2011: It’s all about the cloud!
Some new data out this week with some incredibly HUGE forecasted numbers for the growth of cloud computing. You can read Om Malik’s post here. Everyone is trying to figure just how big the cloud king Amazon Web Services really is — with the guess @ $500 mil to $650 mil. We actually think it is higher — but does it really matter to you the reseller?
You must have figured out by now that premise based hardware in the SMB, Mid Size and –increasingly some finite apps in the Enterprise are moving to the cloud. Does how fast really matter? What matters is who your partners are. Who can bring you a business proposition and a quality, scalable portfolio of services that will resonate with your customers.
IDC says the the WW cloud market will be about $22 bil this year — and moving to $55 bil by 2014. That is big enough growth to care. We think the Cloud infrastructure companies with the most partnering potential for you are: RackSpace, IBM Cloudburst, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services. We’ll discuss each in more detail in the coming weeks.
The Economy is Recovering: But is your sales pitch stuck in the past?
Channel Matters is ecstatic about the **almost** universally great Q1 earnings season. Led off by Intel’s 46% top line revenue growth a few weeks back! So…IT doors are reopening for VARs and their sales teams. Great! Now what are you going to pitch?
A revolution is happening — and it’s all about the cloud. Software, Storage, Servers, Network Infrastructure….everyone needs it and no one wants to own it and take care of it anymore. Especially SMBs and Midmarket firms. We’ve been speaking to many SMBs that have seen the future and it is all about “you name it’ as a Service”. “Why would I ever want to own Servers & Storage?” a small 40 person start up said to us last week.
So what are YOU going to do about it? They still need servers and everything else - but they don’t want to own it. VARs must move quickly to align with SaaS, Hosting and other Managed Services players to absolutely stay relevant in the 2010 economic recovery. VARs must absolutely lead with services in 2010 - no question. Where there is a paradigm shift - there is confusion and a hunger for some value add. And that is where you come in - because you are going to lead your sales pitch as a Subject Matter Expert on all things Cloud! So get out your ROI calculators and help IT look smart to the Finance team they need to convince .
