The opportunities hybrid cloud brings for channel partners
Article submitted by Denis Fouquet, VP EMEA Software and Cloud at Tech Data
Possessing technical knowhow has become more important with the development of cloud technology and its application. This is especially true with hybrid cloud, where integrations create more complexity. This has been a well-documented challenge for the industry, with people underestimating the work that comes with managing cloud and feeling disappointed when they don’t get instant results.
The pandemic accelerated the need for partners to be able to provide the cloud expertise required by their customers and shift over to a cloud model themselves. This shift is driven both by a need to serve their customers in new ways and for the sake of improving their business. Even before COVID, there was a risk that partners who failed to make the transition to cloud would lose out to the competition. In the aftermath of the pandemic, this risk is even more acute.
Those that specialise in cloud have been well placed to help businesses make the transition to new ways of operating. Demand this expertise is only going to increase. Most end users have a plan for moving to a cloud model, and many are already in execution mode to move their applications to the cloud. Through a combination of this shift in the market, traditional VARs run the risk of being left behind.
There are various factors that affect a reseller’s move to the hybrid cloud model. This includes the investment in training and the hiring of the best staff to manage cloud services. When it comes to public cloud providers like Microsoft and AWS, resellers need to take various aspects into consideration. There is a considerable amount of training and employees are required to possess a broad range of skills. In addition to this, upskilling employees does not happen overnight and so the process takes time.
There is also some hesitancy to move to selling cloud solutions because of the required culture shift and the difficulty of doing so with people who have been in the market for a long time. Moreover, there is fear around the short-term impact on revenue during the transition as resellers scale-up their cloud business.
As resellers compare the short-term to the medium and long-term, they need to recognise the benefits that come from moving to a cloud services business model. Yes, in the short-term, they will experience a slight dip in revenue. However, through the adoption of a cloud services model, they will be able to add greater value to their client relationships, drive more organic business, and achieve more reliable recurring revenues. In doing so, they not only strengthen their customers’ businesses but also their own.
Ultimately, partners will be successful in the long run if they can support their end users in their transition to cloud, especially as the trend of online business models continues to gain momentum. In addition to this, partners that shift over to a cloud model with recurring revenue will see that their operations improve as a result, to the benefit of themselves and their customers in the long-run.
