The Cloud Vital Signs: Are You Digging Your Own Grave?
Are you driving fast, making big bets on new products and services in a cloud-computing marketplace moving at blinding speed? It's a question worth asking given just how fast recurring revenue cloud-computing services are reshaping the legacy IT landscape.
Solution providers that are relying on business models that were developed in the days when on-premise IT projects were queued up like airplanes during a blizzard are never going to be able to dig out and get their businesses off the ground. Every company should be measuring just how many new practices, products and recurring revenue services they are bringing to the market, and how many new customers they are adding each and every quarter. Think of those critical quarterly measurements as the vital signs of your business.
The Channel Company, the parent of CRN, gets just how critical these vital signs are and is moving fast to introduce its own new products to get solution providers to soar into the cloud-computing era. The two latest products to help solution providers be successful: a new website, ITbestofbreed.com, and a new conference, Nexgen Cloud Conference & Expo.
[Related: Place Your Bets: The Cloud Business Window Is Closing ]
ITbestofbreed.com provides all the critical content and tools solution providers need to transform their businesses for the cloud era. It's all about how to succeed in a fast-moving market, with a focus on best practices and sales, and marketing strategies that are directly tied to higher profits and sales. Two examples: a look at some of the secrets behind the success of Cloud Sherpas—Google Enterprise Partner of the Year for three consecutive years—and how Lumenate has become one of the fastest-growing solution providers.
The new site was created as a complement to The Channel Company's four-year old Best of Breed Conference, a gathering that provides solution providers with guidance and best practices as they redefine their businesses. What's especially exciting is the top strategist for the site is none other than former CRN Editor Heather Clancy, one of the best and brightest in the business.
The Nexgen Cloud Conference & Expo, Dec. 3-5 in San Diego, is the first partnercentric cloud-computing conference aimed at providing vendor-neutral content developed by and for the broad swath of solution providers delivering cloud-migration strategies and services for customers. What's important about this event is that it goes beyond the ’rah-rah rally the troops’ content and speaks directly to how solution providers can accelerate their cloud transformation. One example: a session featuring a Fortune 100 CIO that teamed with born-in-the-cloud company Nimbo to completely transform itself. To register for the show, go to www.nexgencloudcon.com.
Nothing is more dangerous at this point than to stay put with your existing business model, and product and services set. Cloud computing is tearing apart legacy IT models and structures at an ever-accelerating pace. The solution providers that view it as an opportunity to move fast and make big bets will be the ones left standing in the aftermath of the cloud computing twister.
BackTalk: Are you putting up to win in the cloud computing market? Contact Steven Burke at [email protected].