Every day at Lightbits, we see demand from VARs and prospects growing. Why? Executives are laser-focused on price/performance—they need to drive modernization, but their legacy storage costs are holding them back. When we can free up significant spending by optimizing how they procure block storage, they can finally shift budgets toward strategic transformation efforts.
Last week, I had a conversation with a CIO from a large global enterprise that perfectly encapsulates the challenges we see across the industry.
“We Need to Modernize, But Can Our Team Keep Up?”
The CIO’s opening statement was: His company is investing in data center modernization, but he’s worried that his team may not have the technical depth to execute at the speed of innovation.
“We know we need to modernize—Kubernetes, OpenStack, OpenShift, and cloud-native architectures are the future. But do we have the skills in-house to support these shifts? Can we find the right partners to help us? And how do we ensure ROI on modernization without blowing up our budgets?”
This is not an isolated conversation—it’s the reality for nearly every IT leader today.
The Modernization Skills Gap Is Real
For CIOs and IT leaders, modernization isn’t just about upgrading hardware or moving to the cloud. It’s about:
✅ Overcoming a massive skills gap—Cloud-native, software-defined infrastructure and automation require new expertise.
✅ Balancing risk vs. innovation—How do you adopt new technologies without disrupting mission-critical applications?
✅ Ensuring price/performance—They need cost savings from their infrastructure to fund modernization efforts.
✅ Finding the right partners—Many traditional VARs lack expertise in K8s, OpenStack, or OpenShift, making it difficult to execute.
The problem is that most enterprises still operate on legacy storage models that drain their budgets, leaving little room for true transformation.
The Price/Performance Shift: Why Modernization Starts with Storage
At Lightbits, we’ve taken a different approach. We help enterprises free up budget for modernization by tackling one of the biggest hidden costs in IT: block storage.
We pioneered NVMe/TCP, a protocol now adopted by nearly every major storage manufacturer. We built software-defined block storage that runs on commodity x86 servers, delivering massive performance gains while cutting costs by 50-60%.
When you eliminate overpriced, proprietary storage models, CIOs can redirect that budget into modernization—investing in the skills, training, and technologies needed for true transformation.
The Partners Who Will Lead the Future of Data Center Modernization
We are seeing a seismic shift in how enterprises approach IT partnerships. CIOs are no longer looking for generalist VARs selling legacy solutions—they need trusted modernization specialists who understand:
✅ Kubernetes, OpenStack, and OpenShift at an expert level
✅ Cloud-native storage and data center automation
✅ How to reduce costs while improving performance and agility
At Lightbits, we’ve made a conscious decision to ONLY sign on and invest in partners who specialize in data center modernization.
Our customers and prospects actively ask us which VARs can help them modernize, and we’re making sure we have the right partnerships in place.
The Call to Action: Are You the Right Partner for This Shift?
The industry is changing fast. Enterprises can’t afford to wait—modernization is happening now. The question is:
Will you be the partner that CIOs turn to for help?
If you have deep expertise in modern data center architectures, we need to talk. If you’re still focused on HCI, VMs, and traditional SAN storage, this shift may leave you behind.
Let’s start the conversation. The future of IT belongs to those who can modernize, and the opportunities for partners who lead the way are immense.
Drop a comment below or reach out—how is your organization addressing the modernization skills gap? Let’s discuss. 🚀
Join the Lightbits Luminary Global Partner Program now.
