But Wait, That’s Not All

A customer’s cloud environment doesn’t just consist of a public, private, hybrid or multicloud platform. Rather, as the sources in this slideshow have noted, each cloud – each type, each arrangement, each brand – comes with its own unique characteristics. And organizations require different capabilities from each cloud.

Along the way, they use a mix of software as a service applications (think Dropbox, Salesforce, Office 365, and so on). Each of those comes with individual user licenses that require management. Then there’s data protection. We don’t just mean compliance with regulations such as GDPR or PIPEDA. We really mean the technology-based security that safeguards each cloud. Along with that, there should be best practices including stringent and role-based accesses, and even the inclusion of a separate backup and recovery platform. And don’t forget any platform- or infrastructure as a service. It all adds up and creates complexity.

To that point, organizations cannot risk overlooking the management of the costs associated with each cloud. Channel partners are integral to the success of their clients’ cloud environments. Addressing some of the less well-known components of the cloud not only will make partners even more indispensable, it will generate more money.