What actually constitutes the “cloud”? How has this graphical symbol of the Internet evolved in complexity over time? Is it still appropriate as the generic blanket for the multitude of Internet based Services? James Griffin, Head of Hosting Strategy, Star Technology, reports.

Having worked within the cloud for many years I have been privileged to watch some fantastic ideas move from concept through to successful Internet based services that have changed the way we communicate, work and collaborate; from hosted email services & calendars through to hosted ERP systems supporting multinational corporate infrastructure.

The challenge for hosting service providers is the sheer volume of services that can be delivered from the cloud – it is impossible to seriously offer a quality service without truly understanding the products and services you offer. There is a huge opportunity as the UK market finally matures in its willingness to consume critical business applications directly from the Internet – the key for the service providers is to provide their resellers, the Web Designers and Developers with scaleable, flexible and reliable Internet based services to serve this market.

If you look at how hosting providers take their products and services to market in the UK, you will see that whilst an obscene amount of marketing money is spent on driving customers directly through the doors, an equal and some times greater amount is spent focussing on attracting Web Designers and Developers to become Resellers and build a recurring revenue stream of services to supplement their traditional business.

Hosting providers know that the Designers and Developers who serve local & national businesses provide an un-rivalled reach into business communities – acting as the trusted representative of the hosting provider; this is one of the most effective sales channels there is. This is great news for Web Designers and Developers ; as applications as a service becomes a focus for the major software vendors of this world, the service providers begin to deliver new and innovative products and services to take to their channel partners, developing exciting revenue opportunities for both businesses.

If you consider the fact that when working on an ecommerce site for a business, they have shown you already, that they are prepared to but their most trusted assets – revenue and brand in a hosted environment. Backed with the right portfolio of products, configuration and design skills, this opens up fantastic opportunities to up-sell additional products and services.

The most naturally attached service to Website hosting is an email service, typically client based POP; however, the improvement in mobile device access and collaboration, combined with manageability and saleability, fully hosted Microsoft Exchange is extremely compelling for any business. We also know that CRM and contact management systems plug very nicely into Exchange offering further up-sell possibilities, including full integration within the customer’s ecommerce environment.

Offering an ecommerce solution that tracks marketing campaigns, allocates opportunities, creates a contact history, shares and manages documents and auto populates calendars; all designed, built and supplied by one local business at one monthly price is a hugely compelling proposition that allows differentiation from the outset.

Of course, the value to the end user business will come in the form of the configuration, integration and skill of the design business in integrating the chosen applications into the Website or Intranet. Some resellers will choose to specialise in unified communications, others, document management, CMS, Virtual desktops or ERP systems; the hosting providers will drive these products and help their partners get access to the core skills, marketing material and market awareness that is required to turn this fabulous opportunity into a growing recurring revenue stream.

What is obvious is that with some small amount of up-skilling, Designers & Developers are perfectly placed to begin unlocking the opportunities that will emerge from cloud computing over the next few years and beyond. The hosting providers will play a large part, but through adding there own unique value, it will be partners and resellers that enjoy the lions share of the revenue generated.