Why Truly Enabled, Thriving MSPs need a Flexible Layer Beneath:

Change is inevitable. Change in this digitally enabled world in unprecedented and like the applications we consume, largely On-Demand. Take the anticipated mass migration to the Cloud. Undoubtedly, the trend we noted in recent years was more mid-market customers wanting to shield themselves from the burden of a total on-premise rigid set-up in favour of a dynamic, hosted consumption based model where their data resided in the Cloud. But the story doesn’t end in the Heavens. As their Cloud journey has matured, different challenges have materialised, not least cost and concerns about fast access to Cloud held data in the new wave of GDPR compliance. The changing customer path – and the burden of ‘required flex’ that goes alongside – inevitably transfers to the Provider. Implementing customer changes to Providers’ SLAs and their underlying contracts are equally tedious to administer, so much so, some customers are shunning the intended full Cloud migration in favour of the hybrid on-premise and Cloud route.

As one of the first software vendors to develop a CSP consumption model in UK back in 2011, Brett Denly of software-defined storage vendor, DataCore, stands well positioned to note resultant how Hosting Providers themselves can accommodate change.

Brett notes that Providers who entered the market with a ‘fully flex’ software infrastructure behind them have continued to successfully grow and evolve on-demand, offering full time business continuity regardless of if public cloud, private cloud, on-prem or CoLo is preferred by the monthly user. For the user, they are no longer concerned about the infrastructure whether physical or virtual, for their concerns have transferred to the reliability and performance of the applications that drive their business and allow them to gain competitive edge, not to what lies beneath.

How, as a Provider, do you begin to cope with this change and create a viable, successful business each month? Brett comments that 3 key trends for successful CSP engagements have emerged:-

1. Those Providers that anticipate and expect change from the outset are the ones that attract more long-term customers. Those are the partners that offer a selection of models tofit,and steer clear froma one-size fitsall approach. They don’t play to where, but instead confidently offer secure and reliable business continuity to data and applications, regardless ofconsumptionpreference.
2. Those Providers who themselves are able toutiliseall available hardware, regardless of device or type, butviewandorganiseassets viaassingle management console, stand to make the greatestprofit,because they are mostefficient. Using software, they can tier and pool assets, regardless of hardware badge – and on demand – to give up to 5x better performance and ultimate flex as the needs of their customers’ peak and trough
3. While the Cloud is, by its very nature, vertical agnostic, Providers still need to talk the language of their customers’ needs and critically it’s now all about delivering applications’ performance and reliability. No two verticals have the same accessibility, data requirements or retrieval needs.

Learn more about the MSP growth in the UK and opportunities for joining forces with reference peer-to-peer examples of MSPs like Leitwerk in Germany, Pertineo in France, Cistec in Spain who deploy DataCore’s software defined storage as the backbone to their Pay-as-You-Serve CSP provision to accommodate all user change.