The IT channel is evolving and embracing the Cloud as part of its proposition, intended to bring real value to its customer base. This is according to Andy Burton, Chair of the Cloud Industry Forum and CEO of Fasthosts.
In a speech being made at the CRN Cloud Forum 2012 on the 14th June at Le Meridien, Piccadilly, Andy Burton will detail recent research into the UK channel’s perception of cloud service provision and how it is evolving to meet that challenge head-on.
“There is no doubt that there has been a lot of speculation over the future of the channel as a direct result of end user adoption of cloud computing and the convergence of solutions such as telecoms, web hosting and software vendors as they all juggle to offer IT capability as a service in the Cloud,
“But our research indicates that the IT channel is responding to this challenge and is now embracing the Cloud as part of its value proposition. However, in regard to how well that message is being communicated and received, our latest research into end user attitudes toward cloud computing raised a concern that the primary reason for a lack of adoption by some end users was the lack of awareness that had from traditional suppliers of IT to their company. This suggests that the IT channel is not yet striking the right chords in terms of messaging their value proposition to the market,” he will go on to say.
The latest research from the Cloud Industry Forum highlights that the number one concern over the Cloud is the mitigation of risks around committing data to be stored and accessed in the Cloud (data security – 62 per cent; data privacy – 55 per cent). However, other concerns raised included confidence in the reliability of vendors at 35 per cent and contract lock-in at 34 per cent. Confidence in knowing who to choose to supply the service was also referenced by 23 per cent of the sample of 204 end user organisations.
Andy Burton will also detail the business case for the channel to adopt cloud service provisioning.
“Many in the channel are already able to identify long term income opportunities from the Cloud while many others are seeing it as an opportunity to offer a full portfolio of services – both on-prem and online – to their customers in turn. It is this extension of both product offering and service capability that is delivering the competitive edge for many in the IT channel right now.”