Cloud and Virtualisation Turning Resellers Into Service Providers

According to an Acronis International GmbH‘s survey of more than 1,100 storage software resellers across Europe, demand for cloud and virtualisation solutions is encouraging a growing number of resellers to evolve into service providers.

Close to half (43%) of the resellers surveyed claim that cloud and virtualisation are the catalysts for changing their current business model to become more of a service provider in the future. Already, almost one in five (18%) resellers are offering white label cloud services to their customers and the survey findings suggest this number will rise.

Virtualisation has become ubiquitous with the vast majority (90%) of resellers claiming to have virtualised some part of their customer’s infrastructure. Over a quarter (26%) of resellers believe that services migrating customers from physical to virtual to cloud environments deliver better margins.

According to nearly a third (30%) of those surveyed, the strong attraction of cloud services lies in the fact that it represents a great renewals business. Meanwhile, 36% are attributing the fact that they’re selling more licences and fewer boxes due to growing demand for cloud and virtualisation solutions.

Alan Laing, VP EMEA, Acronis, said: "Wrapping services around cloud and virtualisation is clearly an attractive proposition. It’s a business model that makes a great deal of sense for savvy resellers who want to seize an opportunity to offer high margin services and low-touch renewals fees. Cloud and virtualisation are rapidly transforming the technology landscape, and resellers must evolve if they want to remain competitive and stay ahead."

Chris Roche, MD of ACUTEC Limited, said: "The economic downturn has increased pressure to cut costs and deliver greater value from an IT investment. As a result, customers are moving more quickly to embrace strategies that meet these requirements. Cloud and virtualisation rank amongst the top technologies to optimise almost any organisations server and storage optimisation strategy, and we’re evolving our business model to capitalise on this revolution."

The survey is an annual barometer of Acronis’ partner’s perceptions and vision of market trends. Over 1,100 Acronis EMEA partners across 10 European countries, including Germany, France, UK, Italy, and Netherlands were surveyed in March 2012.