INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Cloud
Opportunity for MSPs to play a
stronger cloud adoption role
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Cheslynne Britz, VMware Business
Development Manager at Axiz
Advanced Technologies
T
he evolution of Managed Service
Providers (MSP) is the next step in
the local cloud journey. The move
to the cloud has been anticipated and well
documented over the years, but according
to Cheslynne Britz, VMware Business
Development Manager at Axiz Advanced
Technologies, benefits of the technology
platform adoption is yet to be fully realised.
Secondly, a lot of providers recognise the
value of managed services and have begun
to provide services on top of third-party
clouds, particularly the big providers like
Amazon, Microsoft, Google and IBM.
Providers are responding to their customers’
use of multi-cloud to offer management,
security, compliance and other services
across multiple cloud platforms. “While cloud-first adoption is slowing down,
it is not reluctance as much as it is a lack of
understanding,” she said.
Britz says that as a result of these trends,
traditional managed hosting, system
integrators, outsourcing and traditional
VMware solution providers are increasingly
moving to become cloud providers or MSPs. Value to the end-user also remains critical,
according to Britz. In assisting businesses to
better manage day-to-day IT operations, it
will reduce running costs and provide much
needed advantages end-customers need to
compete effectively.
“By adopting this value-added managed
service approach, we can assist our providers
to offer a higher level of service and ensure
they can tailor the offerings based on the
end user’s requirements.”
“Axiz Advanced Technologies is hoping to
assist more of our local providers to become
certified VMware cloud providers and grow
their share of wallet from end customer
business,” she said. Not always an easy or simple progression,
MSPs are schooled in cloud and can play
an instrumental role when it comes to IT
infrastructure components.
Britz added that knowledge and expertise
in cloud computing is lacking and Axiz
Advanced Technologies is focused on
assisting its providers to assist end users to
overcome this obstacle. “Whether it’s a migration or a solution that
requires complex levels of integration, we
aim to assist managed service providers
to extend their role within the end-user
environment,” said Britz. n
“By ensuring managed service providers
are able to assist end customers to be
up-to-date and experience the latest in
technology, we are encouraging more
companies to develop their skills as VMware
cloud providers,” said Britx.
“In doing this, they will have the skills to
maintain and manage a truly hybrid solution.”
This evolution of MSPs is a growing global
trend. Two distinct trends were noted by
VMware, the first is around traditional
hosting providers transforming into full-
fledged cloud providers driving automation
of infrastructure and application services
along with managed services on top.
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