[Infographic] 15 Keys to Successful Cloud Business Practice

Over the past couple of decades, the cloud computing industry has been growing substantially. It has become an integrated part of modern businesses and entrepreneurs. The momentum behind cloud technology continues to gain strength, owing to the number of benefits it offers for the businesses.

Enhanced efficiency and scalability are the common reasons for businesses adopting cloud hosting. With growing consumer awareness and increasing costs of technology, the businesses are planning to shift to a more hassle-free environment- the cloud.

Moreover, as the cloud offers hardware-independent solutions, there is a wonderful opportunity for small businesses to capitalize on it and compete with the major enterprises.

The study done by Techaisle in September 2013 provides a detailed outline for SMBs. It is designed to help the cloud service providers create a successful strategy in order to build a viable and efficient cloud business. It identifies the best practices that were successful in providing cloud services to small and medium businesses and CPAs.

There have been lots of speculations about the impact of cloud technology on the market, but very little has been done in terms of delivering partner specific tactical tools to drive this transforming business. The research-based study finds that there is a number of quantitative and actionable divergences among successful cloud channel partners and those who are yet to develop SMB cloud practices.

The study highlights the major differences between:

1. Channel partners that are successful in making money through selling cloud to SMBs

2. Channel partners that have just achieved success and started earning by selling cloud to SMBs

3. Channel partners that have not yet received success and are not making money

Cloud is an important trend that is shaping technology for SMBs today and likely for decades to come. So, if you are trying to grow your company, cloud technology brings innumerable benefits for most.

The practices mentioned below can lower the risks in managing business-critical cloud and control the complexities of cloud technology.

Image Credit: Techaisle, 15 Keys to Successful SMB Cloud Practice Infographic

Some of these practices include are discussed in detail.

1. In-depth knowledge of the customer business – The cloud channel partner should have knowledge of the business they are hosting on their cloud. This is essential because each type of business requires a specific environment, resources, and level of security to function.
2. Offer a variety of cloud models – It is beneficial for cloud channel partners to offer cloud model other than IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and SaaS (Software as a Service). Other delivery models may include PaaS (Platform as a Service) and BPaaS (Business Process as a Service).
3. Data Integration – As a cloud provider, you should be able to integrate the on-premise setup of the customer and the cloud environment efficiently and securely. This means that all the data processed on the local infrastructure should be backed up on the cloud.

A brief of research is reflected through infographic from Techaisle below that explores the keys to Successful Cloud Business Practice.