I recently had the honor to speak on a panel with fellow Channel Chiefs at the CompTIA Breakaway conference in our nation’s capital. While the rest of D.C. was focused on the debt ceiling, healthcare and the budget deficit impasse, the majority of us attending the conference were focused on a very different set of issues around cloud computing, security, mobility and the consumerization of IT.

It’s clear that these are the top challenges and opportunities that our commercial channel partners are facing right now. A major take away from my time in D.C. is that whether you’re a VAR or a managed service provider struggling with the notion of cloud computing, or a solutions provider searching for the latest information to secure your customer’s mobile devices, you’re not alone. CompTIA released the results of their second annual cloud survey.

Power Panel at CompTIA Breakaway with Fellow Channel Chiefs

Part One: Cloud Computing

With everyone rushing to the cloud, VARs and managed service providers are being asked to become experts at deploying private, public or hybrid clouds overnight. If you don’t have a cloud computing strategy, you’re likely working on one. Cloud computing is one of the hottest trends in IT, promising significant revenue opportunities for the channel. Research firm In-Stat projects cloud computing and managed hosting spending by U.S. businesses to surpass $13 billion in 2014. Additionally, cloud and traditional service providers will account for 12 percent of IT infra­structure spending, growing to 20 percent by 2014. And clearly no one wants to be left behind.

This is great news for the channel, but it also has its challenges. I’m seeing an increase in news articles about cloud computing and how it’s changing the framework of long-standing vendor partner programs. Who stands to gain the most from cloud computing? Naturally, the question that I was frequently asked at Breakaway was, “How is AMD helping its channel partners take advantage of the cloud phenomenon?”

It’s a great question. First and foremost, AMD is enabling its partners to capitalize on the cloud computing phenomenon by providing them with both technology and resources. Our AMD Opteron™ processors enable powerful, efficient, and cost effective data centers. In turn, our channel partners are able to build a flexible, responsive cloud environment that can meet a wide range of performance and power efficiency needs using AMD technology.

But even more importantly, AMD stands for expanded choices for customers and opportunities for VARs to grow their businesses. Beyond offering industry-leading products to help our partners’ cash in on the cloud phenomenon, AMD constantly looks at how-to become a better partner with you. Through the AMD Fusion Partner Program, there are several foundation, connection and acceleration benefits to help partners grow their business profitably, including: Marketing Acceleration Funds, Peak Performer Programs, AMD Rewards, AMD Sales Leads and dedicated, personal AMD support for partner sales representatives, marketing activities and customer technical support. Our partner program is constantly evolving to better meet the needs of our partner community and I welcome your feedback on how we’re doing.

For many out there, that sounds like the standard set of things vendors say to channel partners.  However, if you’ve been in our program in the past two years, you know we’re working hard to prove that we’re different, that we’re engaged in your business, and that we are very committed to supporting growth.

There were too many great discussions at CompTIA Breakaway to capture in one blog post alone; I’ll discuss more (specifically related to mobility and security) in upcoming blog posts. To be continued…

David Kenyon is Corp. VP, Worldwide Channel Marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites, and references to third party trademarks, are provided for convenience and illustrative purposes only.  Unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links, and no third party endorsement of AMD or any of its products is implied.