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Canalys has predicted the total addressable IT market will grow 3.5% this year, with the good news that 70% of it will be delivered by the channel, with growth coming from continuing interest in digital transformation, moving to the cloud and securing data. “The long-term technology mega-trends will continue to drive growth opportunities for both vendors and channel partners in 2023,” said Matthew Ball, chief analyst at Canalys. But the research begs certain questions. Has the channel reached the peak for its share of the addressable market or is there an opportunity to gain even more? What is the optimum share for vendors and the channel? Are they in agreement or is there always likely to be some tension between the two? David Watts, senior vice-president and regional managing director of UK and Ireland for TD Synnex, expects a higher proportion than 70% to be delivered by the channel. “We’ve seen vendors moving more towards partners as their preferred route to market and I’d expect that to continue as the industry and the ...