New 'Future Ready' initiative will inform how Westcon-Comstor adapts and changes its market approaches. Credit: David Grant (Westcon-Comstor) / Supplied Specialist distributor Westcon-Comstor is celebrating its 40th birthday by sharing industry trends it says will define the company’s focus in the coming months and years. Founded on 24 June, 1985, Westcon-Comstor now employs about 3700 people globally and achieved record gross sales of US $5.24 billion in its financial year to the end of February 2025. That result was fueled by strong growth in cybersecurity and an acceleration in the company’s shift to software and services. Gross profit jumped 9.4 per cent to $441 million, with strong and consistent growth in profitability in each of Westcon-Comstor’s three operating regions: Europe, Middle East and Africa and Asia Pacific. The distributor published its channel trends as part of the launch of what it calls its “Future Ready” initiative, designed to enable channel partners to stay ahead of rapid technological change and evolving market dynamics. Future Ready will inform how Westcon-Comstor adapts and changes its approaches for 2025 and beyond, the company said. It will be rolled out throughout the year with significant announcements and business updates. The trends identified come from a mixture of insights from Westcon-Comstor’s marketers, working closely with vendors and partners globally and within APAC. The key trends identified by Westcon-Comstor as driving the growth and transformation of the channel are: MSPs and specialised partners are emerging as hybrid’s real winnersHybrid enterprise environments will prove to be a goldmine, but only for managed service providers and partners who succeed in building and selling services that allow them to own the “glue” layer spanning automation, security, governance and data flow between platforms. Cybersecurity is now a business function, not just an IT concernCybersecurity has outgrown the office of the chief information security officer and is now part of the CFO’s risk model, the COO’s continuity plan and the CEO’s brand reputation calculus. The most effective channel partners won’t just sell security tools, they’ll help align security with enterprise priorities, from compliance and business resilience to risk management and M&A readiness. AI-driven data orchestration is redefining the role of the channelAs AI becomes the brain behind data movement, the channel is evolving and partners are transitioning from infrastructure enablers to intelligence enablers. The smart money is now focused on building adaptive data fabrics that learn, respond and optimise in real time. The partners who successfully ride the AI wave will be those who master the intersection of AI models, data governance and multi-environment orchestration to deliver not just efficiency, but foresight. The cloud channel is here, and it looks very differentSuccess in the cloud era requires new motions, new models and new skills. Cloud marketplaces, partner-to-partner selling, usage-based billing and ecosystem co-selling are transforming how the channel works. Partners must now embed themselves into hyperscaler programmes, drive consumption growth and deliver value-added services. The key to success for partners in this new world is to view hyperscalers as platforms, not suppliers or rivals. AI Is forcing a network rethink, and the channel holds the blueprintAs enterprises embrace AI workloads, real-time data and distributed compute, static networks are no longer fit for purpose. The opportunity for the channel lies in helping customers adopt intent-based networking, zero-trust architectures and network observability at scale. This is the beginning of a new arms race, and the partners who triumph will be those who can design networks that think, heal and secure themselves. The SMB digital wave is the channel’s next global growth engineWith rising cybersecurity risks, cloud-native apps, AI tools and remote work becoming baseline requirements, millions of previously underserved small and mid-sized businesses are entering a new phase of digital urgency. Channel partners who deliver repeatable, scalable and automated solutions – backed by vendor support and distributor orchestration – will unlock a vast, margin-rich opportunity. Westcon-Comstor will be exploring these trends in more detail as part of its Future Ready programme through research, interviews with partners and vendors and insights from channel leaders. “Celebrating 40 years is a powerful milestone, and here in APAC, it’s a moment to reflect on how far we’ve come and how much opportunity lies ahead,” said Patrick Aronson, APAC executive vice-president and chief marketing officer at Westcon-Comstor. “The pace of innovation across the region is extraordinary, from the rapid adoption of AI and cybersecurity solutions to the digital transformation of businesses and the evolution of cloud and network architectures.” Future Ready was about more than anticipating change – but about empowering partners to lead it, he said. “By investing in enablement, platforms, and regional expertise, we’re helping our partners unlock new growth, deliver greater value, and build sustainable success in a fast-moving digital economy.” CEO David Grant said marking 40 years was a proud moment for everyone at Westcon-Comstor and an opportunity to both reflect and look to the future. “Our channel partners and vendors are operating in a rapidly changing market while pursuing their own business transformation journeys,” he said. “Our focus is on helping them become future ready, so they are prepared for tomorrow’s challenges as well as today’s.” Being future-ready meant staying close to partners’ and vendors’ realities, investing in the right tools, platforms and capabilities, and keeping eyes on the horizon, Grant said. Westcon-Comstor said it would share more information about Future Ready in coming weeks. SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe