Is COVID-19 vendor financing for enterprise gear a good deal?
In the wake of coronavirus-related shutdowns that have wreaked havoc on the global economy, IT giants including Cisco, Dell, HPE and IBM have launched multi-billion-dollar financing programs for customers and channel partners. The programs offer financing with generous terms, such as zero interest and deferred payments until 2021, to help IT buyers weather the current cash crunch.
"These programs reflect something we knew would come down the pike. As cash flows dried up, cash reserves dried up, so businesses were in a cash crunch, not a credit crunch," says Carl Brooks, analyst, cloud transformation channel, with 451 Research. "For SMBs, it was an immediate issue. They suddenly found themselves unable to pay ongoing large expenses or the AWS bill,"