DISTRIBUTION
The Gartner Hype Cycle
Phase Description
1. Technology Trigger A potential technology breakthrough kicks things off. Early proof-of-concept stories and media interest trigger
significant publicity. Often no usable products exist and commercial viability is unproven.
2. Peak of Inflated Expectations Early publicity produces a number of success stories—often accompanied by scores of failures. Some
companies take action; most don’t.
3. Trough of Disillusionment Interest wanes as experiments and implementations fail to deliver. Producers of the technology shake out or fail.
Investment continues only if the surviving providers improve their products to the satisfaction of early adopters.
4. Slope of Enlightenment More instances of how the technology can benefit the enterprise start to crystallise and become more widely
understood. Second- and third-generation products appear from technology providers. More enterprises fund
pilots; conservative companies remain cautious.
5. Plateau of Productivity Mainstream adoption starts to take off. Criteria for assessing provider viability are more clearly defined. The
technology’s broad market applicability and relevance are clearly paying off. If the technology has more than a
niche market, then it will continue to grow.
e hype cycle is a branded graphical presentation developed and used by the American research, advisory and information technology rm Gartner to represent the
maturity, adoption, and social application of specic technologies
ED SAYS…
With so many new technologies on the cusp, or approaching that point,
of availability distributors and channels need to be on the lookout for
new revenue generating opportunities. As ever some will go too soon
whilst others will arrive late at the party. As we say at the tip; timing is
everything.
that global data management rm Veeam
had a good point when they predicted that
the ‘versatalist” (or generalist) role will
increasingly become the new operating model
for the majority of IT organisations.
Veeam says talent shortages combined with
new, collapsing on-premises infrastructure and
public cloud + SaaS, are leading to broader
technicians with background in a wide variety
of disciplines, and increasingly a greater
business awareness as well. For example, the
Information Technology (IT) job market
continues to see high levels of recruitment.
Standardisation, orchestration and
automation are contributing factors that will
accelerate this, as more capable systems allow
for administrators to take a more horizontal
view rather than a deep specialisation.
Specialisation will of course remain
important, but as IT becomes more and more
fundamental to business outcomes, it stands
to reason that IT talent will likewise need to
understand the wider business and add value
across many IT domains.
Opportunities
So, what are the opportunities for the channel?
• e obvious answer is connectivity – the
more the cloud-based applications are used
by any businesses the bigger, more robust
and resilient must be their connectivity
pipes.
• Engaging customers on their Digital
Transformations
• Forming partnerships to target niche
markets
• Being prepared for a 5G world
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