Tech Data Bullish on Endpoint Solutions

If there was ever a right time for a “told you so” moment at Tech Data, now is it.

In a process marked most notably by its $2.6 billion acquisition of Avnet’s technology solutions group in 2017, the company has spent most of the last few years transforming itself from a distributor of products to an aggregator of solutions in four “third-platform” markets: cloud computing, security, endpoint solutions, and the Internet of Things. With millions of people now relying on cloud solutions, videoconferencing applications, and mobile devices to connect securely with one another due to the coronavirus pandemic, the first three of those big bets in particular look especially good right now.

“This work-from-home initiative would be very difficult if it weren’t for those third-platform technologies,” notes Linda Rendleman, senior vice president of endpoint solutions for the Americas at Tech Data. 

Rendleman spoke this morning at the company’s 2020 Endpoint Symposium, a face-to-face conference forced online by the unfolding COVID-19 crisis. With demand for laptops, tablets, and collaboration systems like Zoom and Microsoft Teams exploding in recent weeks, she noted, the endpoint solutions market is yesterday’s news no more.

“No one would believe they needed to have a business continuity plan that would have 100% of their workforce at home, but that’s exactly what’s happened and that has significantly accelerated the spend in the endpoint space,” she says. 

Rendleman shared much more about endpoint solutions both at the Symposium this morning and in a subsequent conversation with ChannelPro. Here’s some of what she had to say about near-term and longer-term opportunities in that market.