storage , servers & hardware
CLOUD PATTERNS
Ben Savage , EMEA head of channels & alliances , Pure Storage , examines how the cloud is evolving the service provider model .
There are very few aspects of enterprise IT that will not be impacted by cloud computing . Its agility and cost effectiveness means more and more businesses will be heading that way .
And , increasingly , companies will be running mission critical workloads in the cloud , placing greater emphasis on the speed , reliability and security offered by cloud providers . Analyst group IDC believes that ‘ cloud first ’ is rapidly becoming ‘ cloud only ’. Its worldwide IT industry predictions for 2017 and beyond reveals that by 2020 , 67 per cent of all enterprise IT infrastructure and software spending will be on cloud based services .
It ’ s worth looking at that cloud research from IDC in more detail , as it outlines a very big opportunity for service providers and the channel going forward . By 2020 , IDC believes that 70 per cent of the revenue generated by cloud service providers will be mediated by channel partners and / or brokers .
As IDC explains , as enterprise use of cloud computing becomes more complex due to different workloads in the cloud and the variety of cloud providers in the market , IT channel organisations will evolve to support these cloud uses and users . To facilitate that evolution IDC expects that by 2018 major channel organisations will have transitioned at least one third of their business from hardware sales to cloud services sales / brokering .
Knock-on effect The cloud has already made its presence felt in the channel with many vendors offering software and other services over the cloud instead of on premises . As with the wider cloud / SaaS industry that has had a knock-on effect on software licensing , for example .
But it has also resulted in a shift in business model for many channel vendors . Instead of simply offering products to customers , the channel must now focus on delivering services via the cloud , where reliability and service levels become all-important . It ’ s quite the shift from the way things were just 10 or even five years ago .
As mentioned above one of the knock-on effects of the move to the cloud is the need for fast and reliable services . Traditional storage technologies struggle to provide the IOPS necessary for cloud services , resulting in unacceptable latency . For many the answer to that conundrum is flash storage .
Flash storage offers much better performance than traditional , spinning storage technology . That ’ s key for products and services that require near instant response times , such as eCommerce . And in a world where real time data processing and analytics are required for so many businesses , flash offers the speed needed to help organisations make quicker and smarter decisions .
The combination of flash storage and the private cloud presents service providers , the channel and customers with the perfect platform for powering the next generation of enterprise applications , as well as new developments such as the Internet of Things ( IoT ).
The IoT and flash are particularly suited to each other , and not just because of the storage requirements that come from the huge amounts of data being created through the IoT . Flash is low power , making it perfect for many IoT devices , where data can be cached before being transmitted via the cloud for processing and analysis .
The opportunity is there for the channel to use partnerships to utilise cloud computing to offer customers more complete solutions , and drive innovation across different industries and sectors . Offering a more complete solution is important for the channel , as the industry shift to cloud computing means many customers are now able to bypass the channel and get their services directly from the vendor .
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