Where are IT service providers heading next? And should they build, buy or partner there way into cloud computing? Answers emerge from IT Nation 2015.
An IT Nation 2015 panel, hosted by LogicMonitor's Andrew Morgan, explored those questions and more. The panel included:
- David Powell, VP of TekLinks
- Ira Bell, founder of Nimbo
- Kevin McGibben, CEO of LogicMonitor
Topic 1: Build, Buy or Partner in the Cloud?
What questions should IT service providers ask as they weigh their own plans for data center build outs.
Answer:
- TekLinks built out three data centers early on, but will buy in terms of solutions built atop public clouds. There's no way to compete with Amazon, Powell said. TekLinks sees opportunity to work with both Microsoft Azure and AWS. "You'd be foolish to bet against Amazon, but you'd also be foolish to bet Microsoft applications are done."
- On the enterprise front, it's a question of whether the customer already has their own data center, Bell said. "The ship has sailed, though, for anybody that wants to build a business building their own data centers." Focus on how to consume specific clouds for specific services, Bell said.
- LogicMonitor has its own data centers running an application performance monitoring platform. Early cloud service providers (CSPs) were building early -- three to five years ago. The idea was to maintain control and amortize the costs over time. The company still maintains its own data centers in order to deliver five-nines service delivery. Ironically, it's expensive to run those types of services in the public cloud, ironically.
Topic Two: How Build Enterprise Value?
Theme: One third of midmarket line of business managers are bypassing corporate IT to pursue cloud services. Roughly 40 percent of CIOs and CTOs have changed their internal business processes to align with business needs.
So how can IT service providers build recurring revenue value in the midmarket?
- Bell: Stay far more curious about technology than customers. Humans are inherently lazy. As an MSP, you can take advantage in a good way of emerging technologies -- then figure out how to bring that to your customers.
- LogicMonitor: Careful not to over-pivot too much into a new market... it can be a busy killer if you invest far too heavily into a region. You can also lose focus on your core value. Instead, focus on competence and confidence in what you deliver.
Question from ChannelE2E: If big companies like Hewlett-Packard Enterprise are punting on public cloud, should partners event consider getting into the cloud game? Answer from panel: HP and others strayed from their core missions and never really had the right model or expertise for public clouds. As channel partners, stick with the CSPs that understand what the heck they're doing.
Topic 3: Moving to the Application Layer
To remain relevant, attendees said they need to work more closely with midmarket DevOps teams. They're becoming much more valuable to MSP relationships.
The idea is to bring even more value to make sure application performance is top-notch.
