ThinkGrid urges channel to get head in clouds

Hosted infrastructure vendor claims cloud-savvy end users could cause problems for hardware and software-focused VARs

Hosted infrastructure vendor ThinkGrid claims that growing end-user knowledge about cloud could cause some companies to shun their long-standing IT providers.

The firm, which specialises in the provision of customisable, white-label cloud services to the channel, said end users are becoming increasingly cloud-savvy and piling pressure on their incumbent IT suppliers to help them adopt it.

Rob Lovell, chief executive of ThinkGrid, told ChannelWeb: "It is definitely on people's minds, [because] nearly every vendor is talking about it and, with the economy like it is, people are looking at every different way to save money.

"For example, if a company's server breaks and their reseller partner says, ‘that will cost £5,000 to £10,000 to replace,' rather than settle for that, they are finding out that this ‘cloud thing' could really make a difference to the way they work."

In some cases, this has caused customer-reseller loyalty to "disintegrate", he claimed. Especially if the partner they usually deal with does not have any cloud services in their portfolio.

"The pressure is really on now, because so many customers are asking for cloud," he said. "If a partner is not in a position to provide them with a solution, they will find someone else who can."

That being said, the channel has become more receptive to the benefits of cloud over the past year, with growing numbers making their first steps into the market.

"There are traditional resellers out there that want to hold on to what they have done for years, but are seeing their margins and revenue dropping and need something to supplement that," explained Lovell.

"[VARs] are laying out their strategy for the coming year now, and we are seeing double the number of partners asking questions about cloud than we were a year ago."

To help partners get to grips with the cloud business model, the firm recently stepped up its enablement activities with the rollout of its new ThinkGrid University programme.

Its content is available to ThinkGrid VARs via the firm's partner portal and provides them with access to online tutorials to help them develop pre-sales, operational and technical skills for cloud.

"It is about us getting closer to our partners, rather than just trying to sell them stuff," added Lovell.

"We have been asked by partners to step that [enablement] up and so we are using the experience we have gained to help get them into the cloud quicker and make fewer mistakes on the way."