Cloud Computing / Channel's Cloud Reach: From Migration to Troubleshooting

Channel's Cloud Reach: From Migration to Troubleshooting

By Dennis McCafferty | Posted 2014-11-14

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Cloud Consulting Services Are Up

74% of IT channel firms are providing cloud consulting, compared with 67% last year.
Cloud Migration Services Grow

72% said they're overseeing services to migrate customers from one cloud to another, up from 53% in 2013.
Managing Multi-Cloud Environments

67% are managing multi-cloud environments for customers, up from 57% in 2013.
Dashboards Help Customers Navigate the Cloud

67% are offering dashboards to help customers understand cloud utilization, costs, etc., as opposed to 59% that did so last year.
Remote Monitoring of Cloud Solutions

60% oversee remote monitoring of cloud solutions for customers on a recurring basis, close to the 59% reported last year.
Troubleshooting and Repair Services

54% conduct troubleshooting/repairing of customer cloud solutions on a project basis, down from 65% in 2013.
Healthy Revenue Stream

58% say that cloud channel revenues are growing faster than those for "established products," up from 50% who said this in 2013.
Cloud Services Profit Margins

64% say the cloud offers higher services profit margins compared with established products; this is up from 49% who indicated so last year.
Go-to-Market Strategy

67% are using software to track revenue sources in order to quantify cloud-specific sales, and 52% have created a separate sales team for cloud business.
'All In' the Cloud

42% of companies using the cloud consider themselves in "full production" with it, and 11% said it's transforming IT.
Staffing Up

52% have added the role of "cloud architect" to their IT department in recent or near-recent times, and 49% are increasing existing talent resources to build private clouds.
Deciding Factor

43% say the cloud is creating new policies that impact IT strategies, up from 39% last year.
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Interest among IT channel companies in cloud products and services continues to soar, as nine of 10 companies are now taking part in some kind of cloud computing. A significant share of those companies say they're at the "full production" stage of cloud adoption and that the cloud is transforming IT, according to recent survey research from CompTIA. The "Fifth Annual Trends in Cloud Computing" report reveals how the channel is expanding services to accommodate the demand. The findings reveal a great deal of interest among customers for consulting and migration services, for example, as well as dashboards and help with managing multi-cloud environments. It's also telling that many organizations are now making secondary cloud migrations, as 44 percent said they've moved either infrastructure or applications from one public cloud to another. And one-quarter has moved these from a public cloud to a private one. In addition, a large percentage of companies are hiring personnel specifically to boost cloud capabilities. An estimated 400 professionals from IT channel firms and an additional 400 IT and business decision-makers from end-user companies took part in the research.