So the world of Cloud Computing continues
to evolve on a almost daily basis, but what specific event has forced pen to
paper… or virtual pen to paper at least.
Well the exit of RackSpace from the IaaS market to me was a major event
in the evolution of the cloud and the commoditization of what I call the first
wave of cloud, namely Simple IT-aaS.
If one of the hiperscale darlings of the IaaS
space can no longer make sufficient margin from this sector then what hope have
tier 2 and 3 player got for local markets or specific industry verticals. In the scribes humble opinion MSP/CSP’s
looking to survive and yes I do mean survive beyond the next 3-years then they
need to find a niche and develop their tailored offering quickly.
No longer can an MSP throw some x86 based
VMWare guests up on the web and hope to build a sustainable business, the MSP/CSP
needs to be offering a specific software solution to a vertical, a unique slant
on how to offer quality of service, availability or security. As this evolution to what I call the 2nd
wave of cloud workloads or Mission Critical IT-aaS becomes the new battle
ground for MSP’s then the focus will be on innovation and daring to be
different. Following the crowd and
hoping to be lucky will lead to some of the 35,000 MSP’s currently operating
globally going to the wall. This is to
be expected as any marketplace matures new entrants get consolidated out and
the successful survive, call it the Darwinian survival of the fittest.
So to all those MSP’s out there not wanting
to become the next Dodo, I suggest you take a long hard look at the building
blocks of your business, namely your infrastructure and ask you yourself one
hard question: Have we dared to be different? Or have we followed the accepted
practice and built a derivation of what everyone else in the industry is
offering.
You may not like the answer, but better to
know now rather than let the market find you out…
