Channel acceptance of Cloud Computing continues to rise
White labeling key to Channel acceptance of Cloud services, as 61 per cent of Channel firms now offer Cloud
Rise Partners, a leading Gloucester based provider of cloud computing services, has welcomed research into Cloud adoption attitudes from the channel. The research states that over 60 per cent of channel firms are now offering Cloud-based services.
The findings compiled by Vanson Bourne on behalf of the Cloud Industry Forum, identifies the major drivers for the adoption of Cloud include; the benefits of additional revenue with 45 per cent now believing Cloud is a better proposition than on premise solutions and 32 per cent predicting overall channel revenue will derive from Cloud by 2014.
In addition, 41 per cent of channel respondents saw the provision of white-labeled services as an important factor in deciding which cloud services to resell.
For the research 200 companies polled, with 24 defining themselves as transactional, the remaining 176 as technical channel partners.
The sample is split between IT consultancies making up 24 per cent of the sample, managed services providers at 22 per cent, systems integrators at 13 per cent, specialist resellers at 10 per cent, technical VAR's also made up 10 per cent of the sample, as did IT outsourcers with LARs comprising seven per cent and finally IT retailers on five per cent.
Stephen Holford, director at Rise Partners comments, "The research from the Cloud Industry Forum really highlights how the channel is embracing Cloud based services. The predications for 2014 and beyond are really balanced in favour of what Cloud will be able to deliver to end users, as well as empahsising the potential channel partners can receive through revenue streams. We are very excited by this research, as it really shows the level of understand and acceptance there now is around Cloud, as well as the benefits the channel and end users can receive through Cloud adoption."
To ensure that the sample was as broad and reflective of the overall market, the 200 organizations contacted ranged in size from those employing under 50 (39 per cent) to those classed as mid-sized companies (25 per cent); the large enterprises - those organizations employing over 500 – was 39 per cent of the overall sample.