Techaisle Blog

Partner behavior is evolving rapidly in 2024 and 2025, with a heightened focus on growth, speed, and innovation. To achieve these goals, partners are aggressively pursuing new customers, automating processes, and integrating AI into both their product offerings and internal operations. This strategic shift is driven by the recognition that AI has the potential to reshape the partner ecosystem, demanding a pivot from vendor dependency to customer-centric value creation. As a result, partners are prioritizing specialization and agility while placing a premium on developing AI capabilities. Red Hat's timely updates to its partner program acknowledge these shifts and position the company to support partners in navigating this dynamic landscape.

In July 2024, Red Hat introduced an enhanced unified global partner program. I was fortunate to have had some involvement with the Red Hat partner team as it developed its strategy for partner business empowerment. Red Hat’s Partner Program is flexible and globally consistent, enabling partners to customize their participation while maintaining a unified approach across regions. It aims to build strong relationships and drive mutual growth globally.

Let us go deeper into each area, which I feel the partners and partners’ customers will appreciate.

Program Structure

Red Hat's Partner Program balances global consistency and local flexibility, empowering partners to tailor their participation to specific market needs while upholding a unified partnership approach. According to Techaisle's Partner Survey, 46% of global partners desire vendor partner programs that maintain a consistent framework while accommodating regional variations. This structure allows partners to customize their participation according to their unique business needs while ensuring a unified approach across various regions. The program is built to accommodate multiple types of partners, including resellers, system integrators, distribution, and independent software vendors, providing them with the necessary tools and resources to succeed. By maintaining a globally consistent framework, Red Hat ensures that all partners access the same high-quality support and opportunities regardless of location. This approach fosters a strong sense of community among partners and helps Red Hat maintain its standards and deliver exceptional value to its customers worldwide.

A new type of computer is gaining traction - Copilot+ PC, explicitly built for artificial intelligence (AI).  These laptops are powered by powerful Snapdragon® X Plus processors, exceeding 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS), and deliver long-lasting battery life and access to cutting-edge AI models. Copilot+ PCs are designed to prioritize built-in AI features powered by Microsoft's Copilot AI and Qualcomm's Snapdragon X processors. This allows them to run new AI features like document editing suggestions, real-time image generation, and language translation directly on the device, also called local inferencing.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 9 is a Copilot+ PC.

For the last month, I have been using the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 9 Laptop, which is stylish, efficient, portable, and ideal for everyday tasks. With its sleek design and advanced AI capabilities, the Lenovo Yoga Slim X is ideally positioned to meet the growing demand for intelligent computing solutions in the SMB and midmarket segments.

The Yoga Slim X is Lenovo’s first product showcasing its new branding strategy, designed to discreetly elevate the Lenovo brand through modernized placement, high quality finish, and simplified graphics.

During a recent trip to Redmond, as the lone Copilot+ PC user in a room of Microsoft Windows device experts, my cosmic blue Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x instantly commanded attention. The sleek, modern device, a vibrant contrast against the more muted tech grays, was an unexpected splash of color. Its arrival seemed to pause the conversation as curious eyes turned to examine the device, and phones appeared to capture its distinctive hue. The Cosmic Blue hue is a purposeful design choice by Lenovo, influenced by research and understanding of emerging global trends. As per Brian Leonard, Vice President of Design for Lenovo IDG's PCs & Smart Devices, the color humanizes the design by introducing self-expression that stands out among the traditional grays and blacks of technology, but with a longevity that compliments the comfort of its form.

The Lenovo Yoga Slim X has a sleek, minimalist look that I love. At only 0.5 inches thick and 2.8 pounds, it is incredibly light, perfect for someone like me who’s always on the go. The aluminum body gives it a premium feel without being flashy. It’s surprisingly sturdy for its thinness; I’ve tossed it around in my bag, and there’s no sign of wear or tear. The overall look and feel scream quality. Above all, it is whisper quiet.

Techaisle's SMB and Midmarket security adoption trend survey research underscores the critical role of governance in today's complex IT landscape. The findings reveal that 36% of organizations identify a lack of governance as a significant impediment to successful AI project implementation. Additionally, 42% cite governance as a barrier to adopting cloud communications solutions. These challenges highlight the need for robust governance frameworks. Encouragingly, the survey also indicates a strong emphasis on security, with 58% prioritizing governance, risk, and compliance as essential components of their overall security strategy.

In the SMB context, "governance" is a concept akin to "taste" in interior design or "sustainability" in supply chains: universally acknowledged as essential but notoriously challenging to define. What is clear is governance's crucial role in safeguarding SMB interests, encompassing risk mitigation, regulatory adherence, and brand protection. It represents the collective vision of an organization, shaping its interactions with customers, partners, and the public. The term "governance" is often appropriated by IT departments, leading to discussions around IT, cloud, or data governance, obscuring its broader organizational implications.

Once confined to the realm of science fiction, intelligent machines and artificial intelligence are now rapidly reshaping our world. AI streamlines tasks and boosts efficiency across industries, from personal productivity to complex professional operations. The boundary between imagination and reality blurs further as technology advances, with AI-powered devices becoming increasingly accessible.

AI PCs have emerged as the latest technological sensation, generating significant excitement in the industry. The prevailing narrative suggests that AI capabilities will soon become a standard feature in higher-end personal computers. HP, a long-standing leader in the PC market, is not just a participant but one of the driving forces. It recognizes the immense potential of AI PCs, particularly for running generative AI applications. These applications offer a compelling alternative to cloud-based solutions, boasting faster processing speeds, enhanced security and privacy protections, and lower implementation costs.

HP's commitment to AI extends beyond hardware. To ensure widespread adoption, the company is investing in comprehensive training programs for its partners and sales teams through role-based training programs. Additionally, platforms like the HP Workforce Experience Platform (HP WEX) are being developed to optimize the user experience and unlock the full potential of AI PCs.

HP’s AI PC Innovations: Leading the Charge

A shift towards AI PCs is at the heart of HP’s innovations. While AI in PCs isn't new—having AI-powered features like speech and face recognition, natural language processing, and predictive text—the rise of large language models and generative AI has changed the market. With advanced neural processing units (NPUs) combined with powerful CPUs and GPUs, AI PCs can handle even the most complex and resource-intensive tasks. These intelligent machines go beyond traditional computing, collaborating seamlessly to boost productivity across various industries. The essential advantage of AI PCs lies in their ability to run AI applications directly on the device, offering significant benefits: faster processing, lower costs, and enhanced privacy and security.

HP made its first foray into the AI PC market with the AI PC portfolio announced at the company’s 2024 Amplify Partner Conference (APC). It introduced HP Elite and Z HP PCs with Intel Core Ultra 5 and 7 processors or next-gen AMD Ryzen PRO processors. However, the announcements made in May propelled them into direct competition with its rivals. The company introduced the HP OmniBook X AI PC and HP EliteBook Ultra AI PC. These PCs, dubbed HP's first next-generation AI PCs, are built from the ground up with the latest ARM architecture and are designed and engineered around the Snapdragon X Elite processor, featuring a dedicated NPU capable of 45 trillion operations per second (TOPS). HP touted these devices as the world’s thinnest next-gen AI PCs at APC.