Learn from the Power Players

Increased interest in cloud computing creates more opportunity for solution providers and vendors to be partners, a panel of vendor executives said at CompTIA Breakaway on Wednesday.

Executives on the “power panel” from Microsoft, Google, Intel and Cisco spoke to attendees about partnering opportunities, markets poised for growth, and business strategy.

Microsoft is seeing a number of businesses looking into IT solutions that weren’t economically feasible for them with an on-premise model but is with a cloud computing model, said Ross Brown, Microsoft’s vice president of worldwide partner sales.

In particular, mid-sized businesses, defined as having roughly 100 to 1,000 employees, have shown an aggressive interest in new technologies, Brown added. “In some cases we are seeing the mid-market business outspend the large market customer, trying to out-innovate the large enterprise.”

One growing market is mobile technology, including security and integration, said Greg Pearson, vice president of worldwide sales operations at Intel.

“People have their smartphones and tablets, and you need to be the expert on figuring out how to integrate them into the network,” he said. “If you’re not engaged in remote IT, you’re dead.”

Resellers are well-positioned to be the customer touchpoint and make sure all a company’s hardware and software works together, panelists said.

“Part of that trusted adviser role is finding the value for end-user,” said Kevin Gough, head of partner marketing for Google Enterprise.

And delivering a complete, customized solution to the end-user is where solution providers are valuable, Ross said.

“It needs to be delivered so seamlessly, so predictable,” Brown said. “(Vendors) only get the ball halfway there.”