Survey Shows Resellers View Containers as the Biggest Channel Opportunity Since Virtual Machines

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 17, 2018 -- Diamanti, creators of the first bare-metal platform purpose-built for containerized applications, today released the findings of the first survey that explores how resellers see containers as a massive disruption and opportunity. Conducted by veteran Channel pundit Mike Vizard -- “Why Containers are the Biggest Channel Opportunity Since VMs (download the full report),” it is the first survey to explore the IT Channel’s (resellers, VARs, MSPs, etc.) perceptions of the economic opportunities as companies go cloud-native.

"The application container market is exploding," said Henry Baltazar, Research VP Infrastructure of 451 Research, a technology market research firm. "We forecast 2018 container spending will be $1.6 billion with a 31% compound annual growth rate through 2022."

Today enterprises are rapidly replatforming their applications and systems for the cloud, and containers are viewed as a key enabling technology. According to Diamanti’s survey, more than 75 percent of channel partners say containers represent a moderate to massive money-making opportunity for the channel.

Key Findings (download the full report)
NOTE: In some cases the option to select all answers that apply can add up to more than 100% for any individual question.

• 43% of the Channel is already working with Docker today, and 31% is already working with Kubernetes.
• 36% believe that containers will become a mainstream opportunity for the Channel in the next 12 months.
• 49% believe that containers will be “somewhat competitive” with existing virtualization technologies, and 6% view containers as “a complete replacement” for virtualization.
• Most respondents said that Amazon AWS would benefit most from the accelerated adoption of container technology, followed closely by Microsoft Azure.
• 66% of the Channel believes that VMware has the most to lose from the advent of containers.
• “New Cloud-Native Applications” are the most common use case that the Channel sees ahead for containers (46%), with “Cloud Migrations” at 32% and “Lightweight Stateless Applications” at 26%.
• 45% of the Channel describes its technical knowledge of containers as “Beginner” level, with only 4% claiming “Expert” Knowledge.

Other Key Analysis (download the full report)

“Every 10 to 15 years there’s a fundamental shift in how IT is delivered and consumed,” said Mike Vizard, author of the survey analysis and long-time channel and server infrastructure expert. “The last three major shifts were the rise of client/server computing, the Web and virtualization. Now a fourth major shift is upon us in the form of microservices architectures enabled by container technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes.”

Additional sections in the report authored by Vizard give Channel executives analysis for weighing key economic considerations for how they approach the container opportunity, including:

• A brief history of containers and their impact on IT
• The shift to bare-metal HCI servers is imminent
• VMware faces the biggest existential threat from containers
• Economics will favor bare-metal HCI channel plays

About Diamanti

Diamanti is the technology leader in bare-metal container infrastructure. Purpose-built for modern cloud and open-source environments, Diamanti’s container platform gives infrastructure architects, IT operations, and application owners the speed, simplicity, efficiency, and control they need to run stateful containerized applications in production. Based in San Jose, California, Diamanti is backed by venture investors CRV, DFJ, GSR Ventures, Northgate Capital, Translink Capital, and Goldman Sachs. For more information visit www.diamanti.com or follow @DiamantiCom.

Editorial Contact
Lonn Johnston for Diamanti
+1 650.219.7764
[email protected]