By Vangelis Lagousakos, General Manager Channel Sales Middle East, Africa & Turkey at Dell Technologies

Businesses are looking to reinforce resilience after a year in which the hybrid cloud has asserted itself as an absolute necessity. Taking stock of cloud management efficiencies will form a vital next step. There is no doubt that digital businesses have the agility and flexibility to pivot, come what may. But the truth is we are only at the dawn of the digital era. We are setting the foundations for a faster, more complex and distributed data environment. 

Looking ahead, it is vital that channel partners guide businesses as they look to evolve and reinforce digital capabilities.  

As-a-service solutions promise the ultimate simplification and agility that will set businesses up to master the oncoming data deluge. Breaking down data complexities will be critical and cloud, storage and flexible IT infrastructure as-as-service solutions are a balm for customers’ data management needs. It is up to channel experts to help business leaders understand the benefits of these solutions with trusted advice based on a deep understanding of their business needs. Timely sector knowledge will tailor these benefits and turbocharge customers’ business goals.   

Preparing for the zetabytte era

With Gartner predicting that 75% of enterprise data will be created and processed outside the data centre or cloud by 2025, finding a means of simplifying data management is a palpable business need.  With the boom in edge computing bringing IoT capabilities to life and paving the way for more connected 5G futures, it is the businesses poised to handle sprawling data networks that will steal tomorrow’s success stories. Those that can efficiently process, recall, analyse and transfer data will not only streamline digital operations, but save on costs and precious time. As complexity grows, this will become business critical. 

Adding yet more weight to the channel partner’s pitch is the global switch from pandemic cautiousness to the oncoming post-pandemic boom times. As businesses start to look ahead, reinforce agility and lead the way with the competitive edge, they need to refocus on innovation – and the digital transformations that make them possible. This means businesses cannot afford to be bogged down in the day-to-day running of their data management or find themselves knee-deep in fresh and bewildering complexities. They need to not only be consistently on top of it, but ready for the next wave in the zettabyte era – and cloud, storage and flexible IT infrastructure as-as-service solutions can help. 

Setting customers up for success

Using automation to reduce the time, effort and complexity across an entire organisation is the aim of the game when selecting a solution. Customers want to be able to rapidly deploy the right data management tools with less risk and effort. Selecting the right solutions should result in the speedier, fuller and more consistent meeting of a customer’s data need – this should in turn empower workforces and boost processes.

But to truly take the growing burden of data management away from customers, trust is critical and compliance is key. This is still a fairly new and ongoing pain point for customers in South Africa with its first specific data protection law coming into effect in July 2021, and can be addressed through prebuilt IP and software solutions. Further boosting trust in as-a-service solutions are the AI-driven techniques that ensure data quality stays on point. 

There are a number of as-a-service solutions that promise to simplify how businesses consume data – so how do we make sure customers realise the full benefits? Addressing customers’ evolving needs with consistency, flexibility and transparency is important. 

Selecting a data storage service that provides storage when and where organisations need it is one option, but the winning solution will feature transparent pricing for ease of use and no overage fees. Providing efficiency and cost benefits to those looking to innovate better, for less. 

Meanwhile, selecting cloud services that promise the industry’s fastest hybrid cloud deployment will help keep customers up to speed with demand for services and the pace of innovation. For optimal outcomes, hybrid and private cloud offerings will bring integrated compute, storage, networking and virtualisation resources for traditional and cloud-native applications. 

Custom as-a-service solutions will bring that all important flexibility on consumption options and work across the industry’s broadest technology portfolio. For many, a pay-per-use experience, metered in a variety of ways, across all infrastructure will be a crucial selling point. 

Finally, to really boost simplicity and ensure customers are in the driving seat – while letting as-a-service solutions do the legwork – they need solutions that give them the full view from the cockpit. This way they can easily scale services, understand billing options and offers as well as additional services that may support their operations. 

Turbocharging customers from the edge

It is up to channel experts to help customers accelerate their investments in connected technologies, preparing them for modern networking, 5G and analytics. The next frontier is at the edge. Now is the time to be laying the foundations for scalable, agile and simplified data management strategies that help them surf the next wave in the data era.

This is palpable across the healthcare, manufacturing and smart city arenas. As the world looks to build back better, the real building blocks are behind the scenes and they start with trusted conversations based on deep sector knowledge and technological expertise. Channel partners are at the forefront of the innovation, advocating and educating on these essential building blocks for brighter, more innovative futures.