Dell and EMC's competitors, meanwhile, are relying on the more traditional channel partner approach to reach the 51 million SMBs that IDC reckons there are worldwide.
It's not unusual to see two-tier models, where master distributors help the vendors find the local VARs that have the ears of the SMBs in their area. SMB marketing is all about trust, after all: A small business's IT supplier becomes as vital a partner as its accountant or car dealer.
Bottom line? As storage networking moves into the world of SMBs, products and the way they are marketed are changing to fit the new model. New products and partnerships are only the start.
Rik Turner, Analyst at Large, Byte and Switch Insider
To realize the benefits of cloud-native software, an application must actually be cloud-native—designed to run in the cloud, interacting with disaggregated cloud services, fully manageable as code—to deliver the expected benefits.
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
