Tips For A Successful Cloud Practice

 While cloud services have moved from hype to the realization phase it is paramount to understand the cloud business better and create an opportunity. Here are few tips 

Make the cloud practice a separate P&L account
Irrespective of the strengths and weaknesses of a partner, the right approach to growing the cloud business is to set it up as a separate business unit. “While this may not be easy for many partners, we have seen that focused partners have met with better results. The cloud means a change in business approach for the customer, and many a time this means moving portions of the IT business from a capex to an opex model,” says Ganesan Arumugam, Director, Channels & Alliances, VMware India.

Understand changing cash flows
Unless you are offering pure private cloud infrastructure consulting and deployment, the cloud changes the cash flow situation for most resellers. A key aspect of getting the cloud business practice right is to understand, analyze and predict cash flows. Solution providers need to calculate how much money they can make. Because cloud services depend on recurring revenue rather than periodic hardware sales, the process is complicated. Investments need to be planned considering the cash flow.

Understand that migration expertise is key
A partner will need to build expertise depending on the platforms, technologies and domains he chooses. However, according to pundits from the customer side, the biggest demand is for migration strategies. “I think the biggest challenge is that customers do not know how to migrate to the cloud. They are not sure where to start. They don’t want software vendors pushing cloud products, they want cloud consultants to help them with this shift,” explains Ashwin Waknis, Senior Solution Strategist, CA Technologies, India.

Understand that all workloads are not meant for the cloud
The cloud is often hyped to such an extent that many customers are made to believe by many partners that they can run all their business off the cloud. This could lead to mistakes that can result in the partner losing customers. Explains Vineet Kshirsagar, Director, Partner Strategy & Programs, Microsoft, “The first thing we tell partners is that not all workloads are meant for the cloud. Choosing the right workload and designing the right cloud migration strategy is the first step in cloud computing consulting.”

Build virtualization expertise
While this may not be important if you are planning to limit yourself to selling products such as Microsoft Office 365 or Google Apps, virtualization is the most important skill-set required. “With most customers not wanting to get locked down on one vendor, it is imperative for partners to start building skills across various platforms. The other choice is to work with a vendor like IBM who can back you up,” advises Vamsicharan Mudiam, Country Manager, Cloud Solutions, IBM India/SA.

Understand SLAs
The cloud is not a magic wand that will give you everything under the sun. Every cloud vendor has carefully-spelt SLAs, and it is important that all the details are explained to the customer very carefully. “Partners should ensure that SLAs signed with customers are covered back-to-back with the SLAs offered by the cloud provider,” says S Sriram, CEO, iValue Infosolutions.

Differentiate pricing models
One mistake which some partners make is not explaining the comparative costs of the cloud and an on-premise solution. The fact remains that the cloud is not necessarily a money saver even when you consider the advantages of the opex in all scenarios. “Explain thoroughly the benefits of both a cloud and an on-premise solution. In this way customers are more likely to see you as a trusted adviser,” adds Mudiam.

Build software skills
Whether public, private or hybrid clouds, to scale up the business the partner needs software skills. Depending on the cloud service provider you partner, it is important to start building skills, or have strong outsourced relationships that can help you provide the extra services to customers on demand. “You need not set up a large team, but you need simple skills such as having access to coders who can generate reports or automate functions based on APIs,” explains Satish Nair, Manager, System Engineering, F5 Networks India.