The storage shift
Until recently, companies that had outgrown or were looking to increase their data storage capacity found themselves most often removing their entire storage infrastructure and replacing it with a new one in what’s commonly called a “rip and replace” or “forklift upgrade.”
With data volumes growing exponentially, this proved a profitable model for resellers. However, it become an expensive one for users, forced into a cycle of technology overhauls each time a significant amount of new storage capacity was required.
While this approach was highly profitable during boom years, customers are moving towards a more long-term, cost-effective approach and are taking advantage of easily scalable storage architectures that can grow along with their needs. As a result, resellers must adapt their sales model to reflect and cater to new market and customer expectations.
For resellers to remain competitive there needs to be a shift away from sales models that demand customers make these wholesale, forklift upgrades. Instead, there needs to be a recognition that data growth is gradual but consistent and, therefore, making IT upgrades to handle new capacity demands ought to be equally gradual, as well.
In response to customer demands, today’s storage solutions should offer scalable, modular hardware platforms as well as new licensing approaches that offer software and firmware upgrades as part of the original cost and that remain valid perpetually.
One only has to look at companies whose business models are based upon managing and analysing large amount of customer contact details. This information becomes a company’s greatest asset and, as such, long-term capacity around scale up and scale out architecture is important in order to support the data volumes that grow as the company’s customer base expands.
Introducing a storage sales model which focuses on scalability, where extra arrays simply can be added on at a later date and software costs are built-in at the front-end is advantageous for both these companies –and for resellers.
The customer finds itself in a situation where the storage cost of ownership can spread out over a decade as compared to the replacement cycle of roughly three years. And, by presenting a more cost-effective solution, resellers build trusted relationships that support both the need for incremental storage upgrades and services and possibilities for expanded datacentre opportunities.
In the current economic climate, it is becoming increasingly challenging for resellers to convince perspective or existing customers to part with existing capital for forklift upgrades. Unfortunately for those with older architectures, they have little choice.
The resellers that recognise the market shift and act quickly to respond to changing conditions will undoubtedly benefit from being recognised as consultants and trusted advisors with their customers.
The shift to a consultancy-based reseller model also can add real value as businesses and IT departments often can become overwhelmed with the growing number of available storage options. This presents an opportunity for resellers to ensure they understand a customer’s requirement and deliver the expected outcomes with the latest innovation and long-term cost of ownership in mind.
Shifting to this approach will encourage customers to seek consultation from their trusted resellers before they commit to infrastructure upgrades, helping to position their sales contacts as key components in the buying process. By moving to new consultative storage sales models based on capacity planning and scalable solutions, resellers will be able to provide greater value to their customers while also standing out as leaders in the field.
Kathy Schneider is executive director of channel programmes & marketing at Dell
