SaaS and hosting companies: A match made in heaven
The online revolution is continuing to impress and amaze. With new buzz words making their way into our vocabulary on a daily basis and innovative new technologies that are continually making your jaw drop. So as this phenomenon spirals upwards, it’s essentially creating business solutions that are proving to be invaluable.
System integrators, VARs, software developers and resellers have been selling business solutions to end-users for years and are now looking at how they can deliver IT as a service, in addition to selling solutions. This is clever, as by doing this they are able to make more margin on each sale as well as satisfy the emerging demand from customers who no longer have to purchase or invest in expensive hardware.
Hosting companies are major players when it comes to providing services and can do a lot more than just storing data on a server. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and Platform as a service (PaaS) are two offerings that attract resellers within the channel. IaaS and Paas are two out of the three pillars that create cloud computing. These topics have been and will continue to be on the minds of every CIO and IT manager in the UK. The third and final pillar of cloud computing is Software as a service (SaaS), which is where hosting providers and partners combine to offer services and solutions that resellers really can’t say no to!
So what is the next stage for the channel?
The next step moving forward is for more vendors to enable resellers to sell SaaS on top their infrastructure computing services. This will give resellers the opportunity to offer a complete service that is widely appealing to end-users and will automatically incorporate hosting providers current offerings. With outsourced services that are provided by hosting companies becoming more popular due to the cloud computing boom, resellers are now looking at comprehensive packages to offer customers.
SaaS is part of the technology evolution, enabling customers and enterprises to literally purchase all of their IT from a single reseller. This will benefit both parties.
Firstly, the customer doesn’t have to research the entire market for different products that will comprise their IT infrastructure, which can be in many cases a tedious task. Secondly, the reseller is embarking on more than just a one off sale; they are creating an on-going relationship. A healthy relationship between reseller and end-user will provide more business and revenue on the reseller’s behalf but will also ensure that the purchased infrastructure or services are fully supported, ensuring business can continue without any hiccups.
So as technologies rocket forward and vendors are finding new solutions and platforms on which to service customers, there needs to be a shift within the channel so end-users have the choice to purchase all their IT requirements from one location. Resellers need to go the extra mile to provide a full service for one payment, rather then let the customer become confused with the many options that are available in the UK market.
