A survey performed by Canalys says that 96 percent of respondents, mostly based in the distribution and reseller segments, said they now offer “IT as a service”.
That includes managing customer assets on premises, or using hosting or public cloud services.
Vendors use the channel to sell their products and while reselling products is the most important set of sales for two third of channel partners, these types of sales are growing.
Rachel Brindley, research director at Canalys said that 58 percent of the firms surveyed think that managed services is more profitable than just selling software and hardware. And by 2017, two third think IT as a service will represent more than a quarter of revenues.
But the channel isn’t stuck in the cloud. They fear that cloud providers will bypass their traditional value added businesses.
“Vendors developing go to market strategies for the cloud must ensure they are not increasing competition with their established partners but recognise this is typically delivered as part of a hybrid IT offering,” said Alex Smith, senior analyst at Canalys.
