The reseller is at the focus

For many years now, providers and users have been looking at ways to use outsourcing technologies to cut costs and increase efficiency. In the current economic climate, this topic has become more relevant than ever before. With that in mind, it's hardly surprising that it is gaining additional impetus from new concepts such as cloud computing. As outsourcing is a very complex area associated with long-term contracts, it is generally used only by larger companies. In contrast, SaaS and PaaS can be utilised by companies of any size over any period of time. In this field, providers like Google and Amazon, for example, tend to offer solutions that are both simple and cost-effective.

Contributions on this topic should show which trends are relevant to – and will boost sales for – resellers, and demonstrate the extent to which this is the case.

Submissions relating to green IT should reveal the potential available in this area and facilitate the announcement of a Green IT Award.

With all the hype surrounding green IT, virtually every single company in the IT and telecommunications industry is using the high level of associated publicity to boost its own advertising. However, as the definition of green IT is not set in stone and there is no system of certification, abuse and misuse of the term is inevitable.

More and more companies are moving towards free software products, particularly in times when budgets are tight. As standard applications often need to be developed further and adapted to individual requirements, this trend is opening up new areas of business for service providers. The installation, hosting and maintenance of open source solutions are all of interest to IT service providers and, as such, ought to be part of the programme at FOCUSRESELLER.

Devices such as netbooks and smartphones are just some of the latest themes in this field – and more are emerging all the time. Independent product comparisons such as those regularly compiled by media partners are an important source of information for resellers.

When it comes to competitiveness and providing a good service, many companies are now focusing increasingly on the use of mobile terminals. In this instance, there are a number of topics that are relevant to the day-to-day work of resellers:

• Product comparisons (including those between different technologies)
• Security issues relating to access to company networks
• Selection of suitable providers to fulfil different sets of requirements (field sales, support, etc.)
• Software solutions to ensure data consistency in distributed infrastructures

When it comes to virtualisation, virtual telephone and telecommunications systems represent new ground. The advantages of such systems lie in their scalability, which means they can be adapted immediately to meet the changing requirements of the company. Consequently, it is possible to alter capacity (number of extensions) and performance (functionality).

In today's business world, this technology has an important role to play in infrastructure planning. Thanks to this new technology, it is no longer necessary to make long-term provision for resources that may be required in the future. This also saves on budget spending.

With that in mind, it is important that resellers get to grips with this technology so that they are able to provide proper, informed advice to their customers.

In the field of IT security, each new technology always brings new risks. There is an increased danger of data losses due to mobile systems and of data theft when using cloud computing and SaaS. Accordingly, new concepts are always being developed for tackling security loopholes and preventing data losses.

Despite tighter IT budgets, recent surveys reveal that there is a slight increase in the amount of money being invested in IT security. For that reason, security remains extremely relevant for resellers and it is essential that it is one of the topics under the spotlight at the FOCUSRESELLER congress.

Despite the general economic crisis, reports at the beginning of 2009 were still quoting double-digit growth. However, the picture now looks rather different. Investments are being postponed and IT managers are seeking new strategies that will enable them to simplify storage infrastructures and cut costs. These days, the focus is no longer on creating additional disk space in data centres, but on finding intelligent solutions that can optimise existing capacities. In some companies, the sea change that has been under way in this field for some time now is being accelerated even further due to the economic situation.

For resellers, that means new products and services in the form of installation and support. While this creates new business opportunities, it also requires the acquisition of additional know-how about new technologies. This will be one of the topics under discussion at the FOCUSRESELLER congress.

In some regions of Germany, the available infrastructure and low number of potential connections mean it is not economically viable for major providers to set up broadband DSL connections. However, there are a number of technical options that mean that, with the help of municipal authorities and public funds, regional resellers can move into under-served districts and create new areas of business.

Part of the FOCUSRESELLER congress will deal with the technical and economic concepts involved in developing these fields of business for regional providers and resellers.

The FOCUSRESELLER congress will also feature a section devoted to used hardware. This will identify situations in which it is both feasible and sensible to make savings, and determine which technologies are better suited to specific applications than others. The "refurbished" server systems, telecommunications systems and data centre technology now available can also help to ease the pressure on already tight budgets.

A series of events at the FOCUSRESELLER congress will offer handy tips on which products are available where, what the situation is as far as guarantees are concerned and what type of usage is to be recommended.

These days, there are projectors, audio systems and multimedia servers to suit every pocket. When dealing with customers, the task of the reseller is to recommend the right products to suit the specific configuration. As with mobile computing, product comparisons carried out by media partners can help resellers provide their customers with proper advice and support.

There was a time when "data centre" conjured up images of the mainframe computers and supercomputers used by large-scale enterprises, ISPs and providers of managed services. However, in today's server landscape, many much smaller companies have data centres or server rooms. These cover many different technologies, from IT infrastructures, convergent systems, security and storage to management solutions and a wide range of software products.

As the number of medium-sized data centres continues to rise, so too do the associated requirements. The congress could be used to address all aspects of this topic, as it represents the day-to-day demands made on today's resellers. In the future, too, data centres will account for a large proportion of the work carried out by system integrators, for example.