Today, the digital revolution is wildly reshaping the way business gets done between companies and their consumers, with new applications and devices sweeping through industries, optimizing daily processes wherever they are leveraged. Yet, even with such a wide array of technology at our disposal, none makes more of a difference than cloud computing technology. While cloud computing may seem like a relatively new episode in the world of technology, the fact is that this idea first evolved in the 1950s but is now impacting the business world like never before.
Simply put, cloud computing is the delivery of computing services, including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence, over the Internet ("the cloud") to offer faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale. In 2020, the total worth of the global cloud computing market was $371.4 billion, and with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.5 percent, it's projected that the market will amount to $832.1 billion by 2025.
However, this growth is mostly from large-scale businesses, as medium and small businesses simply lack the dedicated technical resources to take advantage of cloud services. As a result, managed service providers (MSPs) are coming to aid these small and medium businesses in their quest for the cloud.
An MSP is a third-party company that remotely manages a customer's information technology (IT) infrastructure and end-user systems. These services may include network and infrastructure management, security, application support, systems integration, and monitoring. There are thousands of MSPs in North America alone, and In the case of cloud computing, MSPs offer their trust and the technical talent required to help small and medium enterprises make the transition.
"Even as the MSP business continues to grow," said John Street, CEO, Pax8, a company providing a platform to MSPs where they can discover, provision, then manage solutions for their end-customers, "the move of so much to so many different clouds presents many challenges. Most MSPs lack the business infrastructure to establish relationships with all the cloud providers and the ability to stitch all of those services into a marketplace so they can be easily delivered billed to their customers, which is where cloud marketplace platforms come in."
A cloud marketplace is a type of application marketplace synonymous with Software as a Service (SaaS) marketplace. At a cloud marketplace, customers can go to an online storefront to find, purchase, and manage cloud-based applications, while MSPs can promote their services to those who need them most. Many MSPs are pursuing this marketplace strategy because of the multidimensional value of cloud services, including values such as agility, scalability, cost benefits, innovation, and business growth.
"We've pioneered in the MSP platform space," Street said. "We've done this by bringing together experts with MSP and other IT backgrounds and collaborating with them to understand where they need help," Street explained. "It has never been easier to research, compare, and evaluate software, and speed up implementation with a cloud-first model than it is today."
Cloud marketplaces can also offer cost savings and optimizations, from special pricing to simplified billing and management.
As for the MSPs, by leveraging a cloud marketplace platform, like Pax8, they can easily quote, order, bill, and provision cloud products in one place, with one monthly bill, while taking their cloud operation offerings to the next level with streamlined management, multitenant insights, and tools designed to help you win deals. This adds ease and optimizes the cloud transition process, allowing small and medium enterprises to finally realize the true benefits of the cloud.
"In the past, when businesses wanted to shop for cloud-based applications or digital solutions, they had to contact an intermediary or each company they were considering," Street said. "But with the introduction of cloud marketplace platforms like ours, the process has become less onerous and more personalized, as businesses can find the MSP that suits their needs best, and MSPs can reach out and be seen more easily by companies that require assistance in the cloud transition. Vendor-agnostic marketplaces allow for a wider variety of applications and solutions to be available, adds ease to the entire process, so every business is able to experience the true power of the cloud."
Edited by
Luke Bellos
