Server Closets and Datacentres: An Endangered Species?

In this sponsored opinion piece from ProfitBricks' Andreas Gauger, he reminds MSPs that the cloud opportunity is still very much there for the taking

We’ve all read and heard so much about cloud computing for the last five years that we’re a bit tired of it.

From some vendors claiming they offer a “Cloud-based” version of their software when they don’t, to large US-based firms using the cloud to create or hold on to their enterprise approach (sales, licensing and support). It’s all just too much.

But is it?

The promise of cloud computing is real (rapid deployments, usage based billing, lower costs, greater scale) and these promises are now understood by the executive and management team.

The media, analysts and vendors have produced enough materials that relay these concepts in a manner that every business owner and executive can now understand.

So now it’s not just the techies that are talking about cloud computing - it’s the management team.

Why was 2014 a pivotal year for cloud computing?

• MSPs found that many of their clients started asking for Cloud Computing solutions
• Concerns about Cloud Computing security lessened as more and more big companies announced they moved to the cloud
• Second generation Cloud Computing solutions launched and made migrating to the cloud easier
• Many MSPs started to learn of other MSPs having success building their cloud business 2014 also brought a maturing of MSPs’ experience of selling and supporting recurring revenue services.

Email migrations, for example, have opened the door to replacing on-site servers and storage with cloud servers and storage – more and more MSPs have the knowledge to offer these services.

Every technology movement has a cycle. Managed Service Providers perform the largest share of the work and reap the greatest rewards in revenue with each of these movements.

Think back to when your company built office LANs for your clients or replaced an on-premise CRM system with a SaaS solution; or even more recently, when you may have moved your clients’ email from an Exchange server to a SaaS email platform.

These projects all resulted in happier clients in the end that grew their trust in your team’s ability to deliver real business benefits.

So with 8.6 million data centers and 85 per cent of all workloads still being on-premise – the opportunity is enormous.

Do you have a cloud migration strategy? Are your clients holding off on giving you approval for more on-premise hardware?

Do you agree that in 2020 the majority of small and medium sized businesses will not own a server or have storage on-premise?

If you are wondering what to look for in a cloud computing Infrastructure as a Service vendor (IaaS) or learn more about how to price and earn margin on cloud computing – read up on the literature that ProfitBricks provides; a second generation cloud computing provider for channelweb readers.