Red Hat's Vision: Preparing Partners For The Next Wave Of Tech Innovation

hello I'm Sydney Neely from the channel company and welcome to today's webinar titled red Hat's Vision preparing partners for the next wave of tech Innovation we're in a time when Ai and hybrid Cloud are shaping the future of business and staying ahead means embracing those changes red hat is right in the middle of this transformation helping Partners Drive growth and innovation [Music] with me today are Stephanie cheras from Red Hat and anoro Agra from Tech Isle to share how they're making it all happen hi you to hi Sydney great to be here with you than to be yes Sydney so glad to have you both here with us let's start with our first segment red Hat's commitment to Partners Stephanie redhead has been really doubling down on this partner ecosystem over the past few years years what's behind this strategy and how are you seeing it make an impact with your partners you're absolutely right Sydney I think I think the primary driver is really Market expectation uh customers are expecting the ecosystem Partners to come together to have a solution when they show up and to have had their homework done to tackle these complicated challenges and opportunities that they're currently facing things like what can they do with geni so I think it starts with customer expectation and we as a platform company at Red Hat we're very used to being focused on pulling together an ecosystem in order to deliver value we've been focused on the open hybrid Cloud story for well over a decade now here at Red Hat the value of that is flexibility for customers so that requires pulling together an ecosystem so 3 years ago we made a really strong pivot to double down on the ecosystem and that has allowed us to step back and really lay a different level of foundation we did foundational work focused on operational optimizations on having clear Rules of Engagement we've really invested in new Tooling in order to focus on the data that we have visibility to in the work we do with our partners honoro from your perspective as an analyst how important is this kind of partner commitment in today's market especially as businesses face so many challenges with Innovation and growth right so you know what we are seeing is that the partners in this AI era are actually moving from being dependent upon the vendor to really creating the customer value the buyer value right which is what Stephanie also talked about the fact right that hey so the customers are looking at their Partners to deliver business outcomes and that approach or that requires comprehensive ecosystem system approach right so what I find pretty important with red at which I think three points Stephanie did not mention was the flexibility and the global consistency right that's really really important right because our research of over 2,000 Partners Recent research says that 46% of the the Global Partners desire vendor programs that maintain a consistent framework while accom accommodating Regional variation I think that becomes really important the other P piece of it is comprehensive support not our all Partners AI is a very new field and not all Partners have the capability or the skill set to to Really dive deep into it so red Hat's comprehensive support that is the number two area which is extremely important right because what we are also finding that 52% of these Partners seek vendor Partnerships that offer training that is tuned to their business model sales and marketing tools as as well as well as specialization and certain certification opportunities so I think what radat program is doing is really addressing the partner needs at the very core level and the third one is extremely important as well in my view as an analyst because you asked me as an analyst here is the focus on the partner uh autonomy right this program is allowing Partners to make decisions that align with their business goals they are not saying hey you know what let me be really dependent upon the vendor let me drive that so I think what Stephanie and her team are actually doing within red at is extremely important and creating a very differentiated partner program Red Hat has such a diverse range of Partners how do you ensure that you're meeting the different needs of each of these partners and how does that contribute to Red Hat's growth so and and hog did a great job of laying out when we started this program and we got a lot of feedback from from the market there were some core tenants that we needed to stick to how do we be globally consistent how do we be predictable and clear with Partners how do we make the incentives as just as honor rag said we put the we put the partner in control the partner knows their business they know their strategy how do we make the program clear to them so they can drive that strategy with red hat so one thing we have focused on is making sure that we are soliciting feedback in this program from all of the different partner profiles if you will or the engagement motions that they want to do with us do they want to build with us they have certain needs enablement technical support access to access to um engineering resources that is critically important for that set of folks there's also just as hok said the folks who sell with us they want access to selling tools how do we make the digital experience Clarity of opportunity and engagement very clear here so we do work across an extremely broad range of Partners and uh the thing I love about AI is it pulls all of those partner types into the discussion which is really exciting but the program is established to try and create modules which are targeted at each of those engagement motions offering the support that they need how do we help them grow their business and it keeps them really in the driver's seat to say this is how I want to run my business this is how red Hat's technology aligns to my business strategy honor what are you hearing from Partners in terms of what they value the most in a vendor relationship and how do you see red hat addressing those needs right so you know one of the interesting points that Stephanie mentioned was enablement right and red hat has done a great job in this enablement what rad is also doing is really empowering the Partners right enablement and empowerment are two different things right so what the partners