The average large enterprise now uses 1,220 individual cloud services, according to Cisco Systems Inc. And now, Cisco is launching a cloud monitoring tool -- designed to help partners manage cloud consumption for end-customers. The offering, called Cisco Cloud Consumption as a Service, wasn't an overnight development.
Indeed, Cisco has quietly built and used the cloud monitoring service for its very high-end enterprise deployments over the past two years or so. Now, the networking giant is extending the service to partners and end-customers. Cisco claims Cloud Consumption as a Service is "a new software as a service product that discovers and monitors all public cloud services an organization is using."
Cisco Cloud Monitoring: Business Needs
What's the need? Cisco points to multiple issues that partners need to solve for customers. According to stats gathered by the networking company:
- The average large enterprise now uses 1,220 individual cloud services. That’s up to 25 times more than estimated by IT.
- The average number of cloud services has grown 112 percent over the past year, and 67 percent over the past six months.
Cisco also points to the risks -- uncontrolled adoption of cloud services could undermine data protection, regulatory compliance, budget and service performance, notes Robert Dimicco, global leader and founder of Cisco’s Cloud Consumption and Broker Services Practice.
Cisco Cloud Monitoring: Business Outcomes, Benefits
On the one hand, Cisco says partners can resell the cloud monitoring service into midsize and large enterprises. But on the other, I think it would be far wiser for MSPs and service providers to use the tool to offer the customer benefits that Cisco has outlined:
- Discover and monitor customers' public cloud usage.
- Cut cloud costs by consolidating services.
- Reduce business risk and uncover compliance issues.
- Manage cloud use and benchmark customers against each other while keeping data for each customer private and secure.
- Help customers shift to the most ideal cloud services.
Source: Cisco
ChannelE2E sees at least two other major opportunities for channel partners. The tool, after all, could help partners to:
- Spot next-generation cloud services that are gaining popularity before they go mainstream.
- Get certified on the cloud services that customers are using most -- without even asking the customers what they're using.
Cisco Cloud Consumption as a Service Pricing
Cisco Cloud Consumption as a Service is now available globally via qualified Cisco channel partners. The new service costs approximately $1.00 to $2.00 per employee per month, depending on the size of the business. A potential catch? The service providers a year-long subscription. Although I haven't used the service directly, a brief demo by Dimicco last week looked very promising.
