Along with security and artificial intelligence (AI), the topic of cloud is always included in the top areas that matter to customers and should be gaining channel investment.
Although there are clear benefits for those who can deliver services and support in security, AI and cloud, there is a challenge for many when it comes to skills, particularly around cloud.
Research from Westcon-Comstor found that nearly half of those resellers it quizzed felt they lacked the necessary technical skills to be able to enhance their cloud capabilities.
The distributor talked to partners across eight countries, including the UK, to generate findings in its Mastering the maze report, and found that 93% of partners are looking to develop a cloud practice as a priority.
The pressure to develop cloud expertise was coming from customers, with 77% of UK-based partners revealing that they were expected to deliver specialised cloud skills. Despite that, only 56% felt confident of meeting that expectation.
Part of the problem is that the same skill shortages that often drive a customer into the arms of a channel partners are also affecting their businesses. A lack of technical expertise and knowledge of FinOps was one of the main issues the distributor’s report highlighted.
“Our research shows that the channel is poised to grasp the huge growth opportunities presented by the cloud market, but is facing certain gaps around skills, capabilities and expertise,” said David Grant, CEO at Westcon-Comstor.
“Partners around the world are at different stages of their cloud journey, but there is a common thread in their desire to expand their cloud capabilities and meet their customers’ needs. It is incumbent on distributors to support, enable and empower partners in pursuit of these aims by harnessing and deploying their own cloud expertise,” he added.
In theory, there is plenty of help available, but the Westcon-Comstor findings indicat that many UK partners are struggling to take advantage of cloud provider programmes, with many finding that complex pricing models make it difficult to give customer clear guidance on costs.
The other pressure experienced by the channel included providing the level of security that customers expect around a cloud-based application. There were complaints that it was a challenge to deal with high levels of competition, which made UK partners feel they had to deliver faster and more solid solutions to fend off rivals.
When it came to the solutions that customers are after, it’s clear that hybrid cloud remained the top choice, with some hesitation from users towards going all-in and signing off on full migrations.
The distie’s research also uncovered the changing make-up of the channel, with a quarter of those partners it spoke to describing themselves as “born in the cloud”. Just shy of a quarter indicated they were developing cloud practices after having been traditional on-premise players.
When it came to assessing where help could come from, just shy of half said they were looking to distribution to provide training and enablement and support their development of cloud capabilities.