are seeking today they are seeking that empowerment to make their own decisions right and empowerment comes from the notion that the partner becomes a sales advocate of the it vendor organization in this case we're talking about red at not a sales agent right it's not like a simple s you know resell motion it's you know what you they they they continue to invest in red ad success for example right so they are looking for sales velocity drivers profit velocity and simplicity specifically they are looking for brand appeal account management ease of deployment and support training specialization sales tools and I think Stephanie really mentioned about this digital experience those are the exact elements that the partners are looking for right because on average a partner is working with 5.6 different vendors they're having meaningful Partnerships right when you have that many different Partnerships then they also want to work with the vendor organizations that actually help them you know Drive their success with the End customer and one of the other important points which Stephanie mentioned about this ecosystem play as to you know get the partners work with each other and we are seeing that a lot right that those Partners who are frequently collaborating with each other to to drive customer success on average they are growing twice as fast in their revenue as those who are Partners who are opportunistically collaborating so so knowing this what Stephanie and her team have actually done is able to to build this ecosystem and that's where the zedat is putting ecosystem front and center and I think that's what the partners are also asking in the absence of the vendor intervention partners are doing it by themselves because no single partner can really deploy a complex solution whether it be an Enterprise customer or a mid-market customer where that complex solution incorporates multivendor products and services thank you Stephanie and Anor now that we've covered red partner commitment let's dive into how these Technologies are helping Partners grow their business in segment two empowering partners with virtualization and AI Stephanie we know that virtualization and AI are playing a huge role in the future of technology can you share how red hat is helping Partners leverage these Technologies to grow their business yeah so let's um unbelievable Motion in the market right now around both gen and virtualization um and I'll talk about them separately because in many ways they're very different but on the one hand the one thing that is the same about them is it is going to take an ecosystem to deliver both of them and I think front and center these two primary motions are showing showing everyone the importance of an ecosystem neither AI or virtualization can be done by a single vendor it just can't happen and so that to me is super exciting about how it is pulling us together just as hog said right every partner is working with multiple vendors every vendor is trying to help the partners work together and it it spans across if we start with AI it spans across um what processor it is to what server provider it is is it deployed on the cloud to who is providing the AI model that they may use to which applications they're using it is across the whole spectrum and our goal at Red Hat is to provide a plat platform that sits within that stack that allows flexibility to maximize the choice that can be done across those other technology levels to make sure that you can Leverage The GPU accelerators from the provider of your choice that you can leverage it from Hardware providers that you may may be working with that you can work on the cloud so AI is really what we're seeing as the ultimate workload for hybrid cloud and therefore right it's pulling together the entire ecosystem building upon what we've done here at Red Hat in working through that hybrid Cloud motion here for again right over a decade or so hog from a broader industry standpoint what trends are you seeing when it comes to the adoption of AI and virtualization especially among Channel Partners that's a very interesting question because what we are finding is that AI is kind of a double that sword for most of the partners right because it is res shapping the value that they delivered to the end customers and it is also causing disruption within the channel partner Community right again you know quoting one of a research data points 41% of the partners are actually currently offering AI Solutions and 89% of them are expecting Revenue increases right which is which is interesting and that also shows that there is tremendous amount of customer Demand on the other side when you look at Cloud native Technologies or virtualization 30% of these are offering you know those those Solutions and 68% are expecting Revenue increases but what is happening from the customer point of view this is what the partners are not realizing today is that when a customer really starts to go and adopt gen capabilities they're also looking at modern modernization of their applications right and the modernization of the applications is happening because of the availability of the cloud native Technologies right so I think the two are going hand in hand right but what we are seeing from the partner Community is that they are have reached an an inflection point which means that the partners are actually splitting into four different specializations if you will right there is one that is saying that you know what I'm going to really go deep into Ai and analytics because because I have got the data science data management capabilities and so on and so forth the other one saying you know what manage services is my my thing I'm going to really focus on manage services because recurring revenue and I'm good at it management and so on and so forth the third one is looking at on Prem infrastructure Solutions right because they are saying it deploy compute and storage and networking right and then there is the the the fourth one right which is saying you know what what do I do I can focus on cloud I can focus on virtualization those are the activities that they're looking at right so the challenge with the channel is that should they become shallow in the skill sets or should they go deep into the skill sets right that's what we are seeing right so I think the point that Stephanie makes