We start a new year and look back to take stock of what the IT channel has experienced in 2022. A year marked by the impact of the macroeconomic situation, inflation and the war in *text muted*.
Many of the most important news of the IT channel in 2022including those related to supply chain disruptions, economic uncertainty and the adoption of hybrid remote work practices, are a consequence of the impact of the pandemic.
However, as the year progressed, the repercussions of the conflict between *text muted* and *text muted*, as well as the macroeconomic situation marked the development of the market. With the consequences of the impact of the pandemic still kicking in, 2022 began with continuous interruptions in the supply chain, semiconductor shortage and some components, as well as economic uncertainty that has increased throughout the year.
This has led to the search for new options with which to satisfy the new requirements, which has accelerated the commitment to the cloud and the adoption of cloud services. To this has been added an important change in the work model increasingly characterized by hybrid work practices. Some changes that, without a doubt, have brought, and continue to do so, important opportunities in the IT products and services offered by the channel.
The impact of the supply chain
The interruptions in Supply Chainwhich led to product shortages and order delays, especially at the beginning of the year, created great challenges for the industry, as vendors and solution providers had to work intensively to meet customer demand.
As the year has progressed, there has been mounting evidence that supply chain issues could have a more fundamental impact on the IT industry by accelerating cloud migration.
In February, for example, Xerox realized it had a $300 million backlog that it couldn’t fill due to supply chain problems. That same month, Dell Technologys said it was feeling the pinch from shortages of integrated circuits and other components, including network controllers and microcontrollers for PCs.
This problem has driven investment in systems and Technologys to develop better supply chain forecasting and monitoring processes.
And another big technology company, Apple, already pointed out in the spring that the production closures by key manufacturers in China could have an impact of 8,000 million dollars on sales for the year.
One of the main consequences we saw in the second quarter of the year when, according to IDC, global PC shipments they fell 15.3%.
The positive note is that this problem has driven investment in systems and Technologys to develop better supply chain forecasting and monitoring processes.
Hunting for opportunities for the IT channel
Although 2022 did not start off as well as was desirable, it has finally become a year of great opportunities for the IT channel. According to data from Context, the IT channel in Spain experienced a 2% slowdown in the first quarter of the year due, in large part, to the drop in the consumer segment. On the contrary, the professional area experienced better results, a trend that has been maintained throughout the year.
However, the IT channel has been able to turn the situation around and the second quarter ended positively with growth of 3.6%, a figure that increased significantly in the third quarter with higher-than-expected growth of 8.8%
Other market segments are experiencing better times. The data market is going through a sweet moment as reflected in the good results achieved by companies in the sector such as vertiv sponsored, to a large extent, by their partners, thanks to which their business from the channel has tripled.
The desire of the IT channel to seek new formulas and alliances to continue growing was evident in the celebration, again in face-to-face format after two years in virtual due to the pandemic, of the ASLAN Congress. An appointment that managed to exceed the attendance of 7,000 professionals and in which wholesalers, integrators, manufacturers and suppliers showed their novelties and took the opportunity to network.
The importance and opportunities that exist around cybersecurity Technologys, cloud, smart networks, data management, Artificial Intelligence or the digital workspace highlighted the need to continue advancing in them.
Movements in the wholesale market
The wholesale market has continued to capture a large part of the headlines in 2022 due to the movements made. This is the case of Esprinet, which last June fully integrated Vinzeo’s businessafter its purchase in 2016, but which it now fully integrated seeking greater profitability and benefits in all its operations.
In the summer, V-Valley advertised renewing your corporate identity in which “Enhancing your business” was incorporated as a ‘pay-off’, expressing its objective for the coming years: to boost the business of its IT channel partners.
The return of the holidays surprised us Ingram Micro’s launch of an IPO (Public Offering for Sale) to go public. This confirmed the intention of Platinum Equity, the investment fund that has owned the wholesaler for two years, to get the most out of the firm.
An announcement that practically coincided in time with the celebration of the traditional symposium of the company. For yet another year, the Arenas de Barcelona Shopping Center Dome brought together more than 2,500 professionals in an event that had the cloud and verticals as some of the most prominent topics.
