We have all witnessed the cloud rush of recent years where organisations have been encouraged to move their workloads to the cloud. What does 2017 hold in store for cloud trends.
Un-clouding
However, there is a growing recognition amongst end users and the channel that cloud services are not the be-all and end-all. And certainly, not always the most cost effective way to deliver all their IT workloads. In several cases, the promised cost savings customers thought they were getting have not materialised – in fact they get a shock when they see their bill, after not being properly advised on their long-term costs. Many resellers have been caught up in the hype surrounding cloud services, and decisions were made without the channel or end user understanding the implications.
Next year we will see end users working with their resellers to move workloads out of the cloud and back on-premise, and in the future, we will see a more educated, sensible approach where cloud is not the default option for hosting all workloads.
Un-clouding leading to non-clouding
In the future, resellers, distributors and end users will become better educated to make the right decision regarding which workloads should sit in the cloud, as opposed to moving everything over wholesale. Instead of jumping on the cloud bandwagon, people will be more concerned about which carriage on the bandwagon they are going to get on.
Voice as a service moves mainstream
Voice over IP has become increasingly prevalent in the enterprise, with services like Skype growing in popularity. The end of life of ISDN and PSTN will mean we will start seeing true mainstream adoption of VoIP, not just in the enterprise but in SMBs too.
Telcom companies will drive more visibility around the fact that they see a recognised end-of-life approaching for ISDN, PSTN services and that they will need to be replaced. VoIP services will start to become the norm, and users will start consuming it as a service.
Instant messaging begins to displace email
Instant Messaging and real-time interaction will start to replace email. Services like Slack and Microsoft Team are becoming prevalent in the workplace, and employees are increasingly choosing instant messaging over email. Email just does not work for us anymore. Having presence and real-time interaction on projects will become the norm.
Replacing email as the main form of communication in organisations, next year will see Instant Messaging take off among businesses. That interaction can easily then be converged with voice at a click of a button, going back to the emergence of VoIP.
API skills key for resellers
It is becoming clearer by the day that being good at integrating systems in the old-fashioned way is not enough anymore. True API integration is the new value-add.
Moving forward, any reseller that wants to add true value to their customer base will have to have API skills and they will have to have some element of development in what they offer. It might not be pure coding, it might be the ability to implement and integrate systems using APIs that delivers that single pane of glass experience.
Karl Roe is Vice President Services and Cloud Solutions at Nuvias Group.