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Solution providers expect managed services, software as a service and
virtualization to drive increased profits in 2009, while end users are
clamoring for more smartphones, wireless devices and increased availability of
virtualization technologies.

That’s according to the results of the Channel Insider 2009 Market Pulse
survey, which asked solution providers what they predicted would be the hottest
and most profitable technology trends in 2009.

Managed services topped solution providers’ hot lists, with 39 percent of
respondents saying the technology would be most profitable.

Jonathan Dambrot, managing director of security consulting solution provider
Prevalent Networks, says his company has had enormous success with its BC0D (Business
Continuity on Demand) service, launched in 2007, and expects that trend to
continue.

Prevalent’s BCoD solution offers a hot site backup and recovery service with
continuous data replication, ensuring the integrity and availability of
critical business infrastructure and the data contained in those systems, says
Dambrot.

“Disaster recovery has always been critical, and providing a security-based
managed service can overcome a lot of the security obstacles customers face on
a daily basis,” he says.

Ted Alben, vice president of business development and mobility at
Netversant, says he believes lower-end managed services will gain some
traction, certainly, but many companies that previously invested in managed
services are feeling pangs of regret.

“Managed services is completely misunderstood by a lot of customers,” Alben
says. “One of the problems is trusting that the people you’re paying to manage
aspects of your business are going to do an adequate job of it—it’s taking on a
huge amount of risk just to reassign responsibility,” he says.

However, Alben says that lower-end managed services will be popular,
especially those firms that can offer decentralized, basic services that cover
a broad base of easily addressed concerns.

The Market Pulse survey data showed that, after managed services, SAAS is
considered the second most profitable offering. Alben agrees that SAAS is huge,
and expects it will continue to grow in an economic environment where
enterprises struggle to stay current and competitive while slashing costs and increasing
efficiencies.

“Enterprises are realizing there’s no reason for them to be responsible for
creating software and maintaining the life cycles of that business software,”
Alben says, and will turn to SAAS providers to fill that need.

However, he
adds, many don’t take into account that a SAAS provider can introduce some
level of external complexity, since the provider needs to work seamlessly with
an enterprise’s existing infrastructure and personnel.

Rounding out the top three is virtualization, which solution providers say
will continue its ascension as companies push harder to gain more efficiencies
in their data center.

“Virtualization is a terrific opportunity for enterprises to squeeze more
out of the lemon, so to speak,” Alben says.

Channel Insider also polled solution providers to discover what technologies
their customers were clamoring for in 2009.

Cell phones/smartphones topped the list, with nearly 31 percent of
participating solution providers saying the technology would be hot for end
users, followed by virtualization software (24.5 percent). Handhelds, wireless
devices and PDAs finished off the top three (23 percent).

Alben says a common theme for these technologies is productivity, which can
help drive increased cost savings for enterprises in a tough economic climate.

“The hottest technology in my opinion is tied to productivity,” Alben says,
which could contribute to the need for end users to increase their demand for
smartphones and wireless devices. He cites an experiment Cisco implemented,
where employees used dual-mode wireless phones to save about 5 minutes of time
each week.

While that might not seem like much—1 minute per employee per average workday—Alben
says that across Cisco’s 7,000 employees they saved about $12 million a
year. 

For Dambrot, whose company specializes in the security field, the 2009
outlook is a bit different. He says he believes data-centric security,
compliance and availability will be most in demand this year.

Security, though it didn’t make the top three on Channel Insider’s list, is
still a big driver for companies today, says Dambrot. Customers’ need to comply
with increased governmental regulation and an onslaught of security breaches
will keep security profitable for his business and in demand from end users, he
says.

Data loss prevention, in particular, is a concern, he says.

“Companies are taking a much harder look at how they relate to the data they
are trying to protect,” he says. Solution providers need to help customers
understand what data is present and closely monitor that data for unintended
use or unauthorized access, Dambrot says.

And if an attack does happen, Dambrot says end users will increasingly need
incident management technologies around security—the ability to aggregate
monitoring and management logs into a single source that can identify not only
where an attack is coming from but take steps to deal with it.

Most Profitable Technologies of 2009

Managed Services

39.1%

SAAS

20.8%

Virtualization

18.2%

Business Management/Productivity Software

17.1%

Custom Apps/App Dev

10.9%

Data Security

10.9%

Network Security

9.9%

Desktop/Notebooks/Thin Clinets

9.9%

Handhelds/PDAs/Wireless Devices

9.9%

Security Management

9.4%

Storage Infrastructure

8.9%

Network Infrastructure

8.9%

Server Hardware/Software

8.3%

Blade Servers

7.3%

Wireless Networking

7.3%

Application Integration

6.8%

Cell Phones/Smartphones

6.2%

eCommerce

5.7%

Servers

5.7%

Enterprise Applications

5.2%

Voice Networking

4.2%

Video Conferencing

4.2%

Peripherals

3.6%

Utility Computing

3.6%

Identity Management

3.6%

Operating Systems

3.1%

Network Management Software

3.1%

Storage Management Software

3.1%

Middleware

3.1%

Engineering Software

3.1%

Point of Sales

2.6%

Financial Management 

2.1%

Multimedia/Graphics Software

2.1%

Digital Signage

1.6%

Other

2.6%

Don’t Know

4.7%

 

  

   
   
   
   

Technologies in Highest Demand by End Users

Cell Phones/Smartphones

30.7%

Virtualization

24.5%

Handhelds/PDAs/Wireless Devices

22.9%

SAAS

19.8%

Business Management/Productivity Software

14.5%

Managed Services

13.5%

Wireless Networking

12.5%

Desktop/Notebooks/Thin Clinets

12.0%

eCommerce

8.3%

Voice Networking

7.8%

Blade Servers

7.8%

Video Conferencing

7.3%

Don’t Know

7.3%

Security Management

6.2%

Digital Signage

6.2%

Storage Infrastructure

5.7%

Application Integration

5.7%

Identity Management

5.2%

Data Security

4.7%

Network Security

4.7%

Servers

4.7%

Enterprise Applications

3.6%

Storage Management Software

3.6%

Custom Apps/App Dev

3.1%

Utility Computing

3.1%

Operating Systems

3.1%

Multimedia/Graphics Software

2.6%

Middleware

2.1%

Engineering Software

2.1%

Point of Sales

2.1%

Financial Management 

1.6%

Network Infrastructure

1.0%

Server Hardware/Software

1.0%

Peripherals

1.0%

Network Management Software

1.0%