It may be hard to believe that Amazon, the king of consumer products, two-day delivery, and general wish-granting retail genie, would also become a major player in the world of computing cloud infrastructure. And not only is Amazon a major IaaS (infrastructure-as-a-service) player—it dominates the landscape.
In fact, according to Datto’s latest Global State of the MSP Report, 63% of MSPs expect client workloads in North American to move to AWS, followed by Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud (tied at 52%). Nearly half of the respondents (47%) predict that 75% to 99% of their client base will move workloads to the cloud in the next three years.
Combined, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform hold over 65% of the market share of cloud infrastructure services, according to Statistica.
When it comes to picking a cloud platform, or a mixture of clouds, MSPs should have a slew of questions: What are the advantages/disadvantages of Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud for your SMB customers? Is it better to focus your MSP business on one cloud or all three? Should you work with a distributor for your cloud services? And how are you helping your customers manage and optimize their cloud spend?
“The advantage of each of the top three cloud offerings is that it will allow you to work remotely and have a consistent place to store your data and run your business applications,” says Corey Kirkendoll, president and CEO of 5K Technical Services, an MSP in Plano, Texas
“The disadvantage is the cost of the service, and the data storage may be cost-prohibitive if not calculated or set up correctly,” he continues. “It will also require you to have a strong internet connection because if you cannot reach the cloud you cannot work.”
The major cloud providers, “in most cases, require some long-term contracts and you may be locked in longer than you need to be. So, you need to examine your needs, and set up security and costs carefully,” Kirkendoll concludes.
So which cloud service did Kirkendoll and the team at 5K Technical Services choose?
“We use Azure and Office 365. We went this route because of the ability to secure and add on services,” he says, adding that it’s “less of a learning curve for the customers and us, the MSP. This is the best way to go.”
Chris Ploessel, president of Red Night Consulting, an IT solution provider in Aliso Viejo, California, leans in a different direction but also focuses on one cloud: AWS.
“We have bet the farm on specializing on one cloud provider and it has done us well,” Ploessel says.
“All our salespeople know it, all our engineers build on it the same way, all our folks are certified,” Ploessel continues. “It makes it easy when a client calls in to know where to look and what to troubleshoot. When I speak with AWS reps, we say we are AWS only and they feel a bit more comfortable working with us, versus partners that are ‘multi-cloud.’ The folks that specialize on a single service will know how to troubleshoot problems better.”
In fact, Ploessel notes, “We do not work with a client unless they run their servers and infrastructure on AWS.”
Ploessel also notes the benefits that come from choosing to work with a distributor for cloud services.
“We do work with Ingram Micro,” Ploessel says. “They have accelerated our learning and training, but mostly it helps to have a bigger entity working with you when there is an issue. I have been able to get support tickets escalated, vendor resources allocated, and billing issues resolved, because of my Ingram Micro relationship. The relationship gives us some confidence. In addition, if we have a spike in demand, we can coordinate with their engineers to help run projects.”
When it comes to looking toward the future, Ploessel shares the same primary concern and focus of many in the MSP space.
“Security,” he says.
Indeed, the Datto survey found that the top reason to keep workloads on-prem was security concerns around the public cloud, according to 27% of respondents.
“There are many solutions around desktop and Windows server security, but the offerings are limited around cloud infrastructure,” Ploessel says. “We’re reviewing cloud auditing tools like SCuBA [the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency’s Secure Cloud Business Applications project] and Arctic Wolf to help catch issues before they get out of control for our clients.”
But when asked how they are helping manage their clients’ spend on cloud services, Ploessel acknowledges the inherent challenge: the bottom line.
“The challenge is, of course, that most SMB clients don’t want to pay for it … so we’re hunting for the ‘Goldilocks’ zone on price combined with feature set that we can go to market with.”
When it comes to cloud platforms, there is clearly not a one-size-fits-all answer. While market leaders have advantages of size, scale, usability, and security, there may be other services that better suit your, or your clients’, needs. In fact, 18% of MSP respondents to the Datto survey anticipate workloads shifting to the client’s data center in the next year.
And as always, creative, agile, small market disruptors may emerge with new approaches and innovative small-business solutions for a future increasingly housed in the ether.
