Tech Data this week announced it has extended a relationship with Cradlepoint, a provider of software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) offering that relies on LTE wireless networks to deliver IT services to branch offices and other types of network endpoints.
Under the terms of the expanded relationship, Tech Data will now make available NetCloud Solution Packages from Cradlepoint that provide customers with a turnkey approach to delivering access to either a branch office, a mobile computing environment, or an Internet of Things (IoT) environment.
Cradlepoint in collaboration with telecommunications carriers has been making significant headway establishing wireless LTE connections as a viable SD-WAN alternative to wired networks. That approach is only going to gather additional momentum as 5G wireless technologies become more widely available in the months and years ahead, says Dylan Leach, director of product marketing for Tech Data.
Over the last few years Tech Data has seen an increased willingness on the part of telecommunication carriers such as Verizon and T-Mobile to engage channel partners, says Leach. That shift has made it easier for partners to sell SD-WAN solutions based on wireless LTE service provided by those carriers, notes Leach.
“We’ve been able to develop a unique relationship with the carriers,” says Leach.
Tech Data plans to take that relationship a step further by teaching partners how to build a practice around SD-WAN solutions that would include, for example, a range of managed services offerings, adds Leach. Tech Data has also committed to making Cradlepoint offerings part of the Technology-as-a-Service (TaaS) program through which channel partners can resell hardware as a service.
Competition across the SD-WAN sector is already fierce as IT organizations of all sizes look to eliminate the need to backhaul network traffic to a data center. The market research firm Futorium expects the SD-WAN market to be worth $2.5 billion by 2021. Of course, like most opportunities for channel partners, a significant investment in skills will need to be made to tap into that opportunity. The challenge for channel partners will be finding a way to leverage the expertise of others whenever possible to minimize or even outright eliminate, the cost of acquiring those skills whenever possible.
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