What you need to know about the compute market right now

Mark Campbell, Product Executive

The global chip shortage has been a problem for the technology industry since the beginning of 2020 and is predicted to last well into 2023. Chips, often called semiconductors, are the lifeblood of modern society.

As the world shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, many factories closed with it, making the supplies needed for chip manufacturing unavailable for months. This was compounded by the shortage of other components during lockdown.

In South Africa, increased demand for consumer electronics caused shifts that rippled up the supply chain, leading to a considerable shortage in the availability of computing equipment.

It is likely that we did not receive our fair share of available products, but that is understandable given our geographic location. As we came out of the pandemic, we moved from little supply to oversupply, as major vendors quickly focused on supplying the backlog that had developed.

At Tarsus Distribution, we were able to address some of the critical shortages by making do with the options that were available in our warehouse. This enabled us to ensure that customers were not left without the ability to conduct business as usual. More recently, the availability of commercial products has mostly normalised, but technology needs have changed somewhat in response to the pandemic.

Technology to support hybrid environments

Now, when considering compute solutions for their business, SMB owners are holding onto assets longer because of the tough economic conditions. There’s been a higher demand for desktops as people continue to work from home. Where they are making investments, it is clear that there are deeper demands for collaboration tools.

To ensure a seamless user experience, whether in the office or working from home, the laptop has to be the best solution. Lightweight and slim designs mean they’re easy to transport and they can be paired with an external monitor to ensure the optimal user experience when at a workstation.

Greater demand for speed

We are seeing a trend in the demand for more powerful laptops with mid-range processors to cater for multi-tasking environments where people are in meetings but have an ERP solution running in the background, for example. They are also seeking better speaker, camera and video quality as we continue to spend time in online meetings.

With power challenges not expected to abate any time soon, people are looking for high-speed battery-charging systems that near full charge in about half an hour, as well as SSDs which are more durable, reliable, faster, smaller, lighter, make no sound and are more power efficient than traditional hard drives.

The channel needs to be aware of these changing needs, many revolving around connectivity, uptime speed, processing power, futureproofing, warranties and service. The better equipped our resellers are to meet business needs now, the more profitable they will be into the future.