Cloud – Starting to Grow-up in 2012

Cloud – Starting to Grow-up in 2012

By Dave Rice

There is an old and very simple axiom, which applies to the Cloud just as it did to its predecessor — on-premise technology solutions.

The less complex a technology is to use, the more likely it is that it can be sold directly.

And conversely, the more complex the technology, the more likely it is that it will be sold through the channel which has the capacity and the resources to be able to fill the complexity gap between provider and end-customer. This is true whether or not a technology is a product or a service or both.

The arrival of Cloud means that many solutions that were heretofore too complex for customers to use without the assistance of in-house IT and / or the channel, are giving way to simpler services enabled via the Cloud, leading to a greater number of direct relationships between Cloud service providers and end customers then at anytime in the past.

The characteristics of simple versus complex services that result in either a direct or an indirect sales opportunity:

The ability for Public Cloud Service Providers to produce simple, direct and automated services for end - customers lays the groundwork for another major transformation. Cloud Service Providers are beginning to master the social media techniques that will allow them to gain an acute awareness of customer technology consumption behavior, which in turn will lead to greater refinement and automation of services and related processes.

This direct feedback mechanism can provide a much more profound understanding of how customers actually use these services, an insight that was never possible with traditional on premise solutions, creates for the first time the potential to drive ease of use into every aspect of the service, considerably more standardization and deeper penetration into customer bases as a result of more targeted and precise software development.

All of this offers a great opportunity for Cloud Service Providers and End-Customers of any size and part of any industry the opportunity to reap significant benefit at a lower cost, but it will inevitably result in fewer traditional service, support as and product opportunities for in-house IT organizations and in turn, the channel as well.

As an example, take a traditional on premise range of related support activities, a product upgrade involving version and release changes, testing, configuration management, training and change management which formerly rested on the backs of in-house IT organizations or in some cases 3^rd parties in the channel to manage using discrete tools and management practices.

With the advent of Public Cloud Services, the burden of these activities switches to the Cloud Services Provider who performs the service on behalf of thousands of customers and must therefore determine how these activities can be embedded into the service itself, so as to make it a turn-key experience for the customer. The Cloud Services Provider must contend with how to factor these capabilities into the cost and delivery of the overall service offering.

Really...Why? Business in 2011 and beyond.

So, I find myself in the middle of a really cool training session. The class is being run by webinar with a live instructor and it is 8 hours a day, Monday through Friday. Yes 40 hours of webinar. Oh joy! Truth be told, I am getting ready for today's session now. I've got 2 hours before class. What to do before I am forced to sit in front of a computer for 8 hours? I know...blog :)

Here's my "really....why?" moment. There are 16 students in this class and it is going really well. We're learning about a Cloud-based software business suite and how it is changing the lives of businesses and business people around the world. In the middle of the class, a few of us are taking advantage of the "private chat" feature of the webinar software.

As I am home, feet up on my patio table, with birds chirping and rabbits running, I get the answers to my question:

"My boss says I have to be here in the conference room because that's where business is done", says one. Another offers, "I was told that I would be paid for my time only if I took the class from my desk.".

Really? You're on a class about THE CLOUD. Really? Why? It occurs to me that Cloud and Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms and software have been created in order to detach us from the need, the expense, the leash to our servers and our offices. If I may be so bold, to detach us from the past.

We are in a new environment with new rules and, more importantly, new employees. TrueCloud CEO Dave Rice likes to say that "if we try to keep today's employee satisfied with old technology and old rules, it simply will not work." The days of sitting down a new employee in front of a putty colored screen and a new ergo keyboard and wishing them good luck are gone! The days of your development genius going home early and pushing through a huge project at 1AM, filled with enthusiasm and Mountain Dew are here.

My advice? Get on the bus. Let the technology work for you. We must unhinge from our old in order to get to the new. We must be more willing to accept the new paradigm, the new tools and the new spirit that Cloud and SaaS permits us.

Now, I am not a proponent of complete telecommuting for everyone in every case, but a day or two outside the office is refreshing for everyone. It builds trust. It builds the feeling of independent ownership and more importantly, it builds success.

OK...I need to get my coffee brewing for today's session. I'm wearing shorts and a T-Shirt, my stereo has Pink Floyd oozing from the speakers, I have a bagel in the toaster and I'm ready for whatever the Cloud has to offer. Are you?