According to Cloudcell Technologies MD Kevin Boyle now is the moment for resellers to address what has become a true market hotspot – mission-critical remote connectivity.
And Winchester-based Cloudcell Technologies has responded to the coronavirus crisis by accelerating a connectivity roll out programme geared up to support organisations in the Covid-19 world.
“With lots more businesses required to work from home there have been questions about whether domestic networks would be able to cope with the additional demand placed upon them,” he stated. “Cloud-based applications have also become even more prevalent for many homeworkers through the coronavirus, but these solutions use much more bandwidth than tools like emails, voice and video calling.
“Therefore home working networks need to be robust, reliable and flexible enough to deal with additional traffic. For businesses with a fully digital working environment, loss off connectivity can be catastrophic. For any business, even a small loss of productivity caused by digital resources becoming unavailable can still be very damaging.”
The sudden shift to lockdown and home working in March serves as a true measure of the market opportunity currently in the channel’s hands, believes Boyle. “We see this changing climate as an opportunity for us and our partners to pivot into new Covid-driven markets, and ensure remote working and increased demand for connectivity does not disrupt business productivity,” he reaffirmed.
The key to unlocking this opportunity lies in selling products that support today’s connectivity requirements, says Boyle. “Built in DR ensures that the customer is always connected, unlike traditional fixed line services that will have several single points of failure,” he explained. “These flexible, quick to deliver solutions are where we see us helping to ensure businesses stay connected in these changing times.”
In the case of business networks utilising MPLS, they still face considerable challenges when it comes to flexibility, reliability and cost, believes Boyle. “With the current climate, CIOs and their teams are being forced to reconsider such network architecture,” he added. “These businesses can be better supported with SD-WAN solutions, allowing the customer to utilise different bearers (DSL, FTTC, Cellular) to deliver reliable, high bandwidth connectivity.”
With the stakes so high, Covid-19 has prompted many organisations to review their strategic direction, including channel partners. “We are seeing some partners start to change their focus and pivot connectivity solutions into other services such as cellular and security,” observed Boyle. “Additional areas of opportunity include superfast wireless connectivity LTE-A in places where it is available. We are seeing speeds of up to 130 Mbps along with the roll-out of 5G.”
Boyle, a former Sales Director of fast growing reseller companies, established Cloudcell Technologies five years ago in response to the convergence of connectivity and cloud services. “The time is ripe for disruptive forces to make their influence felt and create new revenue opportunities by introducing solutions that address the ever inherent and continuing issues with traditional forms of connectivity,” he commented. “These solutions include the latest in SD-WAN technologies and the connectivity services that support remote working.”