Analysis of consumption patterns using cloud computing resources

IT industry trade organization CompTIA conducts a survey of its members every year to see how channel vendors embrace cloud computing. Four years ago, only 40% of the respondents said they covered cloud computing services. Last year, the figure jumped to 85%. This year, all suppliers (a total of 400) said they are offering cloud computing services.

As the cloud computing industry continues to mature, it is now becoming clear that the main consumption model for using cloud computing resources will be through channel providers. Carolyn Spril, director of industry analysis at CompTIA, said VARs have long played an important role in the end-user acquisition of IT resources.

"We've seen the transition," she said. "There is a lot of uncertainty about the role of channel suppliers in this market." Some channel providers worry that cloud computing will make it easier for suppliers to sell directly to their customers . Value-added distributors have found their own profit points.

April said that the channel market in cloud computing is broken down into four broad categories: Building Cloud Services for Customers; Integrating Cloud Services into Existing Systems; Providing Continued Management of Cloud Services or Being a Trusted Advisor to Cloud Programs. She said: "This is a natural extension of what channel vendors have been doing in the past."

CompTIA found that the key cloud services provided by channel partners include email, virtual desktop deployment, help desk, storage and analytics.

In some cases, cloud companies sell their products directly to customers. For example, Amazon Web Services, a market-leading IaaS provider, has a big campaign to encourage users to buy resources directly from the company.

Other companies are embracing their channel suppliers. For example, Hewlett-Packard, VMware, and CA Technologies both offer "box-in-the-cloud" products that allow resellers to package their products and provide complementary services such as providing customers with installation and configuration and consolidation efforts.

Cloud computing is opening up new partnerships. For example, Google traditionally does not have a large channel market, but its cloud computing platform and enterprise applications are bringing new distributors and system integrators. For example, where Cloud Sherpas is a consulting firm that is primarily responsible for migrating customers to cloud-based resources, including Google's cloud resources.

Gartner estimates that the cloud computing market will be a $ 131 billion industry this year, with 63% of dealers telling CompTIA that its customers have a very high interest in cloud computing resources.

However, this will go through a process of maturing, CompTIA's survey found that only 46% of distributors said that their cloud computing products and services are fully mature. The organization pointed out that the lack of professional consultants deploying cloud computing resources is an obstacle to the broader deployment of cloud computing consulting services. At the same time, end users are concerned about security, downtime, consolidation issues, and data portability.