No two organisations are the same. But all share the goal of being as successful as possible, establishing themselves as leaders and innovators in their fields. Across the EXPO.e Channel Partner community, we meet numerous organisations who are keen to establish themselves as their customers' trusted technology partners. This was especially noticeable at our recent 'Scaling Success' event, where we spoke to a range of ambitious Channel businesses who are ready to achieve their full potential.

As organisations continue their Cloud transformation journey and hybrid working becomes the standard, the way businesses operate has evolved dramatically. Companies now rely on a diverse range of devices and Cloud-based applications, fostering global collaboration and flexibility. However, with these advancements come increased security risks. Expanding attack surfaces provide more opportunities for cyber threats, making robust security solutions more critical than ever.

Consider this… 77% of companies have already initiated digital transformation initiatives, but only 35% of these projects are successful¹. It's a sobering thought, but it also means that Channel businesses are in an ideal position to offer a solution, delivering integrated combinations of solutions to fulfil their customers' unique digital transformation goals.

The cyber threat landscape is more treacherous than ever before, and the years ahead will only bring new challenges, with the global cost of attacks predicted to hit $10.2 trillion by 2025[1]. From global leaders to the latest start-ups, all organisations must not only be aware of the range of potential attack vectors utilised by bad actors, but accept that with the ever-growing scale, complexity, and aggressiveness of attacks, a breach is inevitable.

The demand for highly secure, high-performance connectivity is at an all-time high. With organisations across the public and private sectors having largely embraced hybrid working, with their employees connecting, communicating, and collaborating from virtually anywhere. As a result, technology providers are increasingly challenged to deliver enterprise-grade connectivity that not only provides the performance and availability their customers have come to expect, but provides leading-edge cyber security, suitable for highly dispersed end users, and seamless access to the Cloud-based applications that many organisations depend on.

Data security is a critical concern for all customers and end users, and when we look at the current threat landscape, it's not hard to see why. With hybrid working now firmly established, Cloud transformation showing no signs of slowing down, and the potential for emerging technologies like AI to be weaponised by global bad actors, cyber security is more complex than ever before. In the first half of 2023, 694 publicly disclosed data breaches, with 87 of those occurring in July alone¹.

Yes, you read that right. As technology becomes increasingly accessible to consumers, many businesses are feeling the pressure to differentiate themselves among their competitors and provide added value beyond simply selling products. Amid this landscape shift, Channel partners find themselves right at the centre of this paradigm shift; facing the difficult challenge of remaining competitive and profitable in an industry where traditional solutions are becoming commoditised.

With organisations depending more on secure, reliable connections between multiple sites, hybrid workers, and customers than ever before, the demand for high-performance connectivity is at an all-time high. The rapid rise of SD-WAN has played a key role here, providing unparalleled freedom and flexibility when it comes to choosing carriers and ISPs with which to interconnect customer sites, while providing full control and visibility through a single pane of glass, and the ability to utilise Public Cloud resources, as needed. With these numerous advantages, the uptake across organisations who are keen to optimise their overall agility and operational resilience is unsurprising.