The pillar of success

Scott Janney, manager advanced technologies at security and networking vendor Juniper Networks, said: “The market is in need of higher performance networks, as businesses accelerate and roll out more applications. The infrastructure has to keep pace and in turn we are seeing a lot of consolidation
and virtualisation.”

Juniper has openly targeted the higher-end, top performance network market. “We want customers who view the network as the business and are looking for complete reliability, fast and intelligent networks,” he said.

“VoIP and wireless are massive parts of the industry and the network is operating as the enabler. In the future security and the network are going to become more closely intertwined. We are seeing the niche security players being acquired. Security will not continue as a standalone part, it is going to be fully integrated into the network. People will get big, fast, safe and intelligent networks.”

Janney added that resellers like dealing with Juniper as its product portfolio can be taken and put together as part of a reseller’s value proposition.

Ross Cochrane, CEO of distributor Express Data, echoed the focus on advanced technology and security: “The underlying driver in the networking landscape is a more ubiquitous, yet secure way of communicating. The leaders are aspiring for cross platform, cross device, anytime and anywhere communication.

“From a technology perspective, WAN optimisation will continue to progress, Wi-Fi networks will expand into the broader community and this will mean a continued emphasis on security.”

Cochrane said convergence will also continue to drive changes, be it voice and data convergence, or storage and network convergence, with key vendors Cisco, Microsoft and Symantec pushing this forward. “I also think that Citrix has signalled its intent to take a more dominant position in the market with its acquisition of XenSource. 2007 has been an interesting year, but I think next year will also have its shares of twists and turns,” he said.

Concerning the success of resellers, Cochrane cited an undoubtable opportunity is in the SMB space, where there has been a lot of the focus from the channel.

“It makes sense [for resellers to focus on SMBs] – something like 98 percent of businesses in this country fall into this space, it accounts for more than half the revenue and the turn-around times are often shorter than with enterprise sales. You have to work hard for the business but in terms of runs on the board, SMB will continue to get a lot of attention,” said Cochrane.

“Obviously security, access, network optimisation and reliability continue to provide ongoing opportunities for services annuity income for resellers who can demonstrate their value through managed services and support offerings.”

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