6 Ways to Capitalize on Cloud Computing You May Not Have Considered
A variety of vendors share some tips and insight.
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Christian Alvarez, senior vice president of worldwide channels at Nutanix. Nutanix sells cloud services, including disaster recovery and desktops, all as a service, through the channel:
“The move to subscription- and consumption-based buying has changed the traditional channel-vendor relationship to follow an everything-as-a-service model, and IT infrastructure is no exception.
“This is likely to impact channel sales but it also provides a strong opportunity for resellers to provide professional services on top of the cloud software sales they’re already making. According to IDC research, services have become an increasingly significant portion of partners’ revenue mix over time, and will become even more critical for partners’ success as the industry moves toward subscription models. With the rapid adoption of cloud software happening right now, the faster the channel can build up professional services offerings to support customers in that adoption, the more they, and their customers, will have to gain from the cloud.”
Larry Kraft, senior vice president, global channels and alliances at CloudBolt, a cloud management platform provider:
Partners must re-cast their own charters. They must understand the client’s world is becoming “everything as a service.” They need to be the trusted delivery agent in that world. This isn’t about more software; it’s about understanding the opportunity to bring the promise of “cloud” to every client, no matter where they are in their cloud journey.
Nutanix’s Christian Alvarez:
“Enterprises are looking to embark on digital transformation efforts but many struggle with the complexities 一 both technological and operational 一 of these transformations. Channel partners that can effectively enable this journey, and help their customers implement their hybrid and multicloud strategy, will quickly become valued partners to their customers by positioning IT departments as key drivers within their organizations. Partnering with vendors that can provide the right solution, training and guidance will help the channel in the year ahead and beyond.”
Scott Peterson, chief revenue officer, Mitel, a cloud business communications provider:
“Cloud is not a one-size-fits-all model, and that’s where partners can really bring value to a deal with their ability to help customers find the right fit. Is a multitenant or private instance model a better option? Do they need help transitioning from a legacy prem solution? What kinds of integrations do they need? VARs in particular should look for vendor partners that offer them maximum optionality, both in terms of the cloud offerings they provide and in the level of engagement the VAR can have with their customer post-sale. Vendors who enable VARs to continue delivering value-added services like system maintenance, technical support and custom integrations can open an entirely new world of hidden cloud opportunities without the partner needing to change their business model.”
Russell P. Reeder, CEO of Infrascale, a cloud backup and disaster recovery vendor:
“As businesses look to the future, everyone knows that data is either moving off-prem to the cloud or using the cloud for data redundancy. But data redundancy is not enough to fully protect your clients. Hackers are not only looking for local data but are now sophisticated enough to search and destroy data backups. To fully protect your clients, make sure their data is backed up with a cloud backup and recovery partner.”
CloudBolt’s Larry Kraft:
“What enterprises really want is a cloud environment where automation and orchestration allow them to achieve their digital transformation and modernization goals. They want self-service capabilities that give them the flexibility to deliver at the speed their customers demand. But what is often underestimated is the integration effort required to automate and orchestrate the complex inner workings of cloud infrastructures – provisioning, orchestration, decommissioning, or any other cloud processes. When you have to harmonize multiple platforms to deliver these processes, the processes become infinitely more complex and difficult. But they don’t have to be.”
Victor Baez, vice president of global cloud channel sales, Ingram Micro Cloud, a distributor:
“We see more and more business applications being adopted to enhance the employee experience. With companies doing their best to retain employees by being flexible with remote and work from home environments, providing teams with easy-to-use [cloud] business applications to enhance their productivity has become critical. Tools that go beyond CRM – fully integrated, mobile and the corresponding managed services – have emerged as key growth areas.”
Mitel’s Scott Peterson:
“Any organization where employees are giving out their personal cellphone number to customers is a cloud opportunity. We see it often in industries like construction, real estate, first response and professional services where field teams need or want to be accessible and productive from home, a job site or the road. Mobility and the option to present a business phone number on a call are standard features for most cloud communications solutions, but ones that plenty of small and midmarket businesses don’t have or even realize they could have. It may seem simple, but sometimes the most obvious answers are the ones we overlook.
“Contact center is a hidden opportunity, too, that partners should be thinking about in every cloud discussion. As consumers, COVID-19 completely changed the way we shop, travel, eat and more. On top of that, the contact center itself doesn’t look like the traditional call centers of days past – you’ve got agents working from home and employees who wouldn’t consider themselves to be customer service interacting and supporting customer needs regularly. And you can tell the companies that have made customer experience a priority. Even a very basic multichannel contact center can really change the game, making it low-hanging fruit for any cloud deal.
