Cloud is hot, and cloud adoption is on the rise as a result. At the most recent Comstor EDGE conference, I had the pleasure of delivering the Comstor Cloud Update.
The latest research has found that businesses are without a doubt, shifting to the cloud and an expected $75 billion will be spent on cloud services by 2017. This approximation is based on staggering statistics in adoption indicating that 30 percent of IT spending will go toward cloud in 2020 and 67 percent of all workloads will be in the cloud by 2017. Combine those predictions with the fact that 45 percent of all CIOs are implementing managed services, and it’s a good outlook for Cloud and Managed Services.
Throughout our 30-year history, Westcon has continued to innovate and adapt. But that nimbleness and flexibility needs to continue to evolve alongside the market to maintain consistency and relevance. We are moving to the front of the line to lead our channel customers through these upcoming market changes. And, given the impact of cloud services on the industry and on our business, we have elevated cloud to employ a global approach for a growing business.
With that in mind, here are our five strategic priorities that were designed to help partners grow their cloud business:
• Efficiency: Streamline our tools and processes to improve agility and speed to market.
• Solution Portfolio: Use industry insight to develop the most compelling solution offers in the channel.
• Partner Enablement: Increase partners’ potential with effective programs that generate growth.
• Global Services: Extend our partners’ reach through a broad suite of logistics, financial, technical and business operations services
• Cloud Distribution: Accelerate our partners’ transformation to cloud with solutions to conduct digital business.
To truly embrace the cloud market, you have to understand that cloud businesses are based on new service delivery standards and commercial models. Yet, the need for hardware and license-based products is not disappearing. Instead, the next generation of IT will require a blend of both physical and digital assets. And, our Westcon and Comstor cloud practice is key to helping our business partners fulfill the need for hybrid computing technologies.
While our cloud practice provides a channel-centric portfolio of cloud services and enablement programs that enable partners to quickly and cost effectively transform their business to cloud and deliver the IT services end customers need, we have also developed a cloud service management and delivery platform called BlueSky. This new platform allows our vendors and partners to quickly operate a cloud-based business by providing an easy way to market, brand, order and deliver services. The platform includes powerful analytics to give our partners and resellers visibility into important service metrics including user information, usage trends, service ticket information, subscription renewals, and much more.
The combination of providing cloud services, enablement programs and a platform allows us to approach IT differently than other distributors. We will be using BlueSky to integrate digital/cloud and physical distribution models and offer pure cloud services, other digital services and the ability to procure physical products through a single reseller portal.
Comstor and WestconGroup demonstrate time and time again the importance of their positions as trusted advisors in managed services, and that extends to cloud. Our continually evolving business strategies and the implementationof BlueSky’s Cloud Management Platform for vendors and partners validate our continued devotion to achieving and maintaining nimble and flexible growth as more and more of our partners take their business to the cloud.
To learn more about what’s up with cloud from Matt Karst, click here.