In the month of October, another wholesaler, Tech Data, officially became TD SYNNEX following the merger with Synnex announced in 2021. In November, Pauli Amat assumed the Iberian management of TD SYNNEX.
And already in the final stretch of the year, GLOBOMATIK celebrated its 20 years debuting a new image and a transfer of offices with greater storage and distribution capacity to the south of Spain.
Boost to the cloud and digitization
Another great celebration, but in this case from a supplier, has been that of 20th anniversary of NetApp in Spain. Two years late due to the pandemic, the company celebrated two decades in our country in style with partners, customers and the press and the strong momentum it continues to have helping organizations in their digital transformation hand in hand with its ecosystem of partners and alliances.
Undoubtedly, partners have played a key role in the technological development of proposals such as the ‘as a service’ model. This is a bet that has continued to experience strong momentum and firms such as H.P.E. They have verified this with the launch of a new program for partners, HPE Partner Ready Vantage, with which to provide them with greater flexibility to respond to the digital transformation needs of their clients.
We must not forget the important role of partners before the arrival of the Digital Kit, especially in SMEs
Services have been key and the cloud, how could it be otherwise, has been practically omnipresent in the technological scenario of the year. The boom it is experiencing is reflected in movements such as that of AWS (Amazon Web Services)which in November announced the deployment of its eighth cloud region in Spain, specifically in Aragon.
Accompanied by its ecosystem of partners, AWS will invest more than 2,500 million euros in Spain in 10 years to offer cloud infrastructure services to customers in the European area.
Nor should we forget the important role of partners before the arrival of the Digital Kit, the initiative of the Spanish Government with which it subsidizes the implementation of digital solutions, especially in SMEs through the different calls launched.
Purchasing in the technology sector
Some of the most outstanding news this year have been carried out by the purchases of technology companies. There have been many that have been carried out throughout 2022, although some are more notable, such as AMD’s acquisition of Xilinx for 49,000 million dollars, since it is the largest purchase in the semiconductor industry.
In August, HP Inc. completed Poly’s acquisition, a provider of video conferencing equipment, cameras, headsets and other audio peripherals, for $3.3 billion. Combining Poly’s product line with HP’s portfolio of desktop PCs, notebooks, printers and other accessories has propelled it as a go-to provider for hybrid work models and work-from-home employees.
For its part, another of the large acquisitions, still to be closed due to the barriers it is encountering despite the initial agreement reached, is Broadcom’s purchase of VMware for 61,000 million dollars. A movement that expects to be closed this 2023.
The cybersecurity segment has also seen a lot of M&A activity this year, including Cloudflare’s purchase of Area 1 Securityfor 162 million dollars, and the agreement of Ping Identity to pass into the hands of Thoma Bravo for 2,800 million.
But perhaps the most notable acquisition in cybersecurity is Google’s acquisition of incident response technology developer Mandiant. A purchase that amounted to 5.4 billion dollars in what observers see as a move to compete with Microsoft and Amazon Web Services.
The technology business will grow by 3.4% in 2023 driven, to a large extent, by investments in infrastructure
The consultants They have also starred in a large part of the purchases of 2022. This is the case of Vass, which was made with the Swiss firm specializing in Adobe solutions and customer experience, One Inside. For its part, Ayesa acquired the consultancy M2C, specialized in data management and process automation; while the Asturian Izertis acquired Okode, specialized in mobile applications and development of IT services.
The acquisition of S4G by McKinsey, and of Bilbomática by Altia after the purchase of Wairbut, specialized in IT projects in the Public Administration, have also confirmed the important movements that have taken place in this market segment.
Undoubtedly, the information from the IT channel in 2022 has been very prolific and, although the year did not start as well as expected, it has ended, in general, in a very positive way.
This leads to start this 2023 with optimism. Not surprisingly, IDC forecasts that the technology business will grow 3.4% this year, driven to a large extent by investments in infrastructure, mainly cloud, cybersecurity and application development. Something to which the growing digitization of SMEs will also contribute greatly. But, above all, services, an opportunity that IT channel partners should not miss.
initial image | Eric Rothermel
