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The channel and the entire IT industry are in a talent drought. Vendors and solution providers alike can’t find the right people to perform the tasks they need at the right time. Even when they find the “right guy” for the job, they usually can’t afford to place him or her in a full-time position. The shortage has vendors and solution providers competing for talent – the vendors, with their deep pockets, usually win.

Perhaps there isn’t a tech talent shortage. Perhaps it’s just a utilization and capacity issue no different than a poor performing data center before being consolidated through virtualization. Perhaps infrastructure virtualization could provide the model for resolving the talent plague affecting the channel.

What got me thinking about this was an email I got from Amy Babinchak, a principle of Third Tier, a solution provider who now offers IT outsourcing support to other solution providers. Her firm is changing its service model, fractionalizing the services provided to clients to make them more digestible, affordable and available.

The Third Tier packaging gives solution providers two options: monthly and quarterly support – each $1,400. In each package, solution providers receive up to 10 hours of on-demand support services per time period. The quarterly plan charges $175 per hour for any additional time required; the monthly plan’s hourly charge is $140.

“We decided to add the fractional hiring option because our customers asked for it. In IT, speed to resolution makes money, and the more two IT people work together the faster they can resolve a problem. Relationships are important too. The more you work together, the better you work together. And where else can you hire a $150,000 a year guy in an increment as small as 10 hours a quarter? We’re giving IT firms an opportunity to add expertise to their firms that they otherwise couldn’t afford,” Babinchak told Channelnomics.

And that go logic got me thinking that the entire talent shortage is a farce. It’s not that there isn’t enough IT talent, it’s just not where it’s needed when it’s needed.

Consider the classic data center scenario: Servers and storage traditionally ran between 30 and 40 percent utilization. Specific applications required dedicated resources, which often left a lot of unused headroom on the server. Storage had the same problem: the need to ensure enough capacity for data surges. And let’s not forget dev/test servers that couldn’t be repurposed or shared for production.

Virtualization changed the data center. It allowed for multiple resources to share time on the same device, increasing the utilization. It also enabled applications and resources to reside wherever capacity is needed, including those previously sealed off dev/test servers. And the creation of management platforms and service catalogs led to the ability to move applications and data stores around when machines went down or new resources were required elsewhere.

Virtualization increased data center productivity because it meant IT managers no longer had to deploy full-time resources for part-time work.

Third Tier is one of many services that’s tapping into this logic. Vendors such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Cisco are offering their badged employees to work directly with solution providers on IT engagements. Distributors including Ingram Micro and Avnet have programs that make IT talent available on a fee basis for short- and long-term needs. And brokerages such as OnForce make easy work of exchange of IT talent between solution providers.

Perhaps it’s time we start calling these services what they really are: the virtualization of channel talent. If talent is available on-demand and not beholden to long-term commitments, solution providers will have an easier time planning capacity, maximizing revenue and meeting the needs of current and future customers. Unless their service needs dictate it, they won’t need to keep a full time MCSE or CCNA on staff when they only need such engineers 40 hours a year.

Rethinking channel tech talent in virtualization terms may finally resolve the IT talent issue for solution providers caught between limited budgets and short-term demands.

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