due to an increasing consolidation trend; those who are on the market are hard
to beat as they are becoming more and more specialised.
This view is shared by Brocade EMEA Sales Partner director Barbara Spicek,
who sees a shift towards bigger and highly specialised distributors with value-
add services.
“Distributors are either getting bigger in volume or more specialised,” she
observes.
Pedro Quiroga thinks that 2008 will be a gloomy year for the market, mainly
due to the global economic situation: “The global economic crisis is affecting
us in a significant way. When the economy is going through a difficult period
the end user thinks twice before buying a new PC or postpones his purchase. resources to reduce costs and be more competitive,” he declares.
It will be a tough year. We need be very cautious. It’s not a good time for Although, acknowledging that the global situation is not particularly
investment or launching new ideas into the market.” promising, VMware Regional Director for Southern Europe Carlos Escapa
Ingram Micro MD Elias Consuegra (next page) shares the same realistic view (above) argues that the economic pressure will prompt companies to adopt
on the market: “The crisis prompted by the US economic downturn and the virtualisation solutions faster in order to save resources,
construction sector is heavily affecting the IT market. We believe growth will “The economic pressure will further encourage our customers. Through
be significantly below expectations, in the range of 1-2%,” he comments. server virtualisation they will be able to cut costs by 60% and reduce power
As he explains, this critical situation has shown its negative impact on consumption by 80% within 6 to 9 months,” he explains.
the financial sector, resulting in a decrease in consumer spending, given that According to IDC Spain, virtualisation adoption in 2008 will increase to
“the Spanish consumer is more concerned with mortgage and daily expenses optimise storage solutions allowing companies to build a “green” infrastructure,
than IT.” totally automatised, efficient and service-oriented. Carlos Escapa claims
In his opinion, the areas which that the Spanish virtualisation market is growing faster than its European
will be more affected by the neighbours; uptake is particularly strong in the financial, public and energy
situation will be the retail and sectors, where SMEs account for the majority of VMware clients.
corporate sectors, while SMB The company, which boasts HP, Dell and IBM among its key partners,
is likely to maintain a steady believes that desktop virtualisation is the next big thing.
position in the market. “Desktop virtualisation is paramount in a number of applications such as
However, Consuegra is mergers, acquisitions and outsourcing,” Carlos Escapa indicates.
confident that its company However, he admits that the biggest challenge so far has been transferring
will go through the hard times, knowledge and skills to the partners. To achieve this goal, in the last four years
maintaining its leading position in the company has implemented a number of projects and certifications which
the market. guarantee compliance with VMware standards.
“We are number one in the And, according to Escapa, the green issue is something the Spanish market
market,” Consuegra claims. particularly cares about.
“We will be able to overcome “Did you know that Spain is the world leader in the use of wind energy?”
the crisis by raising quality No, we didn’t know that. What we learned, however, is that Spanish
standards, adding value to our companies are very receptive to environmental issues and are looking into
service and improving our internal alternative ways to save energy.
24 02 MAY 2008
It0808 - 22-25_Spain_SME.indd 24 30/04/2008 11:56:01
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32