I saw this picture from someone I follow on social media and it made me laugh. Those of us who have been in this industry for any length of time will recognize the truth in this graphic, not just because it is true, but because there are so many “professionals” out there who do not yet realize the truth of the statement “there is no cloud, it’s just someone else’s computer.”
The frenzy in the IT channel these days is all about getting MSPs to think they have to transition into a different business model. “Move to the cloud”, I hear people say all the time. But, what exactly does that mean? More impportantly, what if they are wrong and there is no cloud?
MSPs Are Like Paratroopers
Anytime, anyplace, anywhere. That’s a good motto for MSPs. Since the beginning, MSPs have been used to managing IT assets for customers regardless of the location of the asset. In fact, more often than not, the IT asset would be someplace outside the MSP’s own facilities. Keep in mind, only a small percentage of MSPs actually own their own data centers.
Still, this is a good way to view the cloud. It’s not so much where the asset is as who has access to it. That’s what really matters. Sure, location can become a factor in some cases, but MSPs are not bound by geographic restrictions. They can monitor and manage IT assets…anytime, anyplace, anywhere. The same is true for cloud computing.
You Don’t Need a New Business Model
One of the biggest fallacies out there in the IT channel is this notion that MSPs need to change their business strategy to adapt to cloud computing. This is flat out wrong. Cloud computing has been around since the beginning of managed services; it just had a different name. MSPs have never been constrained by geography or the physical location of the IT asset they were managing. This is the very essence of the MSP business model and what makes them so valuable in our business culture today.
This idea, however, that MSPs need to change their business model in order to adapt to cloud computing assumes that cloud is somehow different from managed services. It is not! Cloud computing is a delivery vehicle for managed services. It’s a conduit for delivering the services, not a unique business model that has somehow eluded MSPs for all these years.
Put in a slightly different way, the VARs who offered managed services always sold the customer the hardware first. For them, the computer always belonged to someone else!