Mobility and cloud are transforming the Asian IT channel partner landscape

Hong Kong-based consultancy RIS has identified two major trends impacting the IT channel partner ecosystem in Asia in new research, Growth statistics by Channel Partner type for Asia (2014). 

First, traditional resellers are struggling to maintain revenues in the light of virtualisation and software as a service (SaaS) offerings. In response, they are raising their own service capabilities to become solution providers with cloud resale services and their own branded services around domain specialisation.

The second trend is around the migration of traditional integrated integrated software vendors (ISVs) to application service provider (ASP) models is likely the most exciting trend the channels industry has seen in decades, says RIS.

Gary Kinsley, Managing Director of RIS Hong Kong said the twin trends of mobility in the workforce combined with cloud provisioned services are reshaping the channel partner landscape. "The winners are the ISVs and ASPs able to leverage a cloud go-to-market model, and the telcos offering an easy-to-use cloud service brokerage," he said.

The research is based on the top 8,000 channel partners in Asia, which RIS has been tracking for the last three years.