7 Ways Cloud May Surprise Channel Partners

More data breaches are on the way (no surprise there). But what you may not know is that cloud suppliers are responding with improved native logging and auditing for cloud apps that will give security professionals better information without having to rely solely on third-party tools. More info may make cloud-based apps more secure than on-premises systems. Still, the shared-responsibility model used by Microsoft and Amazon means that when you move a customer’s application to the cloud, they or you are still responsible for securing the VM, OS, application and data, as well as network access. As a result, security will continue to be a high priority, especially for mission-critical applications. This means more companies will increase security budgets, creating new opportunities for channel partners.

Cloud will be seen as risk mitigation strategy. As more CIOs and CISOs get skittish about all those breaches, they will be more likely to delegate security to cloud service providers instead of having to be responsible for maintaining cloud applications in-house. As these leaders move security responsibility to the cloud, it will decrease the risk of mobility as more data and files are stored in the cloud. In a related development …

Cloud will make or break IT careers. Your CIO contacts are under pressure from multiple fronts; the typical tenure of a CIO is four or five years. CISOs have it even tougher, lasting just 2.1 years, according to Ponemon. IT employees who are quick to adopt cloud security are likely to boost their longevity. As more companies move to cloud, they will need cloud security experts that can weed out the real threats from the background noise. Make sure you’re the one enabling that win-win career growth.

As hardware dies, companies will continue to move to public cloud despite new angst over long-term TCO. A much-discussed new report from 451 Research finds private clouds based on VMware and Microsoft or OpenStack currently offer a lower TCO than public cloud in some cases, based on scale and labor costs. Still, as hardware reaches end of life, companies will constantly need to make the decision: Purchase new hardware or move processes to the cloud? Partners can help with cost analysis, showing companies how to get immediate time to value using the latest technologies, and offering a third option — virtual appliances.

Multi-cloud deployments will continue to grow. According to a survey of 314 cloud adopters by Cowen & Co., most public cloud customers use more than one cloud service provider, and over half of respondents say they plan on adding additional cloud vendors. Partners who can act as cloud brokers will be in high demand.

Cloud vendors will merge to create complete solutions. M&A fever isn’t sparing cloud providers (or the channel, for that matter). As cloud becomes more competitive, providers that have incomplete solutions will be left behind. The ones that thrive will complete their solutions by merging with other vendors. Doing so will reduce the weaknesses of each company. Make sure you’re keeping a scorecard.

Smart bots will become more common in messaging apps, especially for service and sales applications. Companies are beginning to take advantage of how these bots have increased accuracy in the decision-making process with stronger contextual awareness that allows them to help more customers. These bots will continue to improve in 2017 using cloud, analytics, and customer data, so they can continue making more reliable decisions. Some retailers are starting to use bots for customer support. This trend will continue as more companies use them for basic queries and then deliver more advanced questions to a human representative. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg even pitched the idea of bots serving as robotic customer service reps on Messenger.