Analyst(s): Alex Smith
Publication Date: November 21, 2025
The growing demand for AI-optimized infrastructure is expanding beyond just the major cloud giants and is accelerating across neoclouds, sovereign cloud projects, and enterprise investments. This expansion is creating significant new opportunities for channel partners who are willing to evolve their capabilities. For partners to deliver next-generation AI data centers, success requires mastering advanced skills beyond simple product resale, such as high-density system integration, advanced cooling, and workload optimization. Leading partners such as Ahead, Computacenter, and World Wide Technology are setting new industry standards by investing in purpose-built facilities, testing grounds, and internal R&D, which is reshaping the channel’s influence on client architectures and AI success.
Key Points:
- The expansion of AI infrastructure into neoclouds, sovereign clouds, and enterprise deployments is creating a significant growth opportunity for channel partners that can deliver advanced engineering and integration capabilities.
- Winning in the AI data center space requires channel partners to master complex skills, including advanced cooling engineering, high-performance infrastructure architecture, and compliance know-how for sovereign projects.
- Engineering-centric partners are leading the market by investing in R&D facilities and proving grounds, positioning themselves as critical advisors for complex, high-stakes AI infrastructure deployments.
Overview:
AI is reshaping the data center and redrawing the channel map, with the infrastructure opportunity growing beyond hyperscalers. New opportunities are emerging in neoclouds, which are purpose-built for intensive AI and ML workloads, as well as in sovereign cloud initiatives driven by the need for data residency and homegrown innovation. Additionally, enterprises with strict compliance, IP protection, or cost predictability needs are modernizing their own AI-ready facilities. Over 70% of advanced infrastructure partners view hybrid and on-prem AI as their highest-growth segments.
Success in this ecosystem demands a higher level of technical competency. Partners must possess core skills such as designing scalable, energy-dense AI and High-Performance Infrastructure Architecture, and a deep understanding of the latest Next-Gen Silicon and Accelerator Familiarity. Due to the high power densities of AI, expertise in thermal and liquid cooling engineering, as well as mastery of power & energy systems, is essential. Proficiency in low-latency networking is also critical. The ability to manage modular buildout practices and navigate regulatory environments with expertise in compliance, security, and sovereignty is key for neoclouds and sovereign projects.
Partners who invest in R&D and advanced engineering, such as Ahead, Computacenter, and World Wide Technology (WWT), are leading the charge. Ahead’s work on a 10MW liquid-cooled facility and WWT’s Advanced Technology Center (ATC) for live workload validation exemplify the technical complexity now required. Computacenter focuses on direct liquid cooling for challenging retrofits, and companies such as International Computer Concepts (ICC) specialize in solutions for extreme power and heat.
Vendors should prioritize advanced partner enablement, including co-development and exclusive access to roadmap technologies. Collaboration is also needed to co-design vertically integrated solutions for regulated, performance-sensitive, or sovereign use cases. Establishing AI testbeds and infrastructure sandboxes with partners, offering equipment and technical expertise, will accelerate real-world adoption. The channel’s future belongs to those who invest in infrastructure, talent, and technical alliances to set the pace for this new era of complexity.
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Author Information
Alex is Vice President & Practice Lead, Ecosystems, Channels, & Marketplaces at the Futurum Group. He is responsible for establishing and maintaining the Channels Research program as part of the overall Futurum GTM and Channels Practice. This includes overseeing the channel data rollout in the Futurum Intelligence Platform, primary research activities such as research boards and surveys, delivering thought-leading research reports, and advising clients on their indirect go-to-market strategies. Alex also supports the overall operations of the Futurum Research Business Unit, including P&L segmentation, sales and marketing alignment, and budget planning.
Prior to joining Futurum, Alex was VP of Channels & Enterprise Research at Canalys where he led a multi-million dollar research organization with more than 20 analysts. He played an integral role in helping the Canalys research organization migrate into Omdia after having been acquired in 2023. He is an accomplished research leader, as well as an expert in indirect go-to-market strategies. He has delivered numerous keynotes at partner-facing conferences.
Alex is based in Portland, Oregon, but has lived in numerous places, including California, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and the UK. He has a Bachelor in Commerce and Finance Major from Dalhousie University, Halifax Canada.
