Blind trust in big technology solutions is an attitude that can seriously undermine an enterprise and relations with reseller partners. As well as junking the cloud, the customer is also likely to junk the partner that led them there and such an outcome is disappointing, explains Tim Whiteley, Co-Founder Inevidesk.
As almost every organisation is well embedded in the Microsoft environment, and Azure is generally the obvious solution to consider for cloud-based server and VDI resources. In many cases, other options will not even be considered as the Microsoft mindset tends to rule and, of course, Azure is a key product for many channel partners.
At first glance this seems like the sensible choice, that is keep everything within the Microsoft environment, take advantage of dynamic scaling, and only pay for what you use. This is the fundamental promise of cloud computing and Microsoft has positioned Azure to reap that demand. The scalability of VDI is appealing in today’s constantly changing and challenging world.
But do not be too quick to go down the public cloud route unless you have ensured that the service will be fit for purpose. An inappropriate solution can seriously upend a customer relationship. There are increasing numbers of organisations who are now migrating away from the public cloud, due to costs coming in much higher than forecasted and disappointing performance. It is not always the right fit.
Overprovisioning happens a lot, customers are promised the benefits of hosted VDI and Infrastructure as a Service, IaaS services but end up under-specifying and overprovisioning to try and meet a realistic budget. This then results in unanticipated overspending as underappreciated usage drives up monthly cost, whilst at the same time generating significant underperformance through budget squeezing under specification.
This is particularly prominent in sectors requiring large computing resources, frequent data churn and longer working hours than the average working day. Dynamic usage works out to be expensive.
Making matters worse, further consequences can include losing access to resources due to cross-customer overprovisioning and missing hours or days of work. Crazy as it seems, the large public cloud vendors can, and do, run out of resources.
The impact of unanticipated high costs, lower performance and downtime is a recipe for disaster, with the result often requiring migration to another solution, even regressing back to legacy on-premises infrastructure, reverting to the familiar and comfortable. Migrations are expensive and disruptive, adding further pain to the whole experience and potentially resulting in a customer ending up in the same place they started.
As well as junking the cloud, the customer is also likely to junk the partner that led them there. Such an outcome is hugely disappointing for all involved, especially as it undermines the case for cloud services and the incredibly powerful reasons for adoption.
Two recent examples showed organisations spending £600 per month for BIM workstation resources which would cost around £2,000 for a physical machine and another organisation spending £12,000 per month more than an industry-specific cloud solution and losing access to resources regularly due to overprovisioning. With such examples, it is no wonder that some sectors are reluctant to move to the cloud.
These kinds of decisions can be crippling, especially in today’s uncertain economy and with IT spending forecasts continuing to grow. Blind trust in big technology solutions and generalists is an attitude that can seriously undermine a business and relations with its reseller partners.
Instead, customers need to look to channel partners with wide industry-specific experience, who have undertaken the relevant research and have a genuine array of options for which they can provide the information necessary to forecast spending and guarantee performance levels.
That is not to say there is no room for the public cloud in any given situation. There are many cases where it may be the right solution, or at least, an aspect of a wider strategy – such as lower-priced cool storage for data-heavy organisations with a lot of archive material. It should not be the default solution, as – when it is inappropriately sold – it undermines relationships and the actual benefits of VDI, virtualisation and cloud computing.
There is an increasing variety of solutions out there for private cloud, self-hosting in data centres and hybrid models that offer small technology innovation, better performance, better pricing, actual human support and sector-informed design. Much of the promise of cloud computing can be realised; often it is simply a matter of finding the right partner and the right solution.
Continued research and market review is critical in keeping abreast of options and opportunities. Solutions must be tried and tested by peers to provide the relevant assurance and plentiful, industry-backed evidence, to protect both customer and channel partner. It is also healthy to encourage competition and support innovation: such an approach will benefit channel partners much more in the long run.
