By Dell Guest Blog

Cloud computing is fast becoming a popular cost-savings and efficiency-boosting tool for smaller enterprises.

Indeed, The IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS) delivery model lets small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) consume technology with fewer hassles compared with owning and operating traditional on-premise technology. Acceptance of ITaaS may be seen in the increasing use of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), in which businesses access applications hosted in the cloud. SaaS use among SMBs grew 60 percent last year.

MSPs who offer ITaaS can make life easier for their customers — and earn trusted advisor status along the way. Here are three ways ITaaS simplifies IT for SMBs:

1. Makes IT Easier to Acquire and Maintain

SMBs can purchase cloud-based solutions through a subscription model, reducing the upfront cost of acquiring technology. Businesses don’t have to spring for upgraded servers or new software licenses, since the service provider maintains the technology infrastructure and applications at an off-site location. Similarly, an

ITaaS offering lets SMBs offload the burden of ongoing software maintenance, updates and patches to service provider.

Dell’s CloudRunner service provider platform, along with Dell SMB Solutions service delivery capabilities, can help an MSP establish itself in the ITaaS market.

2. Provides A Bundled Solution

SMBs prefer to buy cloud services as a simplified, bundled solution. Cloud solutions become much easier to acquire and deploy when there’s a single service provider involved as opposed to multiple parties. A bundled, or turnkey, ITaaS offer makes contract administration and billing considerably less complicated.

MSPs that tap Dell CloudRunner can provide a turnkey solution that spans an SMB customer’s two main workloads: business-critical applications and IT security. CloudRunner provides SMB customers with access to applications anytime on any security managed device. The service provider platform supports BYOD via built-in connectors for iOS, Android, Mac, Linux and Java. On the security side, CloudRunner protects physical and virtual infrastructure layers — network, computing devices, firewall and data. 

3. Offers A Self-Service Approach

Cloud technology presents an opportunity to offer customers the type of readily accessible user interfaces they have become accustomed to with consumer applications. Dell’s service provider platform offers a self-service, click-together ITaaS approach geared toward an SMB’s non-IT users. This simplified user experience makes IT easier to consume and easier to manage.

A New Direction For MSPs

ITaaS represents a radical shift toward the delivery of consumer-inspired, simple-to-consume technology-based services. Dell can help MSPs move in that direction and drive the next wave of SMB IT consumption. For more information, click here:  http://partnerdirect.dell.com/sites/channel/en_us/ValueAddedReseller/Pages/ServiceProviders.aspx

Dell provides a range of solutions for service providers and their customers.