Top disties embrace cloud aggregation

At a CRN roundtable in December 2009 distributors were happy to acknowledge they were making plans to adapt to cloud computing however few showed any signs of doing so.

Time saving

"I think it’s a time saving," Darren Elsby, Ingram Micro’s senior business manager for managed services, says. "It’s going to require customer engagement, skills on the ground, fulfilling business needs. One of the roles Ingram Micro can play is saving them innovation and take some of the risk out of the business."

If resellers are the trusted advisers to clients, Ingram is positioning itself as the trusted adviser to resellers by assessing the research, processes and financial robustness of cloud vendors previously offering them to its reseller clients.

Few vendors

Elsby points out Ingram already offers cloud computing services from quite a few vendors and has signed contracts and brokered service level agreements for resellers in a bid to take the risk out of cloud services.

Elsby won’t disclose all the checks Ingram makes on prospective cloud vendors, though they do include scrutiny of business processes and the company’s viability. The checks include security, hosting location and redundancy, including physical site visits, appropriate insurance and the details of SLAs.

The reality is we’re checking business redundancy

"The reality is we’re checking business redundancy. Is life going to go on if there’s an issue? How will an issue be resolved? We work through agreements with providers to make sure those things are in place. We need to make sure those solutions are then-considered, they’re checked, they’re redundant and they follow good business process."

He points to the transition from boxed software to software licences as one that raised similar concerns about the future of distribution. "We’re not scared of cloud; we’ve seen it happen previously where there was transition and disruptive research.

What role they will play in a cloud IT world

Peach says many resellers haven’t worked out what role they will play in a cloud IT world. Like Ingram, ED hopes to help partners transition parts of their business to the new way of selling IT services. For instance, the distie is providing advice on how to manage compensation plans so salespeople will be properly remunerated for selling the right solution to the customer.

"Cloud providers are like manufacturers; they build great technology however they don’t necessarily know how to deliver it through a channel," says Scott Frew, CEO of Distribution Central.

World where clients don’t own servers

Even in a world where clients don’t own servers, resellers are after all required to look afterwards the PCs, software, communications gear to cut a long story short on, Frew says. "And if you’re a true trusted adviser, you should be helping them choose which clouds to use. Resellers need to have a footprint across all that and take commission from all the service providers.