Don't be a Wanna-Be Cloud Player!

Do you have a genuine cloud application/solution? Or, are you a ‘me too’ cloud vendor offering our previous solutions as a SaaS?

If you are a ‘me too’ joiner and simply offering your current apps/solutions as a SaaS – the market verdict is currently showing you the door. But yeah, you might still be successful if you innovatively offer your applications via the cloud. Because the SMB market which might have been eyeing your applications for a long time but could not afford them earlier might go via the cloud as it is cost effective. That’s it! That would be the limit of your success.

So be a cloud mover! Offer solutions that are genuine cloud specific. That success of salesforce, as opposed to many of their wanna-be competitors, is mainly due to their cloud focus strategy. And it is not hard to find out the real cloud players and ‘me too’ ones. After all, it is not difficult to differentiate the genuine one from the wanna-be.

So become a genuine cloud player to make a profound impact on the Clould Market-place!

Cloud Reseller--Offer Value or Fade Away

Are you a Cloud re-seller or a channel partner to a Cloud provider? Well then, it is time for you to move your focus from simple reselling of cloud products and services—to providing value added services to the customers. Many of the resellers have indeed moved their focus and are providing a value---but they are very few. The clear message that is bound to hit you with a bang in 2012 -- You are of no use to the Cloud customers!

The Cloud customers can directly engage with the cloud providers, and start using the products and services directly. Remember that customers will use the internet to gain access to cloud solutions, and that make you negligible.

But resellers can definitely still add value if they can provide benefits and advantages that is usually not found in-house. So Resellers pull up of your socks, learn extensively about the cloud and move away from the comfort zone of being the go-between the providers and the direct customers. The market of Cloud 2012 will see what benefit you offer, or you will end up folding your business.

So your mantra and big question in the Cloud era should be – What value can you offer?

2012-- Hail the mighty Cloud

2012 will definitely be the year of the Cloud. The 'lets-watch and see' wagons are expected to join the Cloud caravan as they have now see organizations  benefiting from the cloud and security fears also have been taken care of to a large extent. Here's my prediction for Cloud 2012:

1. Hybrid cloud would become more popular among the organizations who want to contol their business critical applications but is open to go to the Cloud for the less critical solutions.
2. Large enetrpises will still focus on private Clouds as they still crave for the control of their aplications and solutions.
3. SMB will go to Public Cloud in large numbers as it offers them cost effective access to the technically advanced products which were earlier out of their reach.
4. Cloud will kill the piracy industry to a large extent.
5. Instead of standalone cloud poviders, those providing cloud based applications & solutions along with the service will rule the roost. 
6. 2012 will see a large scale adoption of Cloud, and will become the most sought after technology.

Cloud Requires Business & IT teams to be in sync

In cloud, what would you think it be the most disastrous step for an organization? Well, the business leader not being in sync with the IT team while investing on new technology has burnt many a company. Often the CIOs see (or presume) a business need in a new technology, and invests on the services and features. And then once the hiccups start, the CIO approaches the IT team to support and manage the ‘presumed’ business critical application/solution.

These has happened quite a number of times in the recent past. And Cloud being at a nascent stage, we will see more of such incidents. So it imperative for the business and IT teams to work together and chart out the approach to Cloud adoption in a more matured way.

2012 Cloud Predictions by James Staten of Forrestor

Stumbled upon an rather interesting write-up by James Staten of Forrestor: Top 10 Cloud Predictions For 2012: The Awkward Teenage Years Are Upon Us.

He predicts:

1. Shadow IT enters the light – deal with it.
2. The uncool attempting to be cool – not cool.
3. A risky idea lands a big fish in jail.
4. Conservative leaders ban the cloud as unhealthy.
5. The channel will face the music – reselling isn’t good enough anymore.
6. Cloud cred will matter.
7. Cloud battles will showcase talent and advance best practices.
8. Monkeys will go legit.
9. Your company will survive a major cloud outage.
10. You will finally have to budget for public cloud spend.

Read the article for a great insight.

Oracle Wins the Washies

This post is in continuation of my earlier post, Washies for the Worst Cloud Vendor.

The best cloud Washies awardees take a bow. Appirio announced and toasted the winners of in a fun filled ceremony. As per a blog post by Narinder Singh of Appirio, the 2011 winners are:

• The biggest overall cloud washer - Oracle: This mega-vendor couldn’t utter the word “cloud” without some kind of skeptical comment until recently, at which time they jumped wholeheartedly on the bandwagon.
• The worst case of cloud washed advertising - Microsoft: “To the cloud!” During a television commercial staged with two people bored at an airport, the world saw this company introduce “the cloud” to consumers. Until then it was simply known as “the Internet.” While Microsoft does have some legit cloud solutions in their portfolio, these and their other TV commercials handed them the win in this category.
• The most cloud washed statement - Larry Ellison and Oracle: This one was a toss-up, but ultimately, Oracle’s Larry Ellison edged out the competition with his past Churchill Club sound bite, "...we've redefined cloud computing to include everything that we already do.”
• The biggest personal cloud washer - Larry Ellison: This was a controversial category that perhaps rightly so raised the ire of some of the nominees, but we have to give the award to Larry. We were a bit surprised that one of the nominees launched a social media campaign to win the award, and had he not set up a bot to auto vote for himself, he may have taken home the prize. But it wouldn’t be right to reward a cheater and, in hindsight, he probably didn’t deserve to be nominated to this category in the first place, so Larry Ellison earned himself his second award of the night.
• The most enthusiastic use of the word cloud - salesforce.com: Love for the cloud can sometimes lead to excessive use of the word and other over the top behavior - even among true cloud companies. We freely admit that Appirio often sits in that camp - everything we touch seems to be incomplete without a cloud image. However, salesforce.com edged us out for this category win. Given their strong voice in cloud advocacy, we respectfully accept defeat.

You can read the whole post here. Enjoy the fun!!

 

Washies for the Worst Cloud Vendors

14th Dec will be announcement of this year's Washies, annual award given to the worst offenders of painting over traditional IT technology with the word cloud, even though it offers little-to-none of the benefits that cloud computing brings to be announced. Similar to the Razzies, the Cloud Washies Ceremony is to make harmless fun and tease the cloud vendors, and just to say " What were they thinking?"

I will update you tomorrow with Washies Winners.For the time being read the excellent write-up in Information Week -- 5 Worst Cloud Washers Of 2011. The write appropriately points out, "Many vendors want to be cloud vendors. The cloud has come to connote flexibility, scalability, and economy of scale. Wouldn't you want those attributes to be on your side when you're trying to make the sale? There's just one problem. Despite the fact that some parts of the cloud are loosely defined, not everybody is bringing products to market worthy of the name "cloud." As a matter of fact, there's a lot of cloud washing--renaming existing products, after a few tweaks, with the word cloud insert.