There may be more than one IT paradox, but the one I most frequently hear about is this: IT must maximize ROI on infrastructure spend and satisfy users (with increased productivity, response time, security, etc.). Most of the IT professionals with whom I speak experience a fine balancing act between these two items, which […]
Enterprises aren’t the only businesses that are exploring multicloud strategies. Cloud and hosting service providers who want to support enterprise multicloud needs are also looking to build services that span infrastructures and deliver multicloud value in a more controlled and managed environment. Why are service providers looking at multicloud deployments? Enterprises are trying to unburden […]
If you have ever worked at a service provider in a customer-facing role selling cloud and hosting services, you know that it’s a reasonably straightforward process. You ask questions like these: What’s the application? What’s the application configuration? Is it a couple of web servers and a SQL Server instance? How about security? Virtual firewall? […]
There is no doubt that our world is changing fundamentally and quickly. New business models drive the creation of new applications and data services. Our customers’ businesses are going digital, constantly seeking to enable new customer touch points, create innovative new business opportunities, and optimize operations. According to 451 Research, 31% of respondents to […]
Is your business impenetrable? Do you want to win an unfair share of the market? Build a moat around your service provider castle to make it difficult for uninvited guests to get in–and to give your customers a delightful experience. The investment firm Morningstar coined the term “economic moat,” referring to how likely a […]
Are you inside out? No, I am not talking about your laundry—I am talking about your go-to-market approach. Are you putting your customer at the center of your business, or are you putting your processes, governance, systems, organizational structure, policies and sales process at the center? I talk to approximately 100 service providers per year […]
For cloud or managed hosting providers, storage is obviously a key underpinning technology for any cloud or hosting infrastructure. What’s not so obvious, however, is how to productize the storage subsystem in a way that aligns with your ideal business model. And it’s not always clear how your customers want to consume it from you, […]
Mara McMahon
Stuart Oliver
John Rollason