Virtualization and Cloud executives share their predictions for 2016. Read them in this 8th Annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Contributed by Gary Sharp, Sales Director for North America, IGEL Technology Sales Corp.
Cloud Desktop and Workspace Management Market: Two Predictions for 2016
With the end of the year quickly
approaching, the IT industry is now shifting its focus toward 2016. Many of the
industry experts and analysts, who have weighed in with their expectations for the
coming year, are anticipating the continued and increased adoption of, and
spending on cloud, mobility, big data, and other solutions designed to support
digital transformation within the enterprise. Based on what I've been seeing
and hearing from our customers and partners, I predict two things will happen over
the next twelve months, particularly where the cloud ecosystem is concerned:
1. Desktop-as-a-Service
(DaaS) will make the leap from discussion to deployment.
According to the DaaS Global Market Trends study released by Citrix in October, 71% of service providers surveyed
are predicting growth within the DaaS marketplace. Furthermore, the study found
that verticals such as finance, manufacturing, and healthcare are driving much
of this growth. And, as a result in the growth of DaaS, the report goes on to
say that service providers are expanding their offerings to include complete
workspace management, as well as individual hosted offerings like mobility,
file share and synch, and Networking-as-a-Service. For me, this is one of the
most interesting points, as we are finding that SMBs, for example, do not always
have the technology expertise in-house to deploy the more sophisticated cloud
and DaaS solutions many of the larger enterprises are already using. They need
the help of a technology partner, or IT solution provider to help them make this
transition to the cloud. At the same time, IT solution providers must always be
looking for ways to expand their offerings, in order to succeed. DaaS and
complete workspace management solutions make it possible for them to add value
for their customers and prospects, and drive new and recurring revenue streams
that will both sustain their business and foster long-term growth and success.
2. Vendors
and manufacturers will achieve greater success through partner enablement.
Over the last decade, we've seen computer
and networking hardware become a commodity, so much so, that in order to remain
relevant and grow their businesses, an increasing number of IT solution
providers are now shifting their focus to managed services and cloud-based
solutions, including DaaS. Vendors can play an important role in helping their
solution provider partner succeed by being proactive in educating them on how
to successfully sell these solutions to their customer base. Also, vendors and
manufacturers who keep the lines of communication open with their partners, and
offer webinars and sales training, participate in sales calls with the partner,
and provide them with best practices, real-world use-case scenarios or success
stories, and other materials that support the sales process, will achieve
greater success through their channel.
In closing, 2016 holds great promise for the
technology industry and it will be exciting to see how recent advancements in cloud
desktop and workspace management will propel the industry forward, and make it
easier for businesses of all sizes to enjoy the ease-of-management, efficiency
and cost-effectiveness that these technologies bring to the table.
##
About
the Author
Gary Sharp has more than 18 years of experience in business
management and sales within the technology industry and currently serves as the
North American Sales Director for IGEL Technology, a world leader in thin and
zero client solutions, based on Linux and Microsoft Windows, that help organizations improve
the agility, efficiency, and security of their virtual desktop and application
delivery systems. IGEL also leads the market in software
defined thin client solutions that allow customers to access a broad spectrum
of server-based infrastructures and applications; and, offers powerful and
intuitive software solutions for the managed workspace that enable the ease of
deployment and administration of thin clients within organizations of any size.