Cloud computing has been variously described as the greatest opportunity for the channel in recent years and a threat to the very business of selling ICT. As with so many issues, the truth lies somewhere in between these two extremes.
Irish Computer, in association with Let’s Operate, surveyed its readership in the channel to see how cloud computing is perceived and ultimately, whether it is an opportunity or a threat.
The survey was conducted in February and March of this year with 110 respondents, and began by asking if resellers had received enquiries from their customers for cloud services.
Customer demand
The vast majority (85%) said that they had received such enquiries within the last 12 months. While respondents were not asked to specify the scale ranges of their customers, it is probably safe to speculate that the 15% who had not received cloud enquiries in the last 12 months are dealing with smaller companies who may have a limited IT infrastructure and relatively unsophisticated needs when it comes to IT.
"Cloud computing has been around for a long time but Irish businesses are now seriously investigating implementation and asking their IT support companies about it," said David Owens, managing director, Let’s Operate.
Increasing questions
This issue of interest and demand was expanded by asking whether there was an expectation for an increase in cloud offering enquiries. Again, overwhelmingly (87%), the respondents indicated that they expected increases in enquiries for cloud services from their customers in the next 12 months. Curiously however, just over 8% said that they did not expect an increase while an unenlightening 4% said they didn’t know.
This level of enquiries from customers, when combined with the expectation for a rise in same, contrasts somewhat with 25% of respondents who say that they do not currently have a cloud option for customers. The implication, warns Owens, is that "interest and demand for cloud computing is out pacing the channels’ preparedness to service it". It is even more curious, given the range of cloud services on offer in the market, from pure email to cloud-hosted enterprise resource planning (ERP), that there are IT service companies that still do not offer their clients cloud services.
Cloud offerings
Delving further, respondents were asked if they did not currently have a cloud option to offer customers, were they exploring the possibility of providing one. Oddly, 45% said that they were not.
This lack of exploration of cloud options for customers does not tally with the results that indicated the vast majority (78%) do not view cloud computing as a threat to their core business, with almost 80% indicating that they saw cloud computing as an opportunity. There must surely be an overlap among those who see cloud as an opportunity but do not yet offer their customers a cloud option.
Of those who did see it as a threat (15%), by far the greatest element of that threat was that it would cannibalise existing business. Loss of control or relationship with customers and lower margins were closely ranked in second and third, and difficulty in incentivising sales people was a distant fourth.
For the full survey report, see the April issue of Irish Computer, available 8 April.
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