industryopinion
Cloud infrastructure: come for the agility, stay for the price?
David Devine, partner program manager, OVHcloud discusses business customer needs and how channel partners can fulfil them.
I
f you read the findings of the latest report from the Cloud Industry Forum, you might notice a contradiction. According to the study of 250 customers, almost half (48%) have
embraced cloud because of the agility and scalability that it provides. But when the same customers were asked about the most important factors during the buying process itself, 58% admitted that price came first, above scalability (34%), existing relationships (22%) or the ability to deliver consultancy (14%). To some extent, this is unsurprising; all
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organisations start with business-driven goals for cloud projects, but when the rubber hits the road, they need to balance the books. However, these statistics do indicate that the marketplace is becoming more demanding – in fact, according to Merkel’s Superpowers Index, 34% of B2B deals saw an incumbent supplier displaced by a new brand, up from 29% last year. This might be good news for challenger brands, but it’s bad news for incumbents. Furthermore, the economic climate has been exceptionally
volatile, from the tech boom during the pandemic and the subsequent ‘come down’ and layoffs, not to mention factors including Brexit. This pressure is making organisations take a more considered
approach to their buying. According to the Superpowers Index, the number of suppliers being evaluated for any one deal and decision-making times are increasing year-on-year. Furthermore, research from sales enablement firm Showpad highlights that for any buying decision, an average of 6 – 10 stakeholders are now actively involved. Clearly, involving more people and evaluating more suppliers
is going to increase lead time and new decision-making criteria. However, given the complex nature of cloud, adding more options into the mix will also make it harder to compare offerings. Technology companies and resellers alike will showcase their capabilities in different ways, offer bundle deals, list price discounts – not to mention that some elements are intrinsically difficult to compare. How do you quantify a trusted relationship, or – outside of SLAs – support from a partner you’ve never worked with? Ultimately, this complexity makes it tough to compare apples with apples, but there are ways to fight back.
12 | July/August 2023 On top of the longer lead times and larger buying groups,
understanding the needs of business
decision makers, you can direct cloud
projects in the right direction.”
the CIF study highlighted that lack of skills (35%) and lack of executive support (30%) frequently hold organisations back from adopting cloud. These challenges are actually opportunities for the channel, and although resellers must address ‘hygiene’ factors such as cost and security, offering a way to overcome hurdles like these can also push you up the value chain. For example, by getting to know your
customer and mapping their wider stakeholder groups, you can put the right people in the right meetings and simultaneously increase your chances of success and show that you’ve got a broad bench of skills. By understanding the needs of business decision makers, you can direct cloud projects in the right direction, supporting the loftier goal of improving business agility and digital transformation. At the same time, migration (38%) and integration (34%) issues
were commonly flagged as blockers in adopting cloud, which is another area where channel partners can offer consultancy and value-added services to make cloud deployment a success. In addition, using open standards and having a broad bench of providers in a reseller’s portfolio can help to match the right cloud to the right workload, easing the migration journey. Of course, this does put a burden on the channel, which
is where the vendor community needs to roll up its sleeves, become more hands-on and step in. Providing sales support, co-marketing, and education through partner programs is only half the story. The best customer value is created when vendors listen to their channel partners, working closely with them as an extension of their team to drive sales home, and enable the channel to give customers the business outcomes that they need. However, there’s one final consideration: the CIF research also
showed that environmental, social, governance and sustainability concerns were important to 85% of customers. Although sustainability might have been a ‘nice to have’ in previous years, a solid sustainability strategy is vital in keeping other costs down, such as electricity. But collaboration is key here too: by working together, we also give each other more time to look to the horizon and consider how we can be better, more responsible and more competitive businesses.
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