For veterans of the IT industry convinced that cloud computing is old news by now, last week’s SMB TechFest event in Anaheim, Calif., was a healthy reminder that significant growth and equally significant challenges still lie ahead.
Indeed, though major vendors and distributors may be shifting their attention to emerging markets like the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, speakers at the fourth and final SMB TechFest show of 2016 emphasized that there’s still plenty of upside in the cloud for channel pros with the skills to provide migration and management services.
“[There’s] lots of opportunity, and there probably will be I would say easily for the next four years,” says Dave Seibert (pictured), who in addition to organizing the SMB TechFest conference series is also CIO of IT Innovators Inc., an MSP and solution provider in Irvine, Calif.
Confirmation for that assessment arrived earlier this year via research from Seattle-based cloud migration and management software vendor SkyKick Inc. showing that just 7.5 percent of U.S. SMBs are running Microsoft’s Office 365 communication and collaboration suite at present, as well as more recent projections from analyst IDC that global outlays on public cloud services will rise at a 20.4 percent CAGR through 2020 to $195 billion.
Capitalizing on that trend requires new approaches to familiar processes though, according to Amy Babinchak, owner of Royal Oak, Mich.-based small business IT consultancy Harbor Computer Services and Third Tier, a provider of advanced technical support assistance to the SMB channel. Contrary to popular belief, Babinchak told SMB TechFest attendees during a Friday morning presentation, moving on-premises infrastructure into the cloud doesn’t eliminate IT complexity.
“You’re just changing the complexity and shifting your objectives somewhat,” she said, noting that cloud migrations generally require more upfront planning than traditional on-premises deployments. Many companies need new, more powerful wireless access points to accommodate all the traffic they’ll be exchanging with online applications, for example, a fact that can come as a surprise to business owners who view eliminating hardware concerns as half the point of embracing the cloud.
“They think they’re done with infrastructure,” Babinchak said.
Channel pros must factor in time for employee education when planning cloud migrations as well, she added, to ensure that end users understand the potential security risks and BDR implications of saving documents in a personal Dropbox account rather than their company’s OneDrive for Business repository, for instance.
“We are spending way more time on training then we ever have,” Babinchak said of Harbor Computer Services.
Above all, Babinchak emphasized, getting customers the right set of cloud solutions for their specific needs takes an ability to discuss business as well as technical requirements with them.
“That’s the biggest change that our industry has I think ever come across,” Babinchak observed. “Not all techs are that type of person.”
Seibert agrees. “It’s forcing, in a good way, a lot of solution providers to start focusing on the business side,” he said of cloud computing. “If you don’t focus on the business side there are too many [competitors] that will, and you’re going to lose those clients.”
Seibert plans to stage another set of quarterly SMB TechFest events next year, in January, April, July, and October. As in 2016 and prior years, the issues those conferences focus on will reflect both input from attendees and Seibert’s own assessment of where the IT market is headed.
“When you kind of make your topics a cross of those two themes, I think, that’s where you hit the home run and everybody finds it relevant,” Seibert said. “That’s why people come.”
