Cloud Convergence Coming in 2015: How do MSPs Manage Expectations?

Experts are starting to see a real trend toward cloud convergence over the next 12 months. This prompts an important question for MSPs: When mobile, social, cloud and big data are all under the same umbrella, what happens to consumer expectations?

Unified Technology Landscape

As noted by a Dec. 23 article from Business 2 Community, these four "critical streams of technology are gradually converging into one powerful force that is making way for a huge shift in the current business landscape." This is no surprise, since mobile, cloud, big data and social media share many of the same feature sets and overlap when it comes to both form and function. A more unified technology landscape can therefore be seen as inevitable, but why is this transition happening now? In large part the move is thanks to maturing cloud technologies, since it is now possible to support social, data analytics and mobile offerings on a single cloud backbone or distribute their functions across multiple public and private clouds without impacting efficacy.

This results in a kind of ubiquity that opens up new avenues to reach consumers, gain customer insight, provide fertile ground for innovation and improve collaboration. But for MSPs serving midsize businesses, this cloud convergence also comes with a caveat: Companies will quickly start to expect more than single-channel service from providers, especially as they come to terms with a mobile-enabled, cloud-savvy workforce. So how do MSPs manage expectations in a converged world?

Already Happening

One option is to wait it out by continuing to deliver solid service in existing areas but without building in new functionality. The problem? This will not work for long. Just as consumers want simplified cloud access and real-time analytics, they expect desktop and mobile devices to work interchangeably. As a result, waiting for cloud convergence to "finish" puts MSPs behind the curve.

Managing midsize expectations requires a two-pronged approach. First, MSPs must recognize that midsize business needs can both meet and exceed enterprise requirements since many smaller companies cannot afford to pay multiple full-time IT staffs. Next, service providers must be willing to adapt in anticipation, rather than on demand. Converged cloud services provide instant access to a pool of ubiquitous functions, and scaling up in anticipation gives MSPs breathing room for the growth of midsize expectations.

Convergence is coming. Increased ease of use, however, means increasing expectations: MSPs cannot be unprepared for ubiquity.

This post was brought to you by IBM for Midsize Business. Dedicated to providing businesses with expertise, solutions and tools that are specific to small and midsized companies, the Midsize Business program provides businesses with the materials and knowledge they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

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Cloud Convergence Coming in 2015: How do MSPs Manage Expectations?