BY UE STUDIO

Updated Wednesday,29November2023 - 11:33

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Participating in the round table were Iñaki López, Vice President of the Enterprise Computing Solutions business division of Arrow Electronics for Southern Europe, Carmen Muñoz Álamos, Managing Director IBERIA of Exclusive Networks, Miguel Almeida, Country Sales Director Iberia of Westcon and Hugo Fernández, CEO of V-Valley. The debate was moderated by journalist Carla Solano, head of the IT channel's digital magazine, hayCANAL.com.

During the colloquium, the importance of the role of the wholesaler in the IT distribution channel in Spain was discussed, as well as the value propositions for organizations to become aware of the need for computer security, strategies and actions to adapt to the current context due to the presence of emerging technologies, and the challenges and opportunities in relation to artificial intelligence.

The importance of the wholesaler in the IT channel

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The wholesaler is the fundamental piece in the technology sector", said Hugo Fernández de V-Valley regarding the first of the issues raised, explaining that "the wholesaler acts as an aggregator of both technology and new business models".

Carmen Muñoz, from Exclusive Networks, highlighted "the important role we play in terms of training and training the channel, especially in highly specialised areas such as cybersecurity".

Miguel Almeida, from Westcon, wanted to highlight "the range of services we can offer to our partners" while Iñaki López, from Arrow, said that "the investment made in developing technologies in the Iberian market would not be understood without the figure of the wholesaler". At this point, it was discussed how the new "as a service" models have changed financing models, democratizing access to technology.

Value propositions for cybersecurity

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We have to be aware that we must invest in the protection of data and identities," said Miguel Almeida, from Westcon, whose company provides "a team dedicated to helping partners learn about technologies", with Solutions Architect and pre-sales that guide protection.

In the case of Exclusive Networks, as Carmen Muñoz points out, the dedication is entirely towards cybersecurity, with "a strong portfolio, a high specialization and focus on cybersecurity as well as a team that supports and supports all the work of dissemination, channel enablement and project start-up".

Iñaki López, from Arrow, linked this issue to the previous question: "ArrowSphere is a platform that allows you to manage all the licenses in the cloud (...), that allows you to manage hyperscalers, that has a strong security base...".

For his part, Hugo Fernández, from V-Valley, pointed out that from his company "we have a multinational strength but local flexibility", referring to the fact that they only work in Italy, Spain, Portugal and North Africa, and develop a specific platform for each of these four markets.

Challenges and Opportunities of Artificial Intelligence

The topic in vogue in the world of technology has occupied a good part of the debate. Acknowledging the problems that AI entails, Miguel Almeida nevertheless considers that "it has many more advantages than disadvantages", which is present in many of the wholesaler's manufacturers, with the benefit of "continuous analysis to reduce the impact of analysing a lot of information".

Carmen Muñoz, from Exclusive Networks, believes that "the great challenge of artificial intelligence is in society in general", and so do public administrations "in terms of regulation", in terms of privacy, ethics, etc.

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When we are looking at artificial intelligence, it seems that it is only for very large corporations," questions Iñaki López, from Arrow, but "artificial intelligence projects can be applied in less than 48 hours", so he invites many of his partners to flee from rejection and embrace AI better. Hugo Fernández, from V-Valley, also stresses the need to avoid the fear of AI, in this case because of the dreaded substitution of people: "It is how it helps you to manage, to improve your processes, to have automated processes...", and thus give other functions to the staff.

Access to emerging and cutting-edge technologies

In addition to artificial intelligence, there have been discussions of other cutting-edge technologies that are expected to be in vogue by 2024. Miguel Almeida mentioned security and network integration (SASE) or the Internet of Things (IoT). Carmen Muñoz referred to the protection of the end user. For his part, Iñaki López once again stressed the importance of security applied to AI. Finally, Hugo Fernández underlined the presence of AI in all areas, its transversality.

Participants then explained their companies' initiatives to facilitate access to these emerging technologies. Finally, they have outlined their expectations and objectives for the coming year 2024.

You can watch the full video of the debate here

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