Trained to survive
In the current business climate, customers are somewhat wary of new technology purchases. According to analyst firm Gartner, worldwide IT spending will decline by six percent from 2008.
Some fear that the UK, with an over reliance on financial services and IT related industries, may be hit even harder.
Some customers are looking to rationalise IT amongst fewer suppliers while others delay non-essential projects while the market settles. The fate of Nortel, which is currently being broken up at ‘fire sale’ prices is a cautionary tale. Many customers who recently invested in technology from the former communication equipment giant have been shocked by its rapid demise and cessation of new product development under its own brand.
Even networking big dog Cisco, which ended its fiscal year with income down 46 percent compared with same quarter in 2008, is not immune to the downturn. Considering that Cisco has the second largest partner community in the UK, after Microsoft, the channel is obviously worried. For a channel chasing fewer, more cautious customers, differentiation and ability to execute is of paramount importance. “In this market, certification and training is increasingly critical for Cisco channel partners in the UK,” is the view of Andy Smith, UK managing director of provider of Cisco training, Fast Lane.
“There are a lot of channel partners out there,” Smith notes, “and just having Cisco partner status is not enough to stand out from the crowd unless you have the proven and accredited skills to demonstrate ability in specialised areas such as security, wireless and virtualisation.” Smith is well known to the channel as a former senior director at Cisco within its Global Client Services and Operations Group responsible for service delivery to 60,000 employees and partner organisations.
Smith believes that the growth of Unified Communications, Collaboration technologies, Web Services and now Cloud Computing places more critical demands on the network and data centre infrastructure, requiring new skills to ensure successful projects. In fact, one of Fast Lane’s newest courses, for Cisco technologies, is designed around the new Nexus family of datacentre systems with modules designed to teach key virtualisation and VMware integration techniques.
Smith also highlights the very recently introduced Certified Cisco Internetwork Expert (CCIE) 360 Learning Program for Routing and Switching, as a new direction in channel training. “CCIE is one of the highest level of technical networking certification offered by Cisco and, for a while at least, will define the individuals and partners who have the best technical capabilities,” explains Smith, “This new 360 program allows components to be matched to each student’s skill level, learning preference, and resources for maximum flexibility. ”
Smith notes that the channel is also changing in terms of how it maintains certification and receives training. “There is a growing demand for specially tailored courses that run over a number of weeks to better schedule the time of senior technical people who can’t be out of the office for a whole week. The CCNA Online Certification Program is a good example, which has multiple four-hour sessions over a three-week period. ” Smith also points to a tightening of travel and expense budgets that has prompted a number of channel partners to switch to online training as an alternative, an area he expects to grow substantially over the next year.
Even with the economic downturn, Fast Lane is still predicting business growth this year. “Many channel partners are still preparing for recovery and there is still good demand for IT services, especially projects that squeeze more out of existing or upgraded network infrastructure.” Smith concludes.