repeatedly and I think that's where the their program is kind of designed is around ecosystem right when the End customer is s L moving from system of records of system of of Engagement to the systems of innovation which includes gen capabilities includes modern applications which are built on you know Cloud native Solutions and all that that's where the partner interaction or the collaboration and the ecosystem comes into the the play so deep skills are imperative not shallow skills right because you cannot thrive on shallowness in in in today's uh today's environment so deep skills are are imperative and that's where partners are really investing their their resources I think we will see how this plays out over the next couple of years but it is important for the partners to really understand and actually latch on to a vendor program that is enabling all of this and that therefore empowering them to to succeed in whatever business model they are in Stephanie could you give us an example of how one of Red Hats Partners has successfully used AI or virtualization solutions to create new business opportunities yeah so I let me let me start with a a minute on the virtualization piece I think one thing that we dove into with virtualization was we wanted to make sure that our um open ship virtualization capabilities were able to be procured in alignment and easy to deploy with some of our other partner Solutions so we leaned in with Dell um and did Dell Apex Cloud platform form for Red Hat op shift which is a fully integrated application delivery platform and purpose-built for Red Hat op shift we did a lot of engineering work in the background to get it optimized for running open shift and open shift Ai and open shift virtualization um it supports both VMS and containers on that unified platform and it allows for customers who want that ease of deployment fast reliable installation for those folks who want that experience we came together with Dell in the back end to be able to deliver that I think the reason why Leen um why this is a good example is it's not just what we do with Dell in this space this then allows um SI to leverage this as a platform for them to bring their services capabilities for application deployment How are um VMS being migrated onto this platform so it serves as a building block and a foundational building block that we have done with Dell for other partners then to bring in their capabilities on top on AOG with AI and virtualization evolving so quickly what should Partners be thinking about as they look to stay competitive in this space I'm really glad you asked this question because that's uh the topic these days as to the number one question that we get from Partners as well as from from from from the ERS as well so our research has actually identified 10 different steps of success that is separating the partners right what do I mean by separating the partners so I talked about the partners have reached an inflection point but if you just narrow our Focus down to this Ai and virtualization what we are seeing is that there are two set sets of Partners the partners that are able to scale we call them the scaling Partners in their offerings and the partners who are set in their ways is we call them the static Partners right so what we have done is we have done a tremendous amount of research and we find that there are 10 different steps and some of those steps are that the scaling partners are building the data foundations needed to deliver AI success to their customers right that it's important so talking about customers they are prioritizing deep customer understanding from the start from the start is very essential that means they do tremendous amount of research before we start they start to engage with an End customer right that is important then they are elevating their marketing through a thought leadership and analytics that is important they're also shifting to account based marketing with high touch sales support right and this is where coel motion along with red also comes into play and they are actually focus on a shared partnership or the value driven customer relationship that becomes important as well another area is there are able to Showcase their strength in migration integration cost economics and Agility rather than they are doing it much better than the static Partners the last one that I would mention here is they embracing the benefits of ecosystem partnering so we we are clearly seeing that there are 10 different steps that are differentiating this and if the partners kind of learn from what the scaling partners are doing better than they are then they can remain competitive in this particular space today great insights now that we've discussed the technology side let's talk about how Partners can get involved and start taking advantage of these opportunities with our final segment unlocking the benefits of partner in with red hat Stephanie for partners who are new to working with red hat or are thinking about working with red hat what's the best way for them to get involved and start seeing the benefits so first off I would I would recommend right I would love for folks to step in and visit connect. redhat.com benefits that connect. redhat.com that is part of our digital experience where we're really working to centralize access and visibility to the advantages of partnering with red hat and I love the 10 steps right that honor Rog talks about because they are actionable right our goal is for a partner to be able to say okay these are the steps that I want to focus on this is what aligns to my business strategy be able to go in to connect. redhat.com and be able to see yes this is where I can turn a knob with red hat in order to get benefits from the program that help me achieve that that actionable step this site caters to both both prospects and existing partners and it describes the benefits of joining the partner ecosystem I think um it helps streamline right the digital interactions as well and once signed up they'll get the partner now gets full access to everything they'll be able to see how they can engage with red hat throughout the building aspects of it throughout the sell with aspects of it the sell through aspects but they can see all the places that may align to their business honoro what advice would you give to Partners who are just starting their