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Create Your Cloud Strategy in a Day

by Chris Sterbenc | February 16, 2012

As appeared in The VAR Guy on February 16, 2012.

If you’ve dismissed the cloud as “just another marketing term” to hype the on-demand solutions that businesses have been using for more than a decade, then you’re missing the point. Dave Nielson of Cloud Camp defines cloud technology as that which is “on-demand, self-service, scalable, and measurable.” In contrast, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has a two-page cloud definition – which, in typical government fashion, is overly verbose. But however you define it, there’s buzz about the cloud for good reason. The rapid movement of technology to the cloud – along with its promised benefits of elasticity and cost-effectiveness – is significantly changing the IT landscape for small and medium sized businesses (SMBs).

Gartner says that by 2015, 46% of all businesses will have more than half of their infrastructure and applications in the cloud, versus only 3% in 2011. IDC says that 85% of net-new software firms created this year will be cloud businesses. If you haven’t yet built cloud solutions into your selling strategy, it’s time to get on board. This year especially, the SMB market is looking to the cloud for solutions that are cost-effective, simple to manage, and easy to scale. You don’t want to miss out. Rome may not have been built in a day, but your cloud business strategy can be. Here’s how.

First, Get Focused

Don’t try to go out and sell every great cloud solution to your SMB clients at once, but choose the one that will make the most impact to their businesses while bringing about the greatest amount of revenue for you. As Justin Moore says in “Overcoming SMB Objections to the Cloud,” sell the value of a cloud solution, not the cloud itself. Look for your clients’ greatest technology need, then match the best solution to meet that need.

One common need is data storage. With approximately 2.5 zettabytes (2.5 billion terabytes) of data existing in today’s digital universe – plus increasing regulations that drive more SMBs to look for better backup and recovery solutions – data storage is one of the fastest growing areas of cloud computing. My January 2012 MSPmentor blog predicts this rise. Data backup and business continuity solutions are also one of the most lucrative cloud solutions for VARs because they can provide margin-rich recurring revenue. By focusing on selling a cloud solution that meets the data protection and uptime needs of your clients, you’ll have greater success signing new customers and boosting your earnings.

Next, Get Help From the Experts

The cloud services market is hot and the ability to move quickly is a competitive advantage. If you rely only on the trial-and-error process of selling different cloud solutions, it will take longer to discover those that are the “stickiest” for your customers and most profitable for you. Instead, find expert advisors, industry conferences, and trusted vendors who can help you quickly maximize your cloud business potential.

In the example of data storage, you could individually test several different cloud solutions for data backup, business continuity, and disaster recovery. Or you could move more rapidly with a single solution that takes care of all three and is backed by strong partners, such as HP.

Starting this month, you can learn about how to maximize cloud services and plan your entire cloud business strategy in a day at the HP/Axcient Cloud Roadshow. This roadshow is bringing together some of the best and brightest channel and cloud experts to deliver all of the tools and tactics you need to grow your business and earn more recurring revenue. It’s an entire event focused on helping you align your business strategy to include market-leading cloud services.

Beginning February 28 in Washington D.C., then continuing on to Dallas, L.A., Chicago, and New York in March, each day-long HP/Axcient Cloud Roadshow event features channel guru Robin Robins, HP and Axcient executive speakers, a CompTIA mini-course on cloud computing, and peer groups. Reserving a seat at this free event could be the most important move you make to grow your business in 2012.

The decision is yours: continue business as usual and watch the cloud movement pass you by, or jump on the opportunity and learn from the experts. We’ll see you at the HP/Axcient Cloud Roadshow!

Your Backup Solution Should Be an Unsung Hero

by Axcient Guest Blog | February 15, 2012

Blog by Ed Burke, president of B2BMSP Technology Services and speaker at the upcoming HP/Axcient Cloud Roadshow, coming to five U.S. cities between February 28 and March 15, 2012

If you spend much time with your IT customer, you’ll eventually get a tour of their data center, where they’ll proudly speak to you about the mission-critical hardware and cool software that serves their company. When the moment is right, ask them about their backup processes. Don’t be alarmed if they suddenly freeze and get real quiet; they’ll probably try to change the subject. Why is this? Because most customers are relying on HOPE – hope that nothing goes down — rather than having confidence in the capabilities of their backup system. Finally, ask them if they’ve tested their backups, and by that I mean that they’ve restored an image or file that was randomly selected from whatever medium they are using. Doubtful!

Over the last few years, we’ve polled hundreds of end users and over 70% have responded that among all their common IT responsibilities, their backup process is the cause of the greatest worry. They hate their backup solution and they know it is inadequate. They’ve “CYA-ed” themselves by complaining to their management that more budget allocation is needed for improvements. However, unless they’ve actually experienced a major outage, their backup falls further and further behind in priority. Meanwhile, the customer is fully aware of what could happen and that awareness keeps them awake at night watching the weather channel for signs of impending storms.

Instead, a backup, business continuity, and disaster recovery system should be the reliable unsung hero of the IT department. Like Batman popping out of his cave when he sees the bat-signal, it shows up when you really need it, does its job, then disappears into the background.

Once every few years, every company will experience a major failure that requires files or images to be restored.

When this happens, suddenly everyone in the company looks to the IT manager and the backup system to find and recover the ‘lost’ files. At that point it doesn’t matter if the budget hasn’t been approved; it can be a true career-threatening event if the solution doesn’t work. These failures could also trigger a momentary budgetary increase and possible replacements in the IT staff.

