INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Cloud
THE GOLD RUSH
TO CLOUD WILL
ALSO DRAW IN
ADDITIONAL
COMPETITION,
GROWING BY A
FACTOR OF THREE
TIMES BY 2020.
challenge to them on how to best select the
few suited for their business.
On one hand, this pace of innovation is
refreshing and allows the best of breed to
come forward. On the other hand, the sheer
pace of change and rate of transformation
taking place up front opens up the
opportunity for Managed Service Providers
to provide trusted advice and services around
cloud computing for their end-customers.
Across the region, small and medium
enterprises are beginning to embrace
various aspects of Digital Transformation,
whether cloud, mobile or data driven.
However, there is no doubt that embracing
cloud computing remains the basis for large
scale and successful Digital Transformation.
Cloud provides the underlying platform to
successfully build new business models and
enable a new generation of mobile ready
customers to come on-board and receive
new customer experiences.
So important is cloud computing and cloud
technologies for businesses that the number
of Managed Service Providers providing cloud-
related services will triple globally by 2020,
according to Gartner. Traditional IT services
that have always been the backbone for
financial sustainability of professional service
providers will be overshadowed by the growth
of cloud-related services that can be delivered
by Managed Service Providers. This is a huge
opportunity for Managed Service Providers to
grow their wallet share in coming years.
However, like many reality checks, the
emerging gold rush to the cloud, where IT
decision makers are opening up budgets to
spend, also includes a priority list of what to
do first and a number of questions. Managed
Service Providers may be asked a variety of
questions by their end-customers. How do
we migrate our data to the cloud? Which
applications should we use from the cloud
and which should remain on-premises? What
is the timeline and decision matrix for any
migration to the cloud? Which applications
are best suited to be cloud native and which
ones need to follow a lift and shift approach?
What will work best for me: public or private or
hybrid, among others?
For Managed Service Providers, being ready
with answers and well-tested services is
critical for them to leverage the gold rush
to the cloud. Managed Service Providers
need to be well trained and prepared for
migration to the cloud, have ready with
them preplanning and consulting services
and optimal pricing models. They need to be
closely aligned with their end-customers and
must be fully aware of the decisions being
taken by them on what should be cloud-
ready, cloud-only and cloud-first.
No single Managed Service Provider can
provide the full range of cloud computing
services for their small and medium
enterprise customers. For this reason,
Managed Service Providers also need to
actively build their role as cloud brokers,
where they are well versed with what is
available, how to onboard and how to offer.
Onboarding of cloud services already
accounts for more than 15% of IT cloud
spending. By being part of this onboarding
service as cloud brokers, Managed Service
Providers can continue to expand their role
as trusted advisers for their end-customers
in their cloud transformation journey, right
from the onset.
Another critical area for Managed Service
Providers is to be well aware of the required
business outcomes linked to various Digital
Transformation journeys within their end-
customers. By being proactive of what is
expected by business decision makers, and
by building suitable competency as cloud
brokers, Managed Service Providers can stay
ahead of end customer expectations and
ahead of the competition.
The gold rush to cloud will also draw in
additional competition, growing by a factor
of three times by 2020. Differentiation and
suitability of offerings for end-customers,
depending on their business size and
vertical markets, will also help managed
service providers ride out the next phase of
shakeout and consolidation. n
74
INTELLIGENTCIO
www.intelligentcio.com