Many enterprises mainly rely on MSPs to manage their technology, and the deployment of cloud-based solutions with the help of a trusted managed service provider is rapidly becoming the norm. Enterprise architecture innovation leaders can greatly benefit from utilizing high-quality managed services when implementing and operating IaaS solutions on Google cloud platform, Microsoft Azure and […]
Many enterprises mainly rely on MSPs to manage their technology, and the deployment of cloud-based solutions with the help of a trusted managed service provider is rapidly becoming the norm. Enterprise architecture innovation leaders can greatly benefit from utilizing high-quality managed services when implementing and operating IaaS solutions on Google cloud platform, Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. The size of the opportunity for MSPs to support enterprises during and after their migration to the cloud is massive. The analysts at 451 research predict that cloud managed services will grow to a $43 billion market by 2018.
The arrival of massive scale platforms built by Google, Microsoft and Amazon has completely changed the enterprise infrastructure world. They are now capable of operating on a scale and efficiency that is virtually impossible to match. This coupled with an incomparable geographic scope has led to the creation of a critical mass of customers and an ecosystem of partners. The only way for the reseller market to survive the rapidly expanding cloud usage is to adapt. The market will be driven by its ability to meet the demands that arise from the surging complexity of technology, the network-dependency of infrastructure and applications, and the practices of the ever-more mobile workforce.
One of the main motivations to keep workloads on-premises is typically the lack of ability to move them as-is or simply enterprise liability. As a result, more enterprises are opting for a hybrid deployment so that they can enjoy the efficacy and cost-saving benefits of a public cloud coupled with the security and control that comes with a private cloud. However, despite the fact that buying instances on AWS or Azure is a simple task; the skills needed to build, deploy and run an application is much more complex, various intricacies are bound to arise.
A recent survey championed by Microsoft revealed that 38 percent of people involved in the recruitment process of professionals with cloud skills in the last 12 months found it difficult to find the right skills. The survey went ahead to state that even as the number of professionals with right cloud-related skills continue to grow, the demand for those skills will likely increase at a faster rate than the available supply. According to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service, 2016; most customers start off by selecting a cloud platform that suits their workload, then look for an MSP to manage it. As opposed to finding a ‘managed-cloud’ solution from an MSP that offers basic IaaS capabilities on its platform. Customers also tend to extend existing managed services to include the management of a third party cloud IaaS offering.
If these trends are anything to go by, we can conclude that enterprise IT decision makers first select their IaaS, and only later realize their collective lack of skills to create a robust, enterprise environment. And the market is reflecting this change. In the 2017 Magic Quadrant for Public Cloud Infrastructure report, Gartner surmised that 75 percent of effective implementations will be fulfilled by innovative, highly skilled MSPs with a cloud-native, DevOps-Centric service delivery approach. This tiny but growing group of managed service providers is filling a gap in a specific industry vertical.
Information is power, and this digital age, data is everywhere. The struggle of how best to leverage this data rages on – but IaaS is almost always a part of the discussion. IBM recently reported that 2.5 million terabytes of data is produced daily. The inundating volume of information present a unique opportunity to both small and large business equipped to take advantage of it. According to the International Data Cooperation (IDC), the big data market is set to record a $48.6 billion growth by 2019. And a growing number of Managed Service Providers are positioning themselves to net a notable portion of that revenue.
Analyzing large datasets demands more than simply placing a few extra servers and hard disk arrays into an organization’s data center. A large majority of large data projects tend to fail because on-premises technology is too arduous to optimize and deploy, and sizing it rarely accurate. Most enterprises, large and small alike, simply lack the time, budget, staff, or bluntly, the interest to support and develop their own big data infrastructure. MSP can position themselves as infrastructure partners who not only manage by also provide a high performance, reliable foundation for short and long term big data needs.
With IaaS, MSPs instantly have the ability to provide enterprise-grade infrastructure without investing a ton of cash to deploy their own cloud. They also benefit from the latest hardware maintenance and updates while maintaining full control of sever usage – so scalability will never be a concern. Removing or adding servers is a breeze and you only have to pay for you use. The most appealing thing about leveraging IaaS is that it provides all the flexibility you require to offer services that cater to your client’s specific needs. At the end of it all, you credibility as an MSP is boosted because you are capable of providing reliable service
For MSP’s who wish to deliver cloud services but feel that public cloud services are too impuisant to pricing pressures and lack sufficient privacy and security controls; utilizing Infrastructure as a Service can ease the time to market and reduce the costs associated with implementing a private cloud solution. As a matter of fact, some IaaS providers currently sell their solutions to both end-user consumers as well as to managed service providers.
Author: Gabriel Lando
