently in a good place, and this will likely continue in 2024. The technology industry often does well in times of economic uncertainty: There is huge potential especially for those MSPs who can pivot and spot opportunities to grow. Adaptability and agility are paramount for success.

"Many small and medium-sized enterprises now consider technology an integral part of their business. They know they can harness technology to drive productivity and profitability and they will be looking to MSPs to help them achieve these goals. This is not necessarily about implementing shiny, new tools, but rather about improving business processes, automating and doing more with less.

"Security and co-managed services remain growth areas. Against a backdrop of fast evolving cyber threats, MSPs will need to challenge and leverage all their supplier relationships. They will need to work with vendors as strategic partners and invest the time to boost their own as well as their clients' cyber resilience.

"We are seeing a lot of consolidation, with bigger players buying mid-sized MSPs and investors increasingly interested in the MSP space. One important learning from 2023 is that the technology sector can change with a moment's notice. So MSPs and their clients should be prepared for all eventualities."

AI, managed services, and sustainability in datacentres: Channel leaders list their top trends for 2024

From Tapas 2 driving public sector procurement, to an explosion in AI support services, here is what the channel will be keeping an eye on in 2024

Threat exposure management to go mainstream

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Brian Martin, director of product management, Integrity360

"In 2024, we foresee the evolution of threat exposure management taking hold as a concept in the market. With many prevalent and upcoming technologies centred around CTEM at present, it suggests that it's going to start becoming mainstream next year.

"CTEM will enable organisations to be more proactive about identifying and assessing key problem areas in the attack surface that has grown substantially in the last couple of years. However, this will extend beyond simply identifying and addressing vulnerabilities, enabling organisations to alter their posture, looking at users, security controls and other key pieces of the puzzle needed to change to ensure best practices are embraced.

"A more widespread embrace of CTEM is also likely to accelerate the convergence of key security tools.

"When we talk about threat exposure management, there's a few different pillars, products and capabilities including: external attack surface management, cyber asset management, attack path management, digital risk protection, vulnerability assessment and management, continuous testing. Currently, these are all separate products - something that's likely to change in the year ahead.

"Consolidation is going to be a theme for 2024, as previously standalone products continue to become features of broader overarching solutions, such as CTEM programmes."

AI, managed services, and sustainability in datacentres: Channel leaders list their top trends for 2024

From Tapas 2 driving public sector procurement, to an explosion in AI support services, here is what the channel will be keeping an eye on in 2024

Partial reversal of on-prem trend from 2023

Carl Shallow, director of compliance at Integrity360

"We've seen organisations digitally transforming and maturing at both speed and scale.

"The pandemic brought about years of change in the way companies in all sectors and regions operate. According to a July 2020 McKinsey Global Survey, executives revealed that COVID-19 had accelerated the digitisation of their customer and supply-chain interactions and of their internal operations by three to four years.

"That pace of change has led to the widespread adoption of cloud tools and technologies. From a security perspective, we've recently seen organisations embracing Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPPs) - a cloud-native security model intended to replace the use of multiple independent tools with one holistic security solution for modern enterprises with cloud-native workloads.

"That's the picture that's largely been painted from 2020-2023. But what of 2024?

"Where it was thought that there would be a logical and continuous shift away from on-prem to the cloud, this transition is now not as certain as it once was, with concerns having been growing among organisations for several reasons in recent times.

"First, there have been several high-profile cloud breaches. For example, in June of 2023, automaker Toyota revealed that roughly 260,000 customers' data was exposed due to a misconfigured cloud environment. Further, the 2023 Thales Cloud Security Study revealed that 39% of businesses experienced a data breach in their cloud environment in the last year.

"However, it's not just security, but also cost that's a potential challenge.

"According to Flexera's state of the cloud report 2023, cost is the number one concern with cloud, knocking security off the top spot for the first time in 10 years. Organisations are spending significantly on cloud platforms and supportive security, yet the economic gains that they anticipated are struggling to materialise in many cases.

"Of course, the cloud won't be scrapped. Yet it's possible that we'll see several organisations planning to move a proportion of their key assets back on prem in 2024 as they seek to ease concerns surrounding both cost and security."

AI, managed services, and sustainability in datacentres: Channel leaders list their top trends for 2024

From Tapas 2 driving public sector procurement, to an explosion in AI support services, here is what the channel will be keeping an eye on in 2024

Network optimisation to gain more focus amid AI boom

Thomas King, CTO, DE-CIX

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"Network optimisation will not only better support the performance of AI, but also better the performance of networks. Although it's still early days for AI in IT operations, it's beginning to show potential. Network engineers are being faced with increasingly complex network landscapes, combining a distributed workforce, a multitude of devices, and cloud infrastructure. AIOps will greatly simplify all this.

"The market for SD-WAN has grown rapidly and substantially in recent years, as today many large enterprises are already making the most of its advantages. Dr Thomas predicts that we will see the first SD-WAN Exchange solutions in 2024.

"With the increasing availability of quantum computing in the last few years, significant challenges have emerged in securing confidential communications. Following initial testing, in 2024 we will see productive quantum networks being built in Europe to test QKD (Quantum key distribution) over a longer distance - a challenge yet to be solved conclusively.

"Network as a service (NaaS) enables enterprises to outsource the building and management of their Wide Area Network (WAN) to a service provider. Alongside traditional carriers, the first NaaS providers have now built their global networks to support multinational organisations in connecting many branch locations, manufacturing plants, and distributed workforces. In 2024, we will see NaaS offerings becoming a global phenomenon."