Getting Real with Partners on Cloud Future

NOTE: This is an abridged version of the original article posted on the 2112 Blog. For the full article, click here.

There’s a loud chorus of people singing to vendors about the need to have “the cloud conversation” with partners. Look around the channel media or check out vendor blogs; you’ll find plenty of people advocating the need to impress upon partners the urgency of adopting cloud and services models.

They’re right that a conversation is in order. But they’re off the mark when it comes to the content of that conversation.

Cloud computing today is about optimizing business performance on recurring revenue model and reselling cloud applications and systems. Going forward, though, the cloud is going to disrupt every aspect of the legacy technology stack. And that, in turn, will rend large swaths of the channel obsolete.

Unfortunately, much of the channel is pointed to the wrong cloud and the wrong model.

Too many partners see cloud transition as a destination. They adopt Microsoft Office 365 or some form of cloud backup service and think they’ve firmly embedded themselves in the cloud. Some partners may think that referring business to SaaS vendors such as Salesforce.com and infrastructure providers such as Amazon Web Services makes them cloud specialists.

But it doesn’t. These partners aren’t cloud providers and experts; they need to think beyond rudimentary services to maintain relevancy.

As Brown relayed, next-generation partners are streaming into the channel with application development and cloud management skills tailored to giving businesses seamless, cloud-based workloads. These companies – which I guess could be called “born in the cloud” – have greater value to vendors and customers than resellers slinging boxes off loading docks.

The 2112 Group has tracked this evolution for years. We’ve found that partners taking on advanced cloud capabilities and characteristics of business process outsourcers have greater value in the market than those reselling hardware products and software licenses. Even managed service providers (MSPs) will see their relative value depreciate compared to cloud providers.

So what’s the real cloud conversation needed between vendors and partners? It’s simply that cloud computing is and will remain a truly disruptive medium that still knows no bounds. As Oracle’s Hurd said, “In our industry, it will cause chaos.”

The rally cry shouldn’t be to adopt cloud products for resale; it should be to develop cloud skills that will enable and support the workloads that allow businesses to increase their efficiency, competitiveness, and adaptability to market trends. And, while doing all that, partners need to develop the skills and capabilities that will help reduce customers’ IT costs.

It’s a tall order, but it’s the future. Partners that don’t recognize the cloud as the catalyst of an ongoing evolution will run the risk of being steamrolled by the market and ignored by vendors. This is the difficult talk vendors need to have with their partners.

Read more channel insights on the 2112 Blog.