Five Reasons to Expand Your VAR Business with Cloud Services

Cloud services are here to stay

After all the talk and all the hype, the proof is finally out.  Cloud revenues for the four quarters ended September 30, 2016, grew 25% over the previous year, according to a recent Synergy Research Group report.  While the gorillas in the room drove revenues to an impressive $148 billion, the more significant milestone in 2016 is that spending on cloud services exceeded cloud infrastructure hardware and software for the first time ever. This is great news for value-added resellers (VARs) who are looking to grow revenues by offering cloud-based services. 

The other compelling news is that providing cloud services is no longer just a play for enterprises by enterprises. From Amazon, Citrix and Dell to HPE, IBM and Microsoft, many industry leaders are now offering enterprise-grade cloud services to mid-size and smaller businesses through the VAR channel.  As a trusted marketing partner in the VAR community, Merit Mile understands the complexities—and nuances—of the channel and the cloud services opportunity for VARs.

What are the benefits to you?

Offering cloud services to small and mid-size businesses enables you, as a VAR, to grow faster, shed some outdated baggage, and enjoy some highly strategic benefits:

  1. For starters, you can avoid the low margins, time consumption, and constant churn of hardware and software/app sales.  
  2. By adopting a Platform as a Service (PaaS) cloud strategy, for example, you can grow business quickly and achieve economies of scale by hosting multiple customers on a single, robust platform.  
  3. Security has become a universal concern, and enterprise-grade cloud services that have demonstrated effective, multilayered security for large corporations now deliver that same security to smaller businesses.
  4. If you have the resources and the savvy, you can also leverage opportunities to further brand your business, differentiate your service, and simplify the cloud message for your customers.
  5. Finally, as the competition to offer cloud services continues to heat up, opportunities to profit and grow will be met by those VARs who capitalize on the cloud movement. If you intend to get in the game, now’s the time!

The cloud spectrum

Cloud services come in all shapes and sizes. Some, like Citrix ShareFile, offer secure, convenient file and document sharing, signing and maintenance in the cloud.  Others, like Salesforce, provide full-featured CRM services. This brief white paper from HPE offers additional insights for VARs interested in cloud services.

How to get started

Have questions about how to get started providing cloud services?  Want some help with messaging, materials, and marketing?  No worries. Contact Merit Mile today.  We’re writing the book on cloud services in the channel.