Journey with red hat how can they make the most of this partnership so you know the important point I think Stephanie already uh mentioned that learn from their peers right what the other partners have really done in this area because Partners feed off each other you know they maybe com competing with each other but they kind of learn from each other as well and in this era where use cases are so important where the End customer wants to see what a partner has deployed or how can I use a red technology whether it's open shift or it's sble or REI or whatever it is right how can I deploy that use cases become important so even if the partner is really not aware about of they have not got the specialization or the certification if there is an inquiry that actually comes saying or if the partner is in a conversation with that end customer and says you know what I think I have the right solution for you then they can go and engage with that with that partic uh partner within that red ass ecosystem and learn from that part I think that's extremely extremely important right but the more important Point here is that where is Red Hat investing right that's what the partner should really understand that right so there are I think five steps one should kind of look at that right they must adopt a sense and respond approach which goes to my the point right hey if there is a customer that they are sensing can really benefit from the red add Solutions whether they customer is an AWS customer right hey I can deploy Rosa with you right or if it's an Azure customer I can look at Arrow you know AR so I think you can start to kind of look at those areas right then above all sales must sell differently right because the market dynamics have changed marketing must change and expand its perview technical staff must develop new and different skills and all of these three areas the reason why I'm mentioning that these are the three areas that are being addressed in the new partner program by Red app above all I would say that to the partners is you know how do you work with red ad how can you take advantage prioritize your goals with clear Financial operational benefits over dazzling Tech this is really really important Stephanie as red hat continues to evolve how do you see the partner ecosystem growing tell us what can Partners expect from Red Hat in the future so let me start with uh what they can expect from us and where we're focused um they can certainly expect a continued dedic dedicated investment and focus on a partner engagement experience we will continue to drive an enhanced digital experience to allow simple and easy ways of working with red hat in order to help Partners create and close business um incentives will become more consistent and predictable particularly as we move into our Global model that we have um announced in the partner program getting back to that consistency and Clarity that honoro mentioned earlier and we'll continue exp to expand our partner benefits and the activities that unlock those benefits as we continue to add modules into this program that address new engagement models that Partners need to have with red hat in this changing Market that we work with I'd say aside from that partner engagement experience the second piece is um a focus in partnering with us on innov ation uh we're very excited about what can what is happening in AI we have um re AI which allows for easy ways to tune specific models um we've seen Partners already um and it's recently launched here very recently um but we've already seen Partners who have used that technology to create their own tailored models that have been tuned with their expertise that partner's expertise that allows them to take that model and use it with their customers giving them a differentiated capability with their customers that gets right to that return the financial return which is so critical to Partners that honog was mentioning hog looking ahead what your partners prioritize to stay competitive and relevant in the next few years yeah that's another interesting and thought provoking question so I would say three things right Partners have to look back and understand what is their future Readiness they need to invest in the vendor program that is driving towards that future Readiness and that future Readiness should have zero friction what that means is that zero friction in terms of partner interaction with the vendor as well as the enablement and empowerment of their interaction with the End customer that becomes important so how do you actually go about doing that right yes you know programs from Red at is actually moving towards that future Readiness towards that zero friction future but the partners themselves need to move Beyond being just a trusted adviser today if you turn around every partner says that you know there are 830,000 Partners globally right and everybody is a trusted adviser so how does an and customer know whether you are giving me the advice that is can be trusted or not so the partner has to move to becoming a success partner so move from a trusted advisor to a success partner that means you know what I invested in the customer success that is important right the other area is to say you know what if you are going to offer gen you might as well start to adopt gen within your own organization right how can I improve my own business processes whether it relates to marketing whether it relates to sales whether it relates to training or your own content generation things like that right so and we are starting to to kind of see that right and third is to really embrace the power of the ecosystem it is absolutely important to kind of see your partners your fellow peers not as competitors but as the the ecosystem that contributes to this Collective success thank you Stephanie and anog so much for joining me today and sharing your Insight thank you Sydney it's great to be here thank you Sydney and it's a pleasure to do this with you Anor thank you same it's clear that red hat is committed to helping Partners succeed and there are so many opportunities ahead especially with Technologies like Ai and virtualization if you would like to learn more about red hat this is the website on your screen for the channel company I'm Sydney Neely thanks for watching

2025-03-11 11:00

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