Security
Market research firm RNCOS predicted the global security market will grow by 12 percent over the next three years. Gartner says the biggest priorities for companies in 2011 will be identity and access management, DLP and switching antivirus or anti-malware vendors.
Collaboration
A recent report by the Corporate Executive Board showed that CIOs expect to juice up their collaboration spending by 10 percent in 2011. Companies looking to tap into the power of social networking and Web 2.0 with the assurance and security of a business platform will be hungry for help next year.
Context-aware computing
Gartner claims that context-aware computing stands where search engines and the Web did in 1990. A combination of wireless technology with applications that take into account user location, language and feelings for a new breed of services, context-aware is a burgeoning opportunity in 2011.
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CloudChannel partners who have not already done so need to get over their fear of the cloud and start looking for their stake in the opportunities, because cloud services and technology aren’t going away. IDC predicts spending on cloud services will shoot up by 30 percent in 2011.
Virtualization
A strong performer over the last several years, virtualization is going to continue to generate revenue for channel partners in 2011. Research and Markets expects that virtualization spending will grow by a very healthy 8.5 percent through 2016, up to a $218 Billion market in North America and Europe.
Tablets
Gartner expects that by 2014, tablets will displace 10 percent of the PC market. 2011 will be a big ramp-up year for tablet vendors to gain traction in the market and they’ll likely make it profitable for the channel to help them take their latest shiny objects to market.
Business Intelligence
Results from a survey conducted by the SMB Group earlier this year found that small businesses say that “getting better insights out of the data they already have” is their top technology challenge at the moment. Channel partners can help their smaller customers tap into business intelligence through a range of SaaS offerings and targeted BI offerings that have trickled into the market over the past two years.