As recently as 2009, service providers could profitably deliver a single cloud service—such as e-mail or domain registration. As cloud services have matured, however, adoption rates have risen, with small and medium businesses (SMBs) now typically consuming two or three cloud services rather than just one, and preferring to get all their cloud services from the same provider. In addition, the increasing commoditization of cloud offerings has driven down prices, making it harder to deliver a single service profitably.

Both of these trends point to the growing importance of creating offerings that bundle several cloud services together, and then upselling your customers to higher-value packages and cross-selling them other services that might be of interest to them. All of these approaches are win/win solutions for both you and your customers. For you, they increase revenues and profitability while decreasing churn—because being able to get several services from one place makes for “stickier” customers. For your customers, they provide the convenience of a “one-stop shop.”

A new whitepaper just published on PartnerNet begins with a discussion of the overall SMB cloud opportunity—how big it is, and where it’s headed. Then it explains how you can increase the profitability of the cloud services you offer by bundling similar services together, upselling your customers to higher-value services, and cross-selling other services in which they might be interested. Finally, it takes a closer look at three categories of cloud services— hosted infrastructure, Web presence, and hosted communication and collaboration—and provides specific recommendations for bundles, upsells, and cross-sells within each category.

The whitepaper is available immediately for anyone who is a member of PartnerNet – register today if you’re not!

The Cloud isn’t coming, the Cloud is here. You’ve heard the buzz, but how do you get started? What do you need to know? Soar into the cloud with examples of taking existing applications and migrating them to the cloud using Windows Azure.
There are many ways to learn a new technology. Some of us prefer to read books, others like videos or screencasts, still others will choose to go to a training style event. In any case you need to have a reason to want to learn, whether it’s a new project, something to put on the resume or just the challenge because it sounds cool. For me I learn best when I’ve got a real project that will stretch my knowledge to apply it in a new way. It also helps to have a deadline.

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Hybrid is an end state for most customers as it balances choice and the needs of the business against cost, flexibility and risk.
In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Mark Clifton, Director Cloud Solutions at Dell Commercial Business Unit, will discuss Hybrid cloud adoption as well as the issues around data portability, integration and security that need to be proactively addressed.

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The explosion of big data and the need for faster data are spurring a search for data scientists as well as data architects.
It’s no secret that rocket .. err … data scientists are in short supply. The explosion of data and the corresponding explosion of tools, and the knock-on impacts of Moore’s and Metcalfe’s laws, is that there is more data, more connections, and more technology to process it than ever. At last year’s Hadoop World, there was a feeding frenzy for data scientists, which only barely dwarfed demand for the more technically oriented data architects.

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Like it or not, some enterprises have already entered a post-PC world — where their business communication network must accommodate new user-driven choices. These include traditional applications, mobile apps, social apps and operating systems; various server architectures; and an array of mobile devices ranging from smartphones to tablets and other mobility tools. Are you experiencing this phenomenon? If not, you will soon. Moreover, this latest business technology trend has huge ramifications.

Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) conducted extensive research and analysis to uncover key insights about BYOD (“bring your own device”) and desktop virtualization trends in U.S. enterprises. The Cisco IBSG Horizons BYOD and Virtualization study surveyed 600 enterprise IT leaders from 18 industries.

The Top 10 Market Insights

Insight 1: Mobility Is Pervasive

• Seventy-eight percent of U.S. white-collar employees use a mobile device (e.g., laptop, smartphone, or tablet) for work purposes.
• Respondents indicated that 65 …

The big, old-line enterprise IT vendors are now all-in, or close to it, with cloud computing. This may make things seem less exciting than a few years ago, when a flurry of startups were pushing the envelope and grabbing the headlines.
But it’s a good thing for IT buyers, and not necessarily a bad thing for the smaller companies that are now doing partnership deals with the big dogs and occasionally been bought out by them.
IBM is a case in point, as it moves ahead with its SmartCloud Services strategy. The latest stats from Big Blue say there are now 1 million users of enterprise apps, more than $100 billion (with a nod to Dr. Evil) in revenue, and 4.5 million daily client transactions in the IBM Cloud.
Forget all that early and some of that current talk about saving money. “Cloud is more than just about gaining efficiencies and cost savings, it’s about driving…fundamental innovation,” according to Paul Loftus, general manager, IBM Global Technology Services.
This no doubt comes to a relief to large-company IT execs, who really don’t need their bosses harping on them to save money save money save money every day. They need to create cloud infrastructures that are flexible, clever, and future-proof more than they need to focus exclusively on cost.
Lots of Stuff Going On
One recent development finds TopCoder, touted as “the world’s largest Open Innovation Community of digital creators,” moving its global community of more than 400,000 developers to IBM SmartCloud Enterprise.
IBM has also said the beta period of its SmartCloud Application Services (SCAS) has finished, as it “is expanding to a full pilot with new customers.” The company says it’s added a range of new customers in health care, international development, retail, manufacturing, and academia.
And whither those exciting cloud companies of yore? IBM notes it’s added several of them as new ISVs and partners, including AppZero, Cloud Prime, Cohesive FT, Convertigo, Corent, Jaspersoft, NViso, SOASTA, Sproxil, SugarCRM, Vacava, Vision Solutions, and Zementis.

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In this CTO Power Panel at the 10th International Cloud Expo, chaired by Jeremy Geelan, industry-leading CTOs & VPs of Technology will discuss such topics as:
Which do you think is the most important cloud computing standard still to tackle?
Who should and shouldn’t be using a PaaS product today, and why?
Can a public cloud ever be truly secure?
How important is open source to cloud computing and Big Data?
«Mission-critical apps are now safe in the cloud.» True or false?
In your company how important a component is mobility in your cloud thinking?
If we now have «elastic IT» does that mean you view yourself as an «elastic CTO»???

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As a media partner of Cloud Expo, GigaOM is offering a special 20% discount for each registration package for SYS-CON’s 10th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 11-14, 2012, at the Javits Center in New York City. To obtain your 20% discount, here is a quick summary of all you need to do – feel free to cut and paste these instructions into any email blast you might be sending out.
Cloud Expo 2012 New York, June 11–14, 2012, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.

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