A new study from the London, Ont.-based Info-Tech Research Group shows there is money to be made by partners in cloud computing and the demand is there from customers, but partners need to make some investments and be ready to grab the opportunity.
The study saw Info-Tech speak to 285 North American technology solution providers in April, to probe their interest and ability to bring cloud-based solutions and services to market, what they’re hearing from customers, and what they’re looking for from vendors. A quarter of the respondents were Canadian.
The data showed that the cloud is a growing part of most partner businesses, with 68 per cent describing it as key to their growth plans and 41 per cent currently offering a cloud-based solution. Partners said they see cost savings and increased access to solutions as the key benefits to their customers from going to the cloud, and they’re also looking for help from vendors to re-train their staff on cloud technologies.
In Canada, partners were a little less aggressive, with 58 per cent describing the cloud as key to their growth plans and 25 per cent already in the cloud market. Some 40 per cent planned to enter the cloud within the next year.
While some partners are going cloud-only, Info-Tech analyst Joel Martin said most partners see a cloud offering as completing their existing portfolio and a way to broaden their footprint with existing customers looking for new, more flexible methods of service delivery.
“What’s really attracting partners is a lot of customers see value in extending their operations with what the industry calls hybrid delivery models, improving the overall functionality and contribution of IT to their business,” said Martin.
Martin said vendors that can offer that hybrid model of both on-premise and cloud-based delivery have a leg up in the conversation, as most partners see the cloud as a way to leverage their existing partnerships, and technical and sales expertise.
“They’re saying to businesses you have remote staff, why not extend the latest version of your office productivity suite or collaborative platform so everyone can work with the same version of the software, have the latest fixes, patched, and we’ll work with you to extend the management, provisioning, security and any process customization across the organization in premise and the cloud,” said Martin.
That hybrid strategy is reflected when partners were asked to identify their key cloud vendors, with Microsoft leading the pack with 24 per cent. Google and Amazon were next as non-traditional vendors, but IBM and Cisco rounded-out the top five.
Interestingly, Hewlett-Packard, Citrix and Oracle lagged behind the pack.
“Customers recognize the cloud will allow them to increase operational efficiency and reduce cost, and the best way to activate that is to leverage their existing relationships with IT partners and suppliers and their own internal management skills. And they know how to work with Office, or SAP, or IBM Lotus,” said Martin. “Rather than throw out the baby with the bathwater, they want to leverage those skills.”
The cloud necessarily means new business models for partners, but partners feel its crucial they stay involved in the billing and transaction exchanges with their clients, and not just at as a tax collector for the vendors. The key revenue opportunity for partners though, said Martin, is selling their own services around the vendor cloud offerings.
“Partners will make the most money when they take the services component into play, integrating data and management and working with the customer to ensure provisioning, resiliency and security is in place,” said Martin. “Partners should have an understanding of business objectives and bring in consulting expertise.”
Follow Jeff Jedras on Twitter: @JeffJedrasCDN.
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