SCC boss identifies cloud niche

SCC is not trying to compete with AWS as it builds out datacentre services proposition, CEO James Rigby explains

SCC's role in cloud is not to compete with Amazon but rather to act as a hub tying together all the customer's on-premise, private and public cloud needs in a single wrap, chief executive James Rigby has told CRN.

SCC has invested heavily in its own datacentre proposition, a business from which it expects to generate £40m sales next year, which Rigby (pictured) said will put it on a par with pure-play outfits such as Attenda.

But he admitted SCC's own shared cloud services are not the answer - or at least not the whole answer - for most of its clients.

"There is no right answer for every customer," he said.

"Some of it will be public cloud, and lots and lots of our customers buy Amazon [Web Services] and [Microsoft] Azure; some of it will be our own shared cloud in our datacentre - and that would obviously be our preference; and some of it will be infrastructure that remains on-premise.

"But the common thread is it's very complex for the customer to manage all those different types of IT provisions. So the job of people like us is to manage it, tie it together and provide a complete managed service to make all that complex provision cost-effective and productive and joined up for the customer."

A price war between the likes of Amazon, Google and Microsoft has seen the public cloud market commoditise but Rigby (pictured) argued that resellers who invest in their own datacentres still have a role to play and can remain competitive.

"We are not trying to compete with the Amazons and Microsofts of this world," he said.

"We are trying to compete in mid-market customers where they have many applications that just aren't suitable for going into Amazon or Azure. Perhaps for email, Office 365 is a really good option for most customers - and we will help them transition towards that - but for many of their applications that need a level of security or care and attention, they're not right for public cloud.

"The real thing is for us to help the customers manage it all, whether that's Amazon or SCC or their own stuff, and to put a wrap around the whole thing, because it's very complex for them."