On September 9, it was reported by “the Channel Insider”, that Heartland Tech Groups (HTG), “the leading collaborative peer group of solution and service providers, and Channel Insider are partnering to develop community-driven guidance for VARs and MSPs on how to capitalize on emerging opportunities in cloud computing.”
It is apparent that many SMB’s are turning to cloud based solutions (a term applied to software as a service over the internet). Big players like Amazon, Google and now even Microsoft are releasing innovative cloud based solutions at extremely economic rates or in some cases completely free. Microsoft’s recent introduction of their popular office suite as an internet service as well as hosted Exchange servers as opposed to ‘in-house’ solutions, may have some VAR’s wondering what to do next. Amazon’s cloud based services “Amazon Web Services” recently launched their “Elastic Cloud” on top of their already popular Simple Storage Service and other cloud front products. Google also recently announced the “New Google Wave” that promises to change the way that people communicate using the internet.
New Players Entering the Service Market
In the past IT services closely linked operating systems, software and hardware that resides in the client offices. The trend towards minimal hardware in the office and cloud based solutions will undoubtedly bring more competition into the market place as non-traditional service providers start supporting cloud based services. I joked recently, on Twitter, that in the not too distant future a client will simply plug a monitor, keyboard and mouse into a wall jack and be instantly connected to the services that they subscribe to. Fortunately professional IT service providers like our partners over at Bulletproof Info Tech are ahead of the learning curve.
Channel Insider Reported that;
“…cloud computing is changing the way technology is delivered to businesses. Solution providers are struggling to find their place in the cloud computing world where hosting companies, telecommunications carriers and technology suppliers are competing for the same cloud-based business.”
North American companies are innovative and it seems that HTG & The Channel insider partnership to develop guidelines for the IT industry is a great initiative.
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