COMMS VISION 2011 PREVIEW
SPONSOR IN FOCUS
Outsourcery sets agenda
Simon Howitt
Organisations of all shapes and sizes are embracing the cloud faster than anyone predicted, according to Simon Howitt, Channel Business Unit Director at Outsourcery.
H
owitt is seeing a rapid demand for cloud-based services as
companies and individuals embrace what these solutions can deliver around cost savings, productivity and effectiveness. “Over the last two years organisations have either been taking the view that the cloud had nothing for them, because their existing systems were adequate, or that they should at least explore what it was all about,” he said. “They have now moved on from these positions and are either in a phase of liking what they see and exploring where they should start or decided they are definitely moving to cloud and just deciding what they will do first.”
Howitt’s view on the acceleration of the adoption of cloud-based services is backed up in a recent report from analysts
IDC.Some of
the key findings are that by 2015, public cloud services will account for 46 per cent of net new growth in overall IT spending in five key product categories, applications, application development and deployment, systems infrastructure software, basic storage, and servers. These figures represent nearly double what IDC forecast in 2010, with spending on public IT cloud services expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.6 per cent, from $21.5 billion in 2010 to $72.9 billion in 2015.
“I believe one of the reasons for this acceleration of uptake and the subsequent increased forecasts is because the barriers and suspicions around issues like security have been put into context,” commented Simon Howitt. “Larger organisations are adopting the cloud for less sensitive applications in the
first stages while they assess the security level they need to implement, and at the SMB level organisations have started to realise that they could never afford the level of security within their own on-premise systems that they get for free with cloud applications.”
A real concern with this accelerated market development however is that the level of acceptance at the user level, is not being matched by channel partners. Howitt highlights the issue: “Customers are getting ahead of the channel and partners need to gear up quickly if they are to be significant future suppliers of cloud services. The danger is that without leadership their customers will start to adopt some of the ‘vanilla’ products being delivered direct by some vendors and service providers. This will mean that their customers may get some initial cost savings but will almost certainly miss out on the transformation potential cloud based services can deliver.
“What I mean by this is that the move to the cloud is just an evolutionary step that all customers will make at some point, however by implementing the latest cloud-based technologies, properly tailored to the customer’s requirements, it is possible to revolutionise their business communications and transform the way they operate. Instead of the same for less they get more for less.”
Outsourcery has thought long and hard about how the channel can deliver this transformational effect and this has had a big influence on the development of its cloud-based services. Howitt explains: “When we looked at bringing Microsoft Lync to the market we realised that as a product it was very good within an organisation, simplifying communications between employees. However, we felt that it was missing some vital ingredients to make it transformational. We set about adding voice features, the ability to break out of the organisation to customers and suppliers, call centre functionality and professional level videoconferencing. With this additional functionality and the skill of our channel partners to configure solutions to meet the demands of individual customers we have made Microsoft’s Lync even greater.”
Outsourcery has designed extra functions into a range of other services such as data security and disaster
recovery and most recently announced its comprehensive O-Cloud service enabling channel partners to offer Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) solutions. “Though indications are that customers are getting ahead of the channel in their demands for cloud- based services, Outsourcery believes it has the complete ‘toolbox’ of products and services to enable channel partners to rapidly get up to speed,” claimed Howitt.
“The channel needs to add real value. By working with Outsourcery we help partners on skills transfer, we provide administration, management, billing and support solutions and we offer first class marketing and sales support. We encourage all channel partners to embrace the cloud opportunity and come and talk to us at the Comms Vision Convention about how Outsourcery can accelerate their business at the same pace as this exciting market.”
www.outsourcery.co.uk www.commsvision.com
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To view our Comms Vision Convention video please log onto your digital edition of Comms Dealer magazine:
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44 COMMS DEALER JULY 2011
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