Earlier this year, CompTIA’s 2014 Outlook predicted that cloud wars would intensify, with public cloud providers fighting on price and differentiation and private cloud systems fighting to get a foothold. After just one quarter, that prediction holds true; several companies have announced new ways they are pushing this model into new territory.
Late March was a game changer, as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft all held events to share updates to their cloud offerings. As expected, price was a major focal point for these announcements, with prices falling anywhere from 27 percent to 85 percent depending on the company and the service. In addition to price slashing, pricing models are still evolving, such as Google’s Sustained Use Discounts, which lower the price on steady-state workloads.
Features and function also continue to improve. Google announced Live Migrations, allowing users to move virtual machines across physical servers without shutting down. Amazon announced general availability of Amazon Workspaces, which may further disrupt the PC market. And Microsoft announced Office for iPad and Enterprise Mobility Suite, continuing to focus on the enterprise with its newly named Microsoft Azure platform.
These three companies are the ones typically seen at the top of the cloud pyramid, but many other companies are angling for a piece of the action. Cisco revealed a $1 billion investment in its cloud business, and IBM — building on its cloud strategy through acquisitions — purchased the NoSQL firm Cloudant.
So what does all this mean for solution providers? I see three major takeaways as we watch the cloud landscape go through rapid changes:
Figure out where IT can be a utility. As prices keep dropping and features keep growing, cloud will be suitable for more and more applications. For a service provider that manages client applications in a local data center, using the cloud as a back-end may bring many benefits while still retaining the value in providing a managed service.
Figure out where IT cannot be a utility. Even as cloud continues to improve in security, reliability and performance, some applications will still require onsite operation. Solution providers can help analyze applications to choose the best environment, discuss options for on-premise systems and manage the overall architecture.
Practice what you preach. CompTIA research shows that the vast majority of U.S. companies are using cloud systems and technology companies are probably some of the earliest adopters. As there are many areas to explore, service providers should look for solutions to help their own bottom lines. Perhaps a firm is using cloud email, but it could do new things with data analytics using products such as Amazon’s DynamoDB or Google’s BigQuery.
It’s understandable that most IT pros are growing tired of hearing about cloud computing. It’s still widely discussed and almost as widely misused. For all the hype, though, it’s still potentially undervalued as a disruptive force in the industry. Solution providers that truly understand the new opportunities that cloud opens up will be well positioned for the future.
Seth Robinson is CompTIA’s director for technology analysis and market research.
