While many solution providers ranked Microsoft's cloud computing effort as
their top concern in
a recent survey, some IT solution providers are taking a positive but
cautious approach to Microsoft's new Azure platform, which puts computing power
in the cloud for end-user businesses.
The technology enabled by Microsoft Azure, which will be hosted on Dell
equipment at a giant data center in Texas,
will allow solution providers who are doing custom development to be able to
offer hosting for those services. That makes it possible for small businesses
to gain the benefits of custom developed applications that used to only be
available to enterprises, according to Marc Harrison, president of Silicon East,
a New Jersey-based solution provider.
Harrison's company received a 10-minute video from
Microsoft about the new offering.
"For me this is pretty exciting," he says. "We've been doing
more and more custom software development for smaller clients. But small
businesses can't afford in-house infrastructure to host custom-developed
software. The combination of Azure with inexpensive software development really
empowers small businesses to level the playing field."
Harrison outsources some of that development—mostly
database development—to contractors in India.
Silicon East also serves as a managed service provider and offers SAAS (software
as a service) through non-Microsoft providers. His company did not move to
Microsoft's hosted Microsoft Exchange or SharePoint when the software giant
made that service available earlier this year.
"This is a Microsoft-branded service," he says. "That's good
because it's a well-recognized and trusted brand. On the other hand, it's
Microsoft who is billing our customers and giving us a share on the back end,
rather than us billing customers. I much prefer that we do the
billing." Silicon East offers these services on a private label
basis to end customers.
"That's the question and concern—who owns the customer?" he says.
Harrison says it's still unclear how Azure will be
structured to work with the channel, but the sense is that Microsoft will sell
direct to the large enterprise and leave the SMB space to its channel partners.
Harrison also expresses concern about the Microsoft
Azure relationship with Dell because he believes Dell is still working out the
kinks in how it deals with solution providers.
"We are very concerned that if we refer any of our hardware business to
Dell that Dell will shortly thereafter try to directly sell that customer
managed services contract," he says. Dell recently took its direct
managed services offering to the New York
metropolitan area, where Silicon East has customers. Dell has said that it will
refrain from offering its direct managed services to end customers if there is
a Dell certified managed services partner who already owns that business.
The I.T. Pros, a certified Dell managed services partner and a Microsoft Gold
partner, says Microsoft's entry into the cloud space will bring critical mass
to the market.
"They certainly aren’t first to market with a cloud, but their endorsement
of cloud computing will shift the initiative into high gear," says Doug
Ford, president of The I.T. Pros, a San Diego-based managed services provider.
"The I.T. Pros piloted our own cloud environment earlier this year and are
currently hosting customers on it.
"We view Microsoft’s Azure cloud as an opportunity to expand our service
offering and plan to leverage our Gold Partner status with Microsoft to jump on
the Azure bandwagon early, so we are fully engaged and ready to support it when
Microsoft brings the offering to market in full swing," he says.
But Ford admits the company will hedge its bets and look at several cloud
initiatives.
"To stay true to our core values of 'Innovation' and 'Integrity,' we are
also researching other cloud options, including Amazon’s young EC2 cloud,
Terremark’s mature on-demand cloud, and we will continue to spend time, effort
and money to build out and sell services on our own cloud solution."
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Microsoft Partner 
