Unified computing and the cloud

How the channel must adapt to address the new customer requirements around these technological trends

Rawden: Flexibility will be the name of the game

We are moving away from physical IT infrastructure towards virtual environments. Physical computing is mutating into unified computing, combining server, network and storage virtualisation.

Server virtualisation has been around for years. Storage has become virtualised to a degree, although the network has obstructed the true mobility of applications and data.

A unified computing approach breaks the last bond between applications and data. In some ways, it is like the transition from a home landline to a mobile phone. When apps and data are not tied to physical systems yet the network still finds them, we have simplified maintenance and altered the way we manage our IT.

Customers, we think, want a unified approach from resellers to deliver on this. This may encompass services outside your area of expertise. So we are seeing a sharp decline in distributors that offer security-only or storage-only models, for example.

Unified computing represents both an opportunity and a challenge. Resellers will need a deeper and broader understanding of each customer to be able to recommend and sell an entire datacentre offering.

There is an opportunity to earn more wallet share by servicing more areas of the datacentre, but where there is more to gain, there is always more to lose.

Regardless, unified computing presents a platform to launch better and more efficient services for customers, including cloud computing.

In these tough economic times, customers want to become more efficient and lower their costs. Unified computing brings all the pieces together to reduce total cost of ownership. The result should be complete compatibility, allowing you to do more and manage more data with fewer resources.

Just as technology is always evolving, so must VAR sales methods.

We think that unified computing has been the biggest change in 2009. More than likely, the cloud will be what every channel customer will want to hear about in 2010. Resellers will thrive if they become a trusted adviser on all areas of the datacentre, and on how customers can adopt an integrated approach that may even include a hybrid cloud model.

However this plays out, flexibility will be the name of the game.

Pete Rawden is regional director for channel sales and general business at NetApp