A good managed backup service gives your customer peace of mind. It restores a company’s confidence in IT, and in the grand scheme of things, it is extremely affordable. If you are a solutions provider that has been selling traditional backup, you probably won’t want to put your reputation on the line that your solution will work. But it’s been shown that if you’ve provided a managed backup service based on the Axcient solution, both you and your customer can get a good night’s sleep. The appliance, like a true unsung hero, simply sits in the IT department doing its job: protecting your customer’s data. You can go to it 24×7 to get lost files or images, and if something truly catastrophic happens, you can get your lost data from the Axcient cloud. Your IT customer will never stop thanking you.

I got a call the other day from a customer that had restored a file for his boss, who felt that it was like a miracle! Nothing makes a solutions provider feel better than to get those types of positive calls. Helping your customer alleviate one of their biggest pain points is very rewarding. With the Axcient solution, you too can become the unsung hero.

My reputation depends on it!

Ed Burke regularly blogs about managed services on his site, http://b2bmsp.com. At the 2012 HP/Axcient Cloud Roadshow, he will share success stories from resellers implementing cloud-based solutions to increase their monthly recurring revenue.

Leading for Success: How to Build Team Chemistry

by Pam Lyra | February 8, 2012

There are a number of core principles that come together when leading teams. Among these is maintaining overall chemistry, keeping the team motivated, setting critical success factors, measuring team results, and sustaining high performance. While there is no one recipe for success, this blog series will outline some of the methods that have worked well for me over the past 20+ years of leading teams in operations and customer services. In this post, I’ll focus on team chemistry. … more

Consider This Before Designing Your UI

by George Tuma | February 3, 2012

In my last blog, I discussed the history of user interface (UI) design technology, going back to my early days as a developer at the time windowed operating systems were gaining popularity. The technology has come a long way. Now with the use of scripted languages like Python, Ruby on Rails, or PHP – plus an increased understanding among developers on what makes for a good user experience – it’s possible to create intuitive and elegant interfaces. But first, developers must consider the frequency of user interaction with a product or service. … more

For Work/Life Balance: Plan, Laugh, Listen, & Enjoy the Moment

by Tim Murphy | January 27, 2012

A great deal has been written over the years regarding the topic of maintaining a work/life balance. Although not a new topic, it’s valuable to reflect on this idea from time to time, if only to get a pulse on where you are in your own life. Here are some of my own reflections:

The definition of achieving a balance in life will vary from person to person. People are all wired differently, and all have vastly different needs, priorities, and perspectives in this world. What seems like overkill to you may be exactly “what the doctor ordered” for a typical workday for someone else. Strive to know your own limitations and your own needs, rather than mimicking someone else. Understanding yourself is a key towards finding a good healthy pace for your life. … more

Virtual Reality

by Todd Scallan | January 26, 2012

Is virtualization part of your IT deployment strategy? If you’re an IT professional working with a small- or medium-sized business (SMB), then chances are your answer is “yes.”

A recent survey from Spiceworks reports that virtualization is the top IT initiative among SMBs. The survey goes on to say that 67% of SMBs are planning to move core applications to virtualized environments and that 46% have adopted some form of cloud services. These figures represent a healthy increase over results from a similar survey conducted a year earlier. … more

To Work or Study More, That is the Question…

by Brandon Sweet | January 24, 2012

…At least it is the question many graduates face today.

After I finished my last exam in undergraduate college, I found myself pondering life and the valuable lessons that I learned in my four years at UC Santa Cruz. It became clear to me that it wasn’t the multi-variable calculus, game-theories, or countless business and economic courses that gave me the knowledge to succeed in my professional life, but it is the study habits – organization, problem-solving, prioritizing, communication, working with teams, and overall connections – that I formed as a result, that have enabled me to be a contributing factor in the community and in the office. School is about discovering your strengths and weaknesses, passions and indifferences, and creating a career path driven by your goals. … more

Sales Incentive Strategies for SMBs

by Chris Sterbenc | January 18, 2012

Strong and consistent sales results are the driving force behind a successful business. It’s the revenue figures that determine a company’s value at the end of the day. And in order for you, as an SMB owner, to get those numbers up to the point at which you and your entire team can sleep well at night, you must have the right sales strategy in place.

There are two common models in the sales business: Revenue (the typical ship-and-invoice model), and Monthly Recurring Revenue (which is unique to SaaS and some services businesses). With each model there is a core metric to which the bulk of sales rep commissions are generally tied, such as gross profit dollars and revenue. I have already talked about compensation in my last two blogs, When Should You Make Your First Sales Hire? and Sales Compensation for Cloud-Based Service Companies. Here I would like to introduce a few other tools that sales managers can use to reward the behavior that they want in their team and end up with the best results. … more

Cloudy with a High Chance of More SaaS

by Jeff Teddleton | January 13, 2012

With all the talk about the Cloud and SaaS applications, I wanted to share a few thoughts on the current state of the market, what we can expect in the future, and how best to manage through the transition from the old world to the new.

The market currently offers many world-class SaaS applications to address all phases of business operations. Marketing, Sales, Service, Support, Finance, Supply Chain, ERP, Business Analytics, and Intelligence applications are abundant. Over 25 major CRM vendors are on the market.

We are beginning to see mass specialization. SaaS applications tailored for specific verticals, industries, market segments, and even geographic specialization will become normal. Technology will allow a flood of more highly customized SaaS applications to enter the market at an ever-increasing rate of speed. … more