CloudBolt’s Larry Kraft:
“Channel partners have a great opportunity to be the enabler and deliverer of the means by which enterprises can digitally transform and become more nimble and competitive. To do this, they have to provide solutions to a growing number of complexities at each step of the hybrid cloud/multicloud journey. How are partners helping their clients maximize the value of their multitool and multiplatform hybrid cloud infrastructure? How do they help them automate and orchestrate their cloud processes? How do they help them govern processes with policy? How are they helping them build bridges between SecOps, ITOps, DevOps, FinOps and procurement teams, as well as addressing the concerns of the boardroom? How do they ensure they can pass compliance audits? How do they deliver the peace of mind that comes from knowing they aren’t alone on their transformation journey?”
Ryan Walsh, chief product officer and channel chief, Pax8, a cloud applications distributor:
“A recent Forrester report found that a key priority for companies in 2021 is reducing costs. The same survey showed that improving the customer experience dropped in priority, which doesn’t need to happen. An effective way MSPs can reduce costs while also improving the customer experience is by increasing efficiency. Introducing advanced solutions that automate processes, like user on- and off-boarding, produces substantial time savings for the MSP and enables faster servicing for clients. The MSP will experience increased cost savings and productivity, and their clients will receive better and more responsive service.”
Peter Scott, senior vice president, business development, WANdisco, a big data and cloud computing firm:
“It’s all about better big-data analytics, driven by AI and machine learning. The cloud is the only place with the processing power to manage those analytics, while taking advantage of cloud-native security, monitoring and cost efficiencies.”
CloudBolt’s Larry Kraft:
“Channel partners have a great opportunity to be the enabler and deliverer of the means by which enterprises can digitally transform and become more nimble and competitive. To do this, they have to provide solutions to a growing number of complexities at each step of the hybrid cloud/multicloud journey. How are partners helping their clients maximize the value of their multitool and multiplatform hybrid cloud infrastructure? How do they help them automate and orchestrate their cloud processes? How do they help them govern processes with policy? How are they helping them build bridges between SecOps, ITOps, DevOps, FinOps and procurement teams, as well as addressing the concerns of the boardroom? How do they ensure they can pass compliance audits? How do they deliver the peace of mind that comes from knowing they aren’t alone on their transformation journey?”
Ryan Walsh, chief product officer and channel chief, Pax8, a cloud applications distributor:
“A recent Forrester report found that a key priority for companies in 2021 is reducing costs. The same survey showed that improving the customer experience dropped in priority, which doesn’t need to happen. An effective way MSPs can reduce costs while also improving the customer experience is by increasing efficiency. Introducing advanced solutions that automate processes, like user on- and off-boarding, produces substantial time savings for the MSP and enables faster servicing for clients. The MSP will experience increased cost savings and productivity, and their clients will receive better and more responsive service.”
Peter Scott, senior vice president, business development, WANdisco, a big data and cloud computing firm:
“It’s all about better big-data analytics, driven by AI and machine learning. The cloud is the only place with the processing power to manage those analytics, while taking advantage of cloud-native security, monitoring and cost efficiencies.”
Organizations continue to adopt cloud computing at a record pace. In a new report, the Cloud Security Alliance notes that more than half of organizations now run 41% or more of their workloads in the public cloud. That compares to 25% of organizations doing the same in 2019.
This accelerated shift to such digital transformation, of course, remains fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic and the reliance on remote work. Cloud Security Alliance analysts say adoption will just keep growing. So will the diversity of production workloads and use of different brands. To that latter point, the Cloud Security Alliance said 62% of respondents in its March 2021 study, “State of Cloud Security Concerns, Challenges, and Incidents,” have multiple clouds. The most popular one? It’s not a huge shocker: Amazon Web Services, at 67%. Microsoft Azure closely trails AWS at 65%, while Google Cloud Platform stays in third place, at 37%.
Check out these cloud computing opportunities you might be missing. |
All that likely comes as little surprise to experts within the indirect channel. But what might turn heads is the Cloud Security Alliance’s finding that, by the end of this year, most organizations expect to have 41%-100% of workloads in the cloud. Chances are, they won’t get there easily on their own. Amid a well-publicized IT skills shortage, they need help. Managed service providers, system integrators, VARs, consultants and other channel partners have the education, tools and people to guide customers. In doing so, there’s the straightforward deployment approach — pick a platform, pick a workload, make sure it’s all secure, and off you go.
Yet, channel partners looking to cement their value and expand their revenue potential will want to do more. With that in mind, Channel Futures polled some cloud vendors. We wanted to know: What aspects of cloud computing should partners consider offering or doing that perhaps they haven’t? The slideshow above gives you their answers.
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