Technology
Who’s Ushering in the Big Data Elephant?
I started off in this mad IT world when we were still trying to convince users of hierarchical databases that they were almost prehistoric mammoths and that the new concept of relational database was much better. Sure enough it succeeded and we all made money! Needless to say it needed more processing power to be any good at all at first, so the hardware vendors loved it as well. Happy days for all.
Supporting the Channel of the future
“We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our own or other people’s models, learn to be ourselves, and allow our natural channel to open” – Shakti Gawain
Seasonal Greetings to all clients, colleagues and readers in our industry. Once again we spend time here considering all things positive that can potentially make a difference to the way we all grow our business, regardless of these torrid times….
In this edition I invite you to ponder on the health of your arteries. I’m sure you would consider anything possible that would keep yours pumping with vigour, so an occasional examination doesn’t do any harm does it?
I am of course referring to The Channel, because the traditional Vendor-Distributor-Reseller model indeed has to adjust to cope with a new way of life.
Gone are the days when the primary requisite of a computer distributor was a large warehouse near a motorway. Holding stocks of hardware may still be a necessary feature of some IT supply chains, but as the tide continues to turn away from physical to virtual solutions, the old-style distribution business model is in need of a rethink in some areas.
We work in an industry defined by its need to evolve and reinvent itself rapidly, yet some things seem resistant to forces of change. The ‘vendor-disty-reseller’ conduit may be under pressure, with margins for all hard to come by, but for whatever reasons the underlying model remains much the same as it always was.
Sun attacks – the slow burn strategy
“If you want to shine like the Sun, first you have to burn like it.” – Unknown
Poor old Sun user base. Since the company’s takeover by Oracle, open season has been declared on them by many vendors keen to sow seeds of uncertainty and doubt over Oracle’s strategy and offering ‘a better roadmap which they would be wise to adopt before it’s too late’.
We’re as guilty as the rest of the pack. But as the volume of requests to target this market increased and we learnt more about the real attitudes and infrastructures prevalent in this community, we worked out a smarter way to deal with the situation.
Indeed many vendors are keen to pile into the parent Oracle at the same time, as this megalith wrestles with licensing strategy and expectation management issues, both amongst its restless Sun user base and the partners who sell into it.
So this is what happens in barren economic times. It’s survival of the fittest in a desert of dying cash cows, dried up budget wells and hungry mouths to feed. And the Sun keeps beating down…
