Selling Cloud
How Deep and How Wide?
by Kevin Derman, GM of Cloud and Hosting for First Distribution
G
artner recently stated that by the end of 2015
at least 20% of all cloud services will be consumed via cloud brokerages. This is growth of
around 15% in one year, which represents a
huge opportunity. With this, many VAR’s (value
added resellers) and SI’s (system integrators)
are looking to broaden their offerings and get
in on the cloud action.
The question they are asking themselves
is who do they partner with? Do they put all
their eggs in one proverbial cloud basket and
choose a single vendor (e.g. Microsoft or
Google), or do they rather look for a supplier
that can offer them a wide range of cloud
vendors and solutions?
One thing every SI or VAR in the IT channel
will tell you is that no two customers are the
same. All will require a core set of IT requirements, and then there will always be the additional specialised solutions that some may require and some not (e.g.
Governance, Risk and Compliance solutions, or CRM).
However, when it comes to the core set of requirements,
items like email, virtual servers, and security, one customer
will demand ‘Brand A’, and another ‘Brand B’.
One will want a Microsoft Hosted Exchange solution and
one will want Gmail. It is clear therefore that to go the route
of only supplying a single cloud vendor product set will
definitely limit your solution and sales potential.
Today many companies call themselves cloud brokerages
and it is necessary to scratch beneath the surface of the
service. For example, to be offering a set of four cloud
services that the company hosts themselves, is not a cloud
brokerage but rather a cloud service provider or CSP.
There is immense value in what these companies do, but
the offerings will be limited and therefore your business will
always be limited by their offerings, actions and decisions
around what solutions they have in their datacentre.
In contrast to this, the true cloud brokerage model does not
essentially host any
of the services themselves, but rather
distributes best of