After writing about NetApp's Spot PC last month, I had a surprisingly pleasant call with Spot PC's general manager, Jeff Treuhaft. He reminded me that it's still a very young offering, and given that, it makes more sense to focus on the product, not the channel or the brand. So while Treuhaft didn't disagree with my thoughts, he did suggest that NetApp has a plan to deal with the issues once Spot PC is tested in some early deployments.
With the plan not yet in place and due to the confidentiality of the move, Treuhaft was unable to comment further. So I want to focus on what that could be and how it could transform the PC experience into something less annoying and closer to what users say they want.
NetApp currently sells Spot PCs through an existing managed service provider (MSP) channel.
Partner or merge to create a new class of PC companies
The world we live in is very different from what it was a few years ago. Instead of working from the office as the norm, and working from home as the exception, we seem to lock ourselves into either a strong work-from-home model or a combination of work-from-home and the office. Some of the reports I see from companies that have required employees to return to the office indicate that this forced march is leading to unsustainable levels of resignations and that employees are migrating en masse to competitors promoting aggressive work-from-home policies.
But working from home poses significant support challenges. You can't cost-effectively dispatch technicians at scale, and since support is also likely to be remote, you also can't always guarantee that user issues are resolved in a timely manner. Therefore, the focus should be on reducing the number of problems any user, especially a remote user, has to deal with.
Cloud PC, which is the latest version of the Thin Client, seems like an ideal route; it tends to be more flexible (you can specify that you only want a higher performing instance), more secure, and potentially cheaper, both initially and over time due to economies of scale. Especially for those at home, it's better, faster and cheaper than a traditional PC approach.
The problem, as I pointed out last month, is that NetApp isn't known as a PC vendor. And until this lack of brand identity is corrected, NetApp's market potential will be greatly diminished.
But what if NetApp partnered or merged with another company to solve these problems? And with whom would he associate?
Lenovo and Cisco for the win?
NetApp has two long-term strategic partners that could solve problems related to the brand and Spot PC. Lenovo and Cisco (disclosure: both are customers) have capabilities that could build Spot PC and make it much more capable than it is. Lenovo has what was the old IBM PC division, and IBM dominated terminals back then, which Spot PC, to some extent, emulates. Lenovo has a significant set of desktop management tools that could be combined with this NetApp effort for an end-to-end deployment and support solution from a well-known brand.
Cisco has what is arguably the strongest provisioning program for remote employees. It allows employees to walk into a store like Best Buy and get the networking and collaboration tools they need in one comprehensive, reliable and highly reliable package. These tools can also be remotely configured and combined with Spot PC to create what is essentially a plug-and-play Spot PC ecosystem.
It would also lay the groundwork for a deeper partnership between the companies or a merger to create an entity that would rival the former IBM or current Dell Technologies in terms of size, reach and potential reach (given Lenovo's significantly stronger presence in China). ).
While Treuhaft can't share a plan that doesn't yet exist for Spot PC's next phase, I think a potential path to success would be bringing in the likes of Lenovo and Cisco. This would enable the creation of an end-to-end cloud PC solution that can be efficiently deployed on premises and works especially well for home offices while lowering support costs and increasing security.
If companies have the will, we could see the emergence of a new kind of deep partnership or exciting merger as the industry prepares to reinvent the PC.
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