Message To The Channel: Don't Talk Hardware

About one-third of IT professionals surveyed believe IT consultants are too hardware-focused, while 24 percent believe they don't place enough emphasis on cloud solutions, Intermedia concluded.

"Hardware sales is the sales model that has historically driven the VAR business," Intermedia CTO Jonathan Levine said in an email response to a question. "As customers move to the cloud, they will buy much, much less hardware, and those consultants who emphasize hardware will suffer. It will be surprising if these numbers don't change very rapidly."

The report found that 64 percent of survey respondents said their companies use IT consultants or managed service providers, a figure Intermedia says aligns with research from CompTIA, which indicated that 65 to 75 percent of IT purchases are influenced by the channel.