I think the best bit of advice I could offer to anyone concerning Cloud Computing is something that I read in Business Week last night. The title of the article was "Let the Cloud come to you". What a great piece of advice! Don’t worry about when or where to jump on the Cloud. The truth is Cloud Computing isn’t going away and if you’re not ready to take the jump you don’t have to. What I suggest is to start using the Cloud piece by piece. The goal of technology has been and always will be to speed up basic processes and make life simpler not harder. If you switch over to a piece of technology and find that your business suffers by all means, drop it!
The same goes for Cloud Computing. The goal should be to speed and ease basic business processes. Don’t get into a situation where you feel forced to adopt a new technology! Let the Cloud come to you!
So how do we let the Cloud come to us and make sure it’s the right choice? I suggest looking into the following;
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Price – Make sure that the price points are something that will be saving you money.
The Business Week article referenced and the advice in it looks to be ok for an end-user business, but does not look like the right set of guidance for Managed Service Providers. MSPs should absolutely NOT sit and wait for the cloud to come to them. MSPs must, and as quickly as possible, develop a mastery of the cloud and clearly understand their opportunities to capitalize on the cloud. Hints and tips to do just that can be learned from three expert MSPs who have already established successful cloud-based businesses. Check out this webcast replay to learn how these MSPs are making money in the cloud and how you can do the same; http://www.nimsoft.com/seizethecloud/
Ken Vanderweel, Marketing Director – Service Providers
Ken,
Our apologies. We absolutely agree with you. We were addressing a question someone asked us from the accounting vertical market, and were afraid they would “miss the boat.” This was addressed more towards the consumer side, than the MSP side.
You are correct, MSP’s should not hesitate to begin a switch.
Ken,
You are correct. We were answering a question that we received from the consumer side, and therefore wrote this blog entry addressing that issue. We are in complete agreement that MSP’s should not wait or hesitate to begin moving now.
Our apologies to the MSP providers.