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 Channel Futures

Cloud


ChannelCloud: Nearing Launch?

  • Written by Joe Panettieri 1
  • February 2, 2010
Back in October 2009, some MSPs were chatting up ChannelCloud, a forthcoming platform that may help VARs and managed services providers provision cloud and SaaS applications. Fast forward to the present and there are signs ChannelCloud is nearing an official launch.

According to its teaser Web site, ChannelCloud is:

channelcloudBack in October 2009, some MSPs were chatting up ChannelCloud, a forthcoming platform that may help VARs and managed services providers provision cloud and SaaS applications. Fast forward to the present and there are signs ChannelCloud is nearing an official launch.

According to its teaser Web site, ChannelCloud is:

“A new cloud platform and service delivery model for the channel that extends their MSP investment and business. ChannelCloud is a comprehensive cloud platform which automates the provisioning of SaaS, virtual desktops, virtual servers, and complete cloud solutions without upfront investment in resources or infrastructure.”

My best guess: ChannelCloud will share more details about its strategy sometime in Q1, 2010.

Familiar Terms

ChannelCloud’s potential launch comes at an intriguing time. While Microsoft builds out Windows Azure, BPOS and even a BPOS lite (for small businesses), some VARs and MSPs are wondering if they should jump into big, vendor-driven clouds or hold out for options that are built by the channel and managed by pure channel players.

As you may recall, ConnectWise CEO Arnie Bellini discussed a pure channel cloud concept during ConnectWise Partner Summit 2009 (November 2009). More recently, ConnectWise Capital and CharTec have partnered in the HaaS market; and CharTec CEO Alex Rogers has hinted cloud moves are next.

Clearly, quite a few folks in the managed services market are using the generic “channel cloud” term. But an official ChannelCloud platform is coming. Who’s behind it? What’s the strategy? I have a few answers but not all of them. Stay tuned. I’ll continue poking around.

Tags: Cloud Service Providers Digital Service Providers MSPs VARs/SIs Cloud

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16 comments

  1. Avatar Vlad Mazek February 2, 2010 @ 2:17 pm
    Reply

    Pointivity is behind it…

    And while I am biased, that effort is going to have a very tough time with the MSPs because when you choose to engage in the cloud offerings you aren’t going to bet your next 3-5 years worth of revenues on a program that got launched by a startup 2 months ago. The IT folks have been through the .com bomb and the VC crash of last year long enough to know you don’t put your customers on something that doesn’t have a massively profitable company behind it.

    Everyone out there claims to be in the cloud or building cloud this or that, but when you look at where Fortune 500 and most of the midmarket happens to be, it’s behind a dozen players or less.

    It’s a nice sentiment and I agree with the idea in spirit, however in business only results and bottom line count.

    -Vlad

  2. Avatar Joe Panettieri February 2, 2010 @ 2:24 pm
    Reply

    Vlad: Anything with the word “cloud” should trigger a healthy dose of skepticism these days. But we’ll continue to follow ChannelCloud’s moves based on what we’ve been hearing in the market.

    Best
    -jp

  3. Avatar Paul Byrne February 2, 2010 @ 6:14 pm
    Reply

    To Vlad’s comment:
    I think this is more than a sentiment and I for one look to Pointivity to be a leader in this field. Kent Erickson and his team understand this as well as anyone. I have seen Kent speak on the topic as I attended a workshop Pointivity gave on the topic and their depth of understanding in this field is truly impressive from both the technological perpsective as well as the business perspective. As an MSP it is clear to me that they GET IT.

    Vlad, the other point you should be aware of is that Pointivity is not a fly by night start-up but has been in business over 20years, not 2 months, moreover, they have been delivering enterprise class cloud hosting services for the last decade so they clearly are capable of delivery. Perhpas most important of all, Pointivity is all about the end clients business and providing outcomes that support business success. This component is is piece that frankly I find missing with most technological/infrastructure solutions.

    For the reasons above ReadyTECH is pursuing a partnership with Pointivity as we speak. The business model we will have will give us a clear separation from our competitors.
    All the best,
    Paul Byrne
    President/Founder ReadyTECH

  4. Avatar Mark Perez February 2, 2010 @ 6:58 pm
    Reply

    Vlad,

    Pointivity is anything but a startup, it’s my understanding they have been around for 20+ years. Not sure where you get your information but your comments carry zero weight when you can’t get your facts straight.

    We have been working with Pointivity for the past couple of years and they are one of the few vendors out there that consistently deliver on their promises. I don’t know much about this cloud offering from them but having witnessed what they currently deliver to the market I will definitely be looking closely at what they come out with.

    Just wanted to throw in my two cents in case others were misinformed by your comments.

  5. Avatar Rich Wein February 3, 2010 @ 3:11 am
    Reply

    I’d concur with Paul and Mark’s comments above having similar understanding and experience and regard for both Pointivity and Kent Erickson.

    If Vlad is willing to claim here that CloudChannel is Pontivity, then presumably he’s also knowledgeable enough (or should be) to know that it’s not a fly-by-night organization or without significant investment in datacenter infrastructure and operational experience. So why kick in a comment with admitted bias and not explain your bias?

