D-Link targeting industrial IoT opportunity

D-Link is looking to expand its channel base as it enters into the industrial internet of things (IoT) market with greater force. The networking player is launching a range of products designed to appeal to a customer base it hopes to increase its involvement with.

Alan Jones, consumer solutions and marketing manager for UK&I at D-Link Europe, said that the vendor is busy launching products to put into the hands of its partners.

“We’re going to bring out more products in those areas across the end of this year and into 2025. We’ve had an industrial piece before, but it’s never been as big as [when] we go into 2025 with a new approach and new ranges coming in that area,” he said.

Jones said that there would be some activity around routes to market to ensure D-Link had the market coverage from the channel. “We’ll be talking to our distribution partners and their teams because they’ll be interested and we’ll have the full range now, whereas before we only had an industrial switch range,” he added.

He added that the company was doing its bit to stir up customer interest and arm partners with fresh offerings, with projects coming in from partners around 4G and 5G solutions.

“They’ll see these new developments and products that we’re bringing out – new technologies, more Gigs on switches, smarter and more managed solutions. We’ve seen more in those areas,” he said.

Jones added that the decision to take more of its manufacturing in-house has been a benefit for partners and should provide the vendor with more flexibility.

It’s been four years since the firm joined the Taiwan Steel Group and one of the benefits has been to wind down a lot of the manufacturing happening in China to get a tighter grip on production.

“There’s a more in-house approach to manufacturing coming next year,” said Jones, with the firm already producing much of its managed switches, industrial routers and consumer products at its own facilities.

He said that as well as gaining control over production, there were other benefits to developing more in-house, adding: “It means we are also being more responsible for our own timelines, roadmap and assessment. Lead times are coming down for us – we can be more responsive and in control of ensuring we’ve got flow of stock to keep our channel partners happy.”

Phil Huang, business development and field application manager at D-Link UK&I, said that governments were keen to avoid using networking equipment that originated in China because of security reasons. Being able to demonstrate to partners the devices did not have a “Made in China” label on them had the potential to open more public sector and corporate doors.

“To be in a position to be able to say the products are made in Taiwan is always something that can help our customers,” he said.