Recipes for Channel Success

There’s no doubt at this point that IT is getting more complex. That creates a problem for solution providers in the channel when it comes to delivering something that actually does something meaningful for the customer.

The good news is that Intel is trying to reduce that complexity. As noted in a podcast interview with Frank Raimondi, Alliance program manager for the Intel worldwide channel program, that can be found below, Intel is reaching out directly to solution providers by making more reference architectures for building different types of solutions available, which means that solution providers are less dependent on systems manufacturers for guidance.

Whether system vendors like it or not, customers tend to identify what server and PC products they use by the type of Intel or Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) processor being deployed. For example, when asked what type of server they have the answer is usually given in terms of an Intel this or an AMD that.

As an extension of that branding phenomenon, customers also tend to trust what Intel and AMD have to say about IT more than they necessarily do the system vendors, which may be trying to steer business to a specific server platform for any number of reasons, including inventory and sales goals that have nothing to do with the best interests of the customer or the solution provider.

This issue is going to become more pronounced in the month ahead as customers start to move to the next-generation of memory-intensive server architectures. Many customers have discovered that virtual machines are hungry for memory, so once that fourth or fifth virtual machine gets deployed on an existing physical server it’s not too long before the customer realizes that the ability to easily provision a virtual server is actually driving the need to upgrade the physical server environment. What they really want to know is how to plan the server upgrade path over the next several years based on product roadmaps from Intel and AMD. In addition, they are looking for advice on what types of servers should be deployed in a public cloud to support multi-tier applications versus what class of servers might lend themselves to private cloud deployments.

There’s no doubt that this evolution of the server market will span both public and private cloud computing deployments, as exemplified in the case of Intel with the Hybrid Cloud Program. That in turn will create some major new opportunities for the channel. The challenge is going to be figuring out what server recipes to apply based on the roadmap of your favorite processor vendor. The good news is that Intel at least is trying to take a lot of the guesswork out of that process.