    I wouldn’t disagree that mid-size and enterprise customers look for larger, well-capitalized and profitable suppliers, but what’s the relevance to this audience who I believe is targeting SMB customers with different criteria and different budgets? I don’t have any customers who think IBM is the best value for SMB IT services, for example, and my SMB customers don’t have 1000 or 10,000 seat Hosted Exchange needs so they can’t really get great deals from Microsoft directly.

    The ‘verticalization’ of big players like Cisco-EMC-VMware, Microsoft-HP(with EDS), Dell with Perot, IBM with all they have, Oracle-SUN does seem to point to a ‘circling of the wagons’ and a strategy in the enterprise market to force customers to choose a ‘platform’ that’s their 100% total solution rather than the customer ‘self-assembly’ of the past 20-30 years where networking, servers, OS, and apps were all separately bought and provisioned and managed by customer IT departments. Definitely looks like the game is on there, but again, I don’t see that as attractive, affordable or relevant to my SMB customers whereas a solution like ChannelCloud likely does.

    We’ll judge ChannelCloud on its merits like any other offering when we see it, but I welcome more options for our channel that aren’t necessarily from the ‘big guys’. I’d prefer to have someone who’s closer to our channel with similar perspective and experience and ‘gets it’.

  6. Avatar John Cowan February 3, 2010 @ 4:23 pm
    Reply

    We’ve been launched for 2+ years already and have never been anything but 100% channel focused. Seems ChannelCloud (name sounds hokey and marketing driven though, I must say) is looking to capitalize on what we figured out long ago. Very smart.

    I for one am interested in collaborating with ChannelCloud if they get off the ground. One of the key items MSP’s need to be thinking about is interoperability among cloud vendors like 6fusion and Pointivity (er… ChannelCloud). It will be interesting to see if Kent plays the lock-in card. Very disappointing if he does, since it really goes against the whole spirit of the paradigm shift.

    The idea that you could move workloads interchangeably between Pointivity/ChannelCloud and 6fusion’s growing iNode Network (you can do this on 6fusion today with *any* other platform that supports OVF) should be of interest to everyone in the channel….

  7. Avatar John Cowan February 3, 2010 @ 4:37 pm
    Reply

    btw… quick question for Rich Wein: What does “verticalization of big players” mean?

  8. Avatar Arnie Bellini February 4, 2010 @ 1:20 am
    Reply

    Pointivity has been focused on Cloud before any of us called it Cloud. I believe there needs to be a cloud solution that has a strong channel focused. I believe in Kent’s vision, and he backs it up with 20 years of experience.

    Arnie Bellini
    CEO, ConnectWise.com

  9. Avatar Andy M February 4, 2010 @ 2:17 am
    Reply

    I am not familiar with any of the entities involved but I think MSP/VAR/Resellers should be supportive of any effort to create products and services that won’t reach around you to grab at customers directly.

    If there is truly no upfront investment it will help with fast adoption among smaller MSP’s and startups.

    We need more products and intiatives like this that protect our profit margins from the customer’s froogle.com search!

  10. Avatar Mark Perez February 4, 2010 @ 4:08 am
    Reply

    Wow, we have had some heavy weights chime in on this. Vlad, if you haven’t realized already Kent and Pointivity our well known and respected in our industry.

    It’s just a good reminder to all of us to be careful what we say. Lincoln said it best – “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”

  11. Avatar John Cowan February 4, 2010 @ 10:47 am
    Reply

    Mark – I don’t think of myself a heavy-weight but thanks for noticing… LOL… 😉

  12. Avatar Vlad Mazek February 5, 2010 @ 12:03 am
    Reply

    @ Mark:

    Pointing out that a product that 1) Doesn’t exist 2) Isn’t used by anyone in public will be fighting for a shrinking VAR/MSP community with companies like Amazon / Microsoft / Google makes me a fool?

    -Vlad

  13. Avatar Chris Chas February 5, 2010 @ 12:28 am
    Reply

    I’ll try anything new, after all it’s my job to make sure that whatever we put our clients in is; backed up, redundant, and recoverable. Didn’t move a single thing to google until I new how to cover my butt.

    -Chris Chase
    http://www.directive.com

  14. Avatar Melanie Fricke February 5, 2010 @ 10:10 am
    Reply

    I truly enjoyed reading all the comments. Amazon / Microsoft / Google do not understand the needs of the small business market. I am following the ChannelCloud because it is designed with the MSP in mind. Aggregating and streamlining cloud management is important for me. I agree with John that it needs to be open and not have locked in providers – that would provide maxium adoption and capabilities. I’m looking forward to more information on when it is coming and believe Pointivity has the experience to know what is needed and will deliver.

  15. Avatar Joe Panettieri February 5, 2010 @ 12:06 pm
    Reply

    Melanie: Please let us know what direction you take, whether it’s with ChannelCloud or another partner. We hope to continue tracking MSPs’ cloud moves closely.
    -jp

  16. Avatar Angela Hill September 7, 2010 @ 1:33 pm
    Reply

    Fascinating discussion everyone. Thought you might like to learn that the site has indeed gone live. Check it out here: http://www.channelcloud.com

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