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T
he rise of the managed service provider (MSP)
is being driven by a willingness on the part of
end users to evolve their hardware and soft-
ware models to an opex-based, cloud-based
infrastructure, especially in the small and
medium-sized business space. For VARs especially, the shift
presents a radical departure from what went before – but
also plenty of opportunity.
“We’ve reached a new inflection point,” said Eran Farajun,
executive vice president at Asigra. “The channel community
used to sell once, collect once and look for the next sale. Then,
customers started wanting to convert their purchasing structure
from capex to opex, so partners could sell the implementation,
design, architecture, configuration services and project management
around the hardware. And customers wanted to buy this on a monthly
basis and scale as they used it. Now, it’s moving to as-a-service. Histori-
cally, customers owned the assets, and now they’re renting. And this inflec-
tion point creates challenges for those that can’t evolve their business, even
as new channel organizations are being created that can make that pivot.”
To not only survive but thrive, partners need to follow the data, and monetize it.
“The question is, if you’re not selling servers and storage and value-added servic-
es, how do you make money?” Farajun said. “The margins are thin on infrastructure-as-
a-service. So the challenge is not just to cope with a migration to services not hardware
– it’s finding a way to create value, be it with data protection services or managed service
offerings that you can layer onto the infrastructure piece. You also improve margins when
you bundle your own solutions – and it’s a stickier environment.”
Next-Gen
Enablers
Cloud and
opex drive a new
MSP model
Cloud and
By
Tara
Seals
73
September - October, 2016
|
Channel
Vision