MC+A

In a recent article on IT Knowledge Exchange, The impending cloud MC+A’s president, Michael Cizmar discussed the position of VAR’s and cloud solutions.

Excerpt:

Cizmar thinks that value-added partners — those who integrate disparate services and applications, those who build applications, and those who support customers — will be more valuable than ever in a cloudy future. And that will be true whether the infrastructure provider of choice is Salesforce.com, Amazon.com, Microsoft, NetSuite, add-your-own-favorite-company here.

“Solution providers provide [domain] and technology implementation expertise. That will still be needed. Look at Salesforce.com or NetSuite. We are a tech company and we have a partner that implements our NetSuite solution,” he notes.

At MC+A, we are always on the lookout for companies implementing cloud computing solutions for their organization. Seeing as how we are Google Enterprise Partners and part of the Google Apps Partnership, it is easy for us to stay current on changes to business technology. Because of our position, we came across a couple of interesting whitepapers about the cloud computing solutions and felt that it would be best to address this in our own way.

The whitepapers are titled: Cloud Computing – Latest Buzzword or Glimpse of the Future? and Cloud Computing – What is its Potential Value for your Company? The first whitepaper analyzes the past, present, and future of computing in “the cloud.” It goes through the market landscape of which companies have, are, and/or would benefit from cloud computing. The analysis is in-depth to the point to give individuals the ability to see both sides of the coin – the benefits and negatives of “the cloud.”

The second whitepaper is more of an overview of organizations and governments who have recently joined the cloud computing revolution. They take four different organizations with four different job functions and analyze each and show the benefits of cloud computing. The results for each are startling (oh yes, they provide a financial benefit outline as well).

For those who are unaware of what cloud computing actually is, it is the ability to take previously in-house hosted solutions and move them into a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider hosting facility. Thus, companies free themselves from the burden of hardware purchasing, technical employee hiring, and license fees. A clever way to put it is to think of personal online banking, web email (like gmail or hotmail), and instant messaging (like AIM) – all done by not installing servers, hardware, or software – being stored in “the cloud” (or not local).

MC+A was extremely interested in these whitepapers and they sure did not disappoint. If you want to take a look at them you can click here.

In a recent Tech Target interview, MC+A’s president, Michael Cizmar, outlined his opinions on the growing popularity of cloud computing and how it will affect both IT solutions companies and enterprise end-users. 

 While a strong advocate for innovation, Michael believes that even in a “cloudy” world, there will still be a great need for solution companies who can add value by efficiently implementing new technologies across the enterprise.

According to Michael, those who prove their expertise by developing applications that make the cloud more efficient and productive, will continue to play a vital role in the technology world.  In addition, enterprise users win as talented developers are incented to showcase their abilities to an otherwise difficult to reach audience.   

As Michael notes, “If you have an application, and put it on the Google marketplace, you’re immediately exposed to 500,000 customers.”  With this type of opportunity for developers, and the resulting benefits to enterprise users, cloud computing – and innovative companies like MC+A – may be in the process of creating the perfect storm. 

Read the full interview here: 

http://channelmarker.blogs.techtarget.com/2008/06/12/the-impending-cloud/