VARs Map Out Their Plans For Growth

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Planning for growth in flush times is difficult enough, with solution providers wondering: What will customers want? What will they need? How will our product or service beat the competitions'? And during an economic downturn, accurate planning can be next to impossible. The variables are plentiful, and cash flow for businesses as well as customers is tight. Deciding on the most profitable product and vendor mix becomes a life-or-death proposition.

How is 2009 shaping up for solution providers? Everything Channel's exclusive research from our hot-off-the-press 2009 State of the Market survey, as well as from our Annual Report Card (ARC), offers a view at which markets will be hot next year—and which vendors will reap the rewards. From network security to mobile technology to storage trends, here's what's cooking.

Networking
Networking infrastructure is cited by 55 percent of VARs polled in the 2009 State of the Market as likely to increase in sales focus during the next 12 months. Of the vendors providing product in that segment, Cisco Systems Inc.'s business was named as likely to increase by 94.3 percent of solution providers polled in the ARC. Alcatel-Lucent, Enterasys Networks Inc. and Juniper Networks Inc. were each named by more than 80 percent of VARs.

One segment that solution providers report anecdotally offers opportunity is the state, local and education (SLED) market. True, they are seeing some large-scale projects not already on the docket getting delayed. But, as Robert Bezel, president of Infinity Networks Inc., said, certain services still have to be provided.

"There are areas of the country that are going to have to build new schools. But, are they going to pull out old infrastructure and redo them? Probably not. But there is some E-Rate funding going on. And [Software-as-a-Service] and cloud computing will become more popular," Bezel said. "Customers aren't looking for the cheapest solution, they are looking for the best value. We aim to be a local go-to partner. I have customers with small IT staffs telling me their business has to expand, but they can't hire staff. [We can] take over repetitive items that can be pushed to help businesses run smoother."

Security
Security appliances and Internet security software, too, will see growth. In the coming year, 91.4 percent of ARC respondents said that their company's business with Sophos will increase; none thought it would diminish. All the vendors in this category—including CA, Kaspersky Lab, Symantec Corp., Trend Micro Inc. and WebSense Inc.—saw large potential sales increases.

Nearly 70 percent of VARs responding to the State of the Market survey said that during the next 12 months, their sales focus on network security will increase. WebSense and Trend Micro are big winners here with roughly 80 percent of those vendors' current VARs seeing business increasing, according to ARC data.

Meanwhile, half of the respondents note that focus on access-management technologies will remain the same. Very few VARs plan to decrease their emphasis on security solutions.

In the coming year, most solution providers surveyed expect business with WebSense and Trend Micro to increase. On the other side of the spectrum, Symantec is taking the biggest hit, with just slightly more than 17 percent decreasing business with that vendor. However, a large number of VARs surveyed for the ARC said they plan to stay the course with Symantec.

Next: Storage

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