Grahame Smee has opened up on his decision to return to distribution in a space outside his cyber stomping ground.
Smee’s new Future Channel outfit will play in three areas, namely FinOps, sustainable cloud and GreenOps.
The distribution veteran’s previous three ventures – EquIP (sold to Horizon in 2006), Cohort (sold to Exertis in 2013) and 4SEC Group (sold to QBS Group in 2020) – were all cyber-focused.
All in on sustainability
Counting QBO and Drut Technologies among its launch vendors, Future Channel is in contrast going all in on sustainability, Smee said.
“There’s nothing wrong with cyber,” Smee told IT Channel Oxygen.
“It’s a huge market and lots of distributors are very good at it.
“But this is something slightly different. It’s something I’m interested in and care about.
“The revolution in IT was cloud – AWS, Azure and Google. They’re massively successful, and rightly so.
“But the thing that’s come about as a byproduct of that change is that cloud is now a massive user of resources.
“It’s important we don’t just think it’s a fix-all for everybody and that it’s great in terms of saving resources and carbon emissions, because it’s not.
“We’re going to be very much focused on technologies that allow people to make smart decisions about cloud, smart decisions about cost, and smart decisions about green computing. That’s where we’re going to fit into the market, and I don’t think there’s anyone else at a distribution level doing that in the way we’re going to be doing it – ie 100%.”
Vendor befriender
Smee characterised QBO as “instant cloud on bare metal”.
“It means you don’t have to go through AWS or any of the other hyperscalers to get your cloud environment. It negates the need for virtualisation, which is a resource saver in itself, he said.
“We’re in talks with a number of companies, particularly in the GreenOps space, where they’re really looking solely at carbon footprint and sustainability, and helping you reduce those in your cloud estate.”
Asked about his ideal reseller and MSP partner, Smee said it is about “mindset”, not company type.
“If you’re selling innovative technology and are involved in cloud services, this is for you – because it’s the next thing.
“We’ve had the revolution and you’ve got on board with that. Now it’s the evolution of saying ‘how can we do it better; how can we offer something different’?
“If you can say ‘I know we’re a supplier of your AWS services, but how about we help you manage your AWS billing, or analyse your AWS spend to make sure it’s still the right solution for you?’. That’s the kind of thinking we’re looking for.”
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
