ADOPTING CLOUD TECHNOLOGY
Cloud setting in Cloud technology may be well established, but there are still many businesses, especially SMEs, that still need to migrate over to it, and this is something resellers can play a core role in – and really should do.
While the pandemic markedly increased the uptake of cloud technologies by businesses, there are still plenty of small and medium-sized companies that have yet to take the plunge and still rely on things like physical servers. There are many reasons for this – from not understanding the technology to worries over cost – but there are more compelling arguments for migrating, and this something that resellers need to emphasise to customers. “Cloud is bigger than we can imagine,” says Ovi Gherghel, director cloud and cyber security, UK&I at Ingram Micro UK. “When speaking about cloud, we need to look forward and at the opportunities ahead of us. I’m not exaggerating when I say cloud is growing. Gartner, Inc. forecasts that in 2023, worldwide public cloud spending will grow 20.7% to total $591.8 billion, up from $490.3 billion in 2022.” But there are still quite a few MSPs that haven’t embraced cloud too, Ovi adds. “Everyone is selling some sort of cloud today, but you can’t do it only through hardware. I think there is a lot of room for MSPs to build a cloud practice.” However, Ovi notes that building a cloud practice isn’t straightforward. “There are loads of cloud providers and if as an MSP you want to do it right, you have to think about what the end customer wants to achieve,” he says. “The end customers are the ones driving demand in the market.” This is where companies like Ingram Micro come in and can provide the support and expertise in the cloud that MSPs need. “When customers go to the MSP and ask about cloud, that is when the MSP comes to Ingram Micro,” Ovi says. “We want to support MSPs to retain their business and the best way to do that is to make their customers more dependent on the services and new products they can offer. The smart MSPs react fast, and we are there to support them in building that cloud practice and helping them to be proactive rather than reactive to customer demand. “As an MSP, to start building a cloud practice you will need someone to support you along the way. If you want to move software from on-premises to the cloud, you must be aware that there are different options. We have all the expertise behind to support an MSP that wants to build a cloud practice
and provide the right advice to the end customer on which platform to choose. “The MSP also has to think about the kind of applications that can be run on those platforms, how do you do the lift and shift from on-premise to cloud? How do I secure that? This is what we do at Ingram Micro; we can hand-hold partners from pre- assessment to post-deployment. “It is important to understand the services you can wraparound a cloud offering. The more software introduced to an end customer, the more managed services and professional services that can be sold into that customer. “We work with hundreds of vendors to support our MSPs to make the right decision for their customer. In this multi-cloud world, there is no-one- size-fits all and that is where an MSP can bring real value to the end customer by offering a solution to the customer’s need rather than trying to sell a product and wraparound some services afterwards.”
Ovi Gherghel director cloud and cyber security, UK&I Ingram Micro UK
There are loads of cloud providers and if as an MSP you “
want to do it right, you have to think about what the end customer wants to achieve. The end customers are the ones driving demand in the market.
Understanding business needs But for MSPs to sell cloud services effectively to SME customers that have yet to migrate to the cloud, they need to understand the requirements of their business, says Raymond Ma, general manager of Europe, Australia & New Zealand, at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence. “SMEs that need to migrate their existing infrastructure to the cloud can start by developing a full understanding of their current and future business requirements. This includes their infrastructure, security and application environments,” he says. “Assessing their existing IT portfolio will help to determine what is best suited to a public cloud platform or SaaS alternatives. “The assessment can start with the finance
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