Football games are as much a part of Thanksgiving as turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. In football, there’s a term called getting “ear holed”. For those who have never played the greatest sport in America, the best definition I can provide is as follows:
Ear Holed: A player being tackled/blocked from the side, leaving ones feet and potentially losing consciousness momentarily, without warning or seeing the hit coming.
If you’re more visually inclined, check out this video clip . I think we can all agree no one wants to be #10 from Wisconsin in that moment.
How does this devastating hit relate to IT? If you’re not having the Cloud conversation with your customers then you have a nasty hit coming your way, because I can guarantee that someone else is talking to your customers about the Cloud. The market has changed and those who are still driving 100% on-premise solutions are getting blindsided by the Cloud.
If you’re not positioned to have the Cloud conversation with your clients, then brace for impact when your customers’ are inevitably:
- ready for the next refresh cycle
- introducing a new business application
- moving towards increased mobility & productivity
- needing to lower IT management costs
The Game Plan: There are a lot of Cloud Service Providers out in the market who can assist with your transition to brokering and delivering Cloud-based services to your customers. They will use phrases like “apples to apples”, “return on investment”, and my personal favorite “turnkey solution”. Be careful, the pollution of transactional sales is already prolific in the Cloud services industry and the race to the price bottom started years ago.
The perception that Cloud services is a transactional sale and driven by price, leads many businesses wondering if there is any differentiation at all between Cloud solutions. The speed and frequency of the price cuts raise concerns about the ability of the providers to continue this cycle and be able to maintain stable service delivery, high performance levels, and adequate levels of support. Long-term the price emphasis also prompts questions about how providers will be able to continue to invest in their infrastructure and increase innovation across their portfolios.
The most successful businesses don’t approach their customers as transactions, so choose a provider who:
- offers private, shared or hybrid cloud solutions, integrated security capabilities, tailored SLAs, and migration and
deployment support - is recognized for their competency, service, support and customer satisfaction
- meets rigorous industry certification standards
- continues to invest in developing the capability to deliver the integrated and customized Cloud solutions that your
customers require
These are all part of Quest’s core differentiators. Year over year we’ve been recognized by the industry for our solutions and services. Quest has been delivering Cloud services since 1999, when we first started our Infrastructure Security practice and have regularly gone through the architecture and design audits to achieve certification and validation for services like, Infrastructure as a Service and Desktop as a Service .
Our Channel Partners can be confident that Quest’s Cloud Services are strategically focused on the customer, therefore increasing your company’s chance of survival and growth in the IT market and avoid getting “ear holed”.
Winning Team: If you’re ready to make the transition and have the Cloud conversation with your customers, let’s talk.
