The fast shall inherit the Earth

As mega trends such as cloud and mobility transform the way the economy consumes IT, we see a transformation of the sorts of suppliers profiting from IT sales. The cloud era is showing that small can also be mighty. Shifting big boxes might equal big sales but dynamic young upstarts are creating huge influence without the capital expense.

This year’s Fast50 includes all comers, from traditional resellers to more offbeat tech companies. This year’s number one is a core channel player. Like so many companies before it, the Melbourne-based reseller was founded by young entrepreneurs who decided to back themselves. What’s particularly surprising is that the firm bucked the trend away from hardware and towards services: its director told me that in the 2012-13 year, the company focused largely on selling hardware – and just doing it better than the competition.

This year’s second-placer personifies the kind of enterprise reseller combining heavy infrastructure with a complex big data and cloud sell. The Sydney-based company focuses on a key storage technology, but wraps clever bells and whistles around its hardware projects through disruptive vendors. 

Capping the winner’s podium is the third placegetter, which comes out of leftfield. The Melbourne-based app developer has grown into one of the country’s leading mobile software houses. When this company think of 'the channel', it is no doubt focused on the interplay between smartphone makers Apple and Samsung. The app house saw Samsung’s importance skyrocket in the 2012-13 financial year, from a few percent up to 30 percent of business.

Looking at these star performers from my perspective – from the point-of-view of an editor tracking the channel – this couldn’t be more exciting. As-a-service consumption models are becoming increasingly central to IT sales, playing into the hands of the kinds of small, nimble companies that often secure places in the Fast50. 

Look at number four on this year’s list; a company that exemplifies the blurring of traditional channel boundaries. This Brisbane firm is helping one of its vendors develop managed services that other resellers will take to government. Or number five on the 2013 Fast50, which forecasts growth from $2 million the year before last to $10 million next year off the back of three megatrends: data, cloud and mobility.

It tells me the original aim of the CRN Fast50 holds true – to identify those leaders of tomorrow, the fast-moving, quick-thinking firms that can grab hold of opportunities on the ground floor. But significant players and industry veterans also have a place at the Fast50 table, and this year's list includes both the channel's oldest player as well as its next publicly listed powerhouse.

 But it would be neglectful of us to forget those significant players who have come before. That’s why this year, we initiated the Fast50 Channel Elite. (Click here for more information).

So I'd like to introduce you to this year’s CRN Fast50. My warmest congratulations to these incredible organisations. 

Steven Kiernan, editor