Channel Trend No. 8: Distribution Not Dead Yet

Warnings of the death of distribution are greatly exaggerated, said Wilson.

“The death of distribution is always overexaggerated; it has never happened. If you look at the amount of private equity has gone into distribution recently as well.

“They’re investing huge sums in their marketplaces, services, their aggregation capabilities as well. They are one of the only players that can deliver a multicloud, hybrid cloud proposition in a way that the cloud platforms can’t as they’re tied to a single underlying cloud platform.”

But distribution faces challenges as well as distributors create and enable these new digital value chains.

“They’re also undermining some of their traditional business models with some of their traditional resellers,” said Wilson.