2009: What does IT hold?
- 17 December, 2008 18:48
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Wi-Fi and mobile broadband connectivity will also play a more prominent role as companies turn their attention towards a more mobile workforce, Bradburn said. According to Computelec CEO, David La Bozzetta, tablet PC technology is being well utilised across the education sector.
“Tablet technology is becoming a lot more seamless in the classroom because you can use it as a normal notebook but also use it as a tablet platform,” he said. “With a lot of the software that’s being written for it now, it lends itself directly to teaching and learning.”
Services: IT on-demand
With no immediate end to the economic downturn in sight, customers will increasingly look to reduce CapEx costs and lock down spending. For many, this is triggering broader interest in annuity-based delivery models, such as software-as-a-service (SaaS) and managed services. In a recent interview with ARN, Frost and Sullivan ICT director, Andrew Milroy, cited a shift away from investing in internal infrastructure towards variable costs and increased spending with third-party IT services providers.
Kaseya regional manager, Tim Dickinson, said SaaS would continue its ascent in 2009 and claimed 50 per cent of US managed service providers (MSPs) were involved in some form of SaaS, whether it be CRM, hosted Exchange or toolset for their customers. Kaseya provides an automation platform to help partners deliver managed services.
“What customers look for in a tougher economic climate is cost saving – they want better efficiency and to cut costs and it’s clear managed services and IT automation can deliver those benefits,” Dickinson said. “Customers want to defer major CapEx and hardware expenditure, so it’s a great time for managed services providers because they can deliver all of these things that customers are looking for in tough times.
“Managed services is a solid model, it’s proven and it’s here to stay.”
Managing director of integrator and managed services provider Ethan Group, Andrew Rayment, said on-demand managed services were only the tip of the iceberg. The company now has over $600,000 a month secured through managed services offerings.
“It’s going to go all the way to on-demand infrastructure,” Rayment said. “It takes a couple of years before it becomes a real number, but it’s good for the customer and it’s good for us.”
While Kaseya’s 250-strong partner base is mostly in the SMB space, Dickinson claimed the model was gaining ground at the mid-market and enterprise level. Rayment agreed its appeal would continue to rise up the ranks in 2009.
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