The market is certainly in the midst of the as-a-service trend, and it makes sense. Businesses are able to procure the end-to-end technology solutions that they once purchased as a capital expenditure, as a converged solution that integrates infrastructure, software and managed services into a fee-per-month model.
While the darlings of Silicon Valley have been making billions of dollars off of this model for the last decade (think Salesforce) we have found that service providers have been slower to adopt it.
We see businesses come to us every day looking to build out their own solutions on Cloud-A, but many lack the resources or will to deploy the infrastructure, build or install software and manage the ongoing operations. Many are looking for a service provider to deliver a given solution as-a-service, which creates a phenomenal opportunity for service providers to deliver their solutions as-a-service on Cloud-A.
Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of delivering solutions as-a-service on Cloud-A.
Recurring Revenue
Most business owners can agree that recurring revenue is an very attractive model. It is predictable and stable and allows service providers to forecast future revenues with a high degree of certainty. Additionally, many customers are becoming more comfortable and even prefer an OPEX vs. CAPEX spend.
Procuring Cloud-A infrastructure-as-a-service as the infrastructure layer a solution as-a-service allows a service provider to pass along and mark up the monthly infrastructure costs associated to the solution to the customer, avoiding any capital expenditures that would otherwise lead to a model where break-even on a deal is several months, or even years away.
Multi Tenancy
Anytime a service provider can effectively deliver a solution as-a-service in a multi-tenant environment, they achieve a lower cost of service delivery since essentially no new software resources are required for each incremental customer. At scale, the cost of on-boarding a new customer approaches zero, resulting in higher margins.
Cloud-A’s infrastructure can easily be horizontally scaled through the use of our APIs and configuration management tools. This allows service providers to effectively deliver their solutions in a multi tenant environment, all while scaling their infrastructure, and subsequently infrastructure costs, up or down on-demand as they onboard new customers.
More Choice for Customers
An as-a-service model is not necessarily a fit for every organization. Depending on an organization’s appetite for relinquishing control and/or outsourcing management of a system, a customer may prefer to have a solution be built on on-premise hardware, within the walls of their own data centre. Offering solutions both as an on-premise solution and cloud based as-a-service solution provides choice to customers, and also increases a service provider’s chances of closing new business.
Cloud-A can be leveraged to deliver hybrid solutions, adding a third model of delivery to a service provider’s portfolio. By having multiple models of delivery, a service provider can reduce the amount of objections by a customer, forcing them to focus on the functionality and business value of the solution, rather than the way it is delivered.
Partnering for Success
Cloud-A has been dedicated to a infrastructure-only business since our inception. Instead, we have focused on building strong relationships with forward thinking service providers with unique skill-sets to deliver services on our cloud infrastructure. We are more than happy to help promote and celebrate in our partner’s successes in an effort to drive business together, and ultimately bring modern, cloud native solutions to market.
Check out our case study on our partner Razyr Networks who has built and delivers rCloud, a multi-tenant, Cloud-A based, file sync and share solution to Canadian customers.
Get Started
Check out our Ecosystem page to learn how service provider partners are leveraging Cloud-A infrastructure to deliver their solutions-as-a-service today. Contact us to discuss how we can work together to bring your as-s-service solution to market.