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Cloud spending is booming. IDC research in the APAC region shows that as organisations have focused their IT priorities on digital infrastructure resiliency, the spending on cloud services will grow by 28.8 per cent in 2021. By 2025 total spending will reach $124 billion.
And, as a Cloudify.Asia has discovered, this is an even bigger opportunity for the channel than many might be aware. An exclusive research project by Cloudify.Asia has found that, when it comes to multi-cloud environment, almost every single business in the APAC region wants a channel partner to manage it. The trick is understanding how the channel can assist these businesses with developing the mix and delivery of these multi-cloud environments (access this research report here).
The value add is in management
The appeal of multi-cloud is straightforward; hyperscale public cloud platforms offer both flexibility and scalability, however, placing critical applications on them raises availability and security concerns. At the same time, as appealing and robust as a blend of on-premises/private clouds, public clouds and legacy systems might be, it comes with the challenge in terms of data siloing, agility and the general management of the environment.
It should therefore not come as any surprise that APAC investment priorities have elevated cloud migration from the fifth most important priority to third, according to the exclusive Cloudify report.
Furthermore, most enterprises would much rather pass this challenge on to partners. Just three per cent of businesses self-manage their multi-cloud environments. Instead, the bulk of organisations very much want to push this responsibility on to global cloud infrastructure leaders (26 per cent), managed services providers (25 per cent) and cloud specialists (24 per cent) for their respective capabilities with multi-cloud.
This is a rich vein of opportunity for the channel. For the partner, developing a robust managed services approach to the cloud for customers offers a host of possible benefits, including:
Becoming the MSP of choice
Having the right management platform is a key step for partners in being able to deliver efficient and effective multi-cloud environments to their customers. When looking for a platform, organisations should be exploring opportunities to:
- Deliver cost optimisation – one of the biggest concerns with multi-cloud environments is inefficiencies leading to cost acceleration. A good management platform will provide both maximum efficiency and transparency, giving the customer peace of mind regarding the services that they’re getting.
- Ensure governance – one of the greatest challenges in the ongoing digitisation of IT environments and the shift to the cloud has been meeting governance and policy requirements. This goes beyond security, but also focuses on where data is collected, located, and used. A good cloud management platform will assist the partner in meeting these critical requirements for their customers.
- Real-time management – As businesses undergo digital transformation, operating in real-time becomes essential, and having partners that are able to monitor the cloud environment in real time will be a significant value-add that a partner can provide to their customers.
Managed service providers have always been tasked with helping their customers to meet critical business requirements while reducing the burden of managing the environment that is placed on the internal IT team. This now means the cloud. As noted by IDC, the skills shortage in cloud technologies that is being felt across APAC is proving to be the greatest roadblock towards digital transformation.
In other words, even as enterprises are investing in multi-cloud environments, they’re struggling to adequately resource the IT teams to handle them. This is a big opportunity for managed services providers, not only to assist with the transformation and management of the cloud environments, but additionally to become a critical arm of the business – facilitating skills and solutions that would otherwise be unavailable to the customer.
The IDC research paper, enhanced by Cloudify.Asia, further highlights the opportunities for Asia-Pacific channel organisations in the cloud space. To better understand the opportunity presented to the channel, click here to participate in a short survey and access the exclusive research project. Furthermore, kickstart your journey by joining Cloudify.Asia’s sharing session on managing multi-cloud opportunities for your businesses.
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