COVID-19 Presents Channel Opportunities Around Edge Computing

… selling pre-integrated edge solutions.

The Vertical View

Schneider’s research with analyst Canalys found that partner priority verticals for IoT solutions are health care (37%), manufacturing (33%) and industrial (23%). However, the edge opportunity extends into other areas too, including financial services (20%), education (19%) and government (18%).

“Outages and interruptions to operations especially remain a key concern for end users,” said Terry. “In the research, channel partners reported that an average of 75% of their end users cited downtime as detrimental to their business. Today, with customers rapidly transitioning to work-from-home models, that [is] even more critical. More strain has been placed on network infrastructure and IT systems very quickly. The thing about the edge is that applications are business-critical, meaning that any downtime has an immediate impact — be it loss of service or revenue.

“Here, partners have an opportunity to educate their customers,” Terry added. “They can take them through the design, specification and deployment process — ensuring that the IT systems that underpin their operations are resilient and reliable. Furthermore, due to the distributed nature of these edge environments, customers don’t have the skills or the resources to deploy IT personnel on every site. Management and servicing remain a key opportunity for partners, which of course drives recurring revenue.”

Securing the Edge

To McBain’s point, the move to remote working means the ability to securely connect to these cloud and corporate applications has become a mandate.

Alongside distributor Nuvias, Versa Networks has launched Versa Secure Access in Europe. It is a work-from-home solution that performs application segmentation, allowing secure network access.

The offering is part of the Versa SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) framework. Introduced by Gartner in 2019, SASE is the convergence of wide area networking (WAN) and network security services in either the cloud, on premises, or a combination of both.

Versa Networks’ Michael Wood

“The advanced SD-WAN, SASE, and security benefits integrated in a managed and cloud-delivered SaaS service significantly reduce cost and complexity compared with on-premises solutions, making it an easy sell for channel partners,” said Michael Wood, CMO at Versa Networks.

The offering “addresses the need for customers to preserve capital in the current challenging environment whilst cutting operational costs and enabling remote management of networks and users,” added Rob Clark, director of technologies and solutions development at Nuvias Group.

Channel Challenges

As with any opportunity however, challenges exist for the channel.

Competition is strong, according to Geraint Talbot-Davies, managing director, cloud, data and security at Intercity Technology. He says it is necessary to reach the customer first “to explain edge computing can be flexible and to shape it the way each customer needs it done optimally for them, not the colo provider or service provider.”

However, he notes that the edge is not …