Having your head in the clouds used to be a bad thing, but soon companies will rely on brokers with the smarts to secure the best virtualised services.
This is according to Kalyan Kumar, chief technologist of software-led IT solutions firm HCL Technologies.
He predicts that the increasing take up of SaaS and IaaS services will spur an ecosystem of cloud providers, resellers, distributors and integrators, all necessary evils for getting the best out of the cloud.
But the proliferation of services will become so complex that IT decision making could be taken out of companies’ hands, who will instead turn to external "cloud brokers to find the best cloud service for them.
Kumar explains: "A cloud broker adds value not only by managing the use, performance and delivery of cloud services but also by negotiating relationships between cloud providers and consumers. They also provide various services such as integration, aggregation and arbitrage."
While some firms might be tempted to try and do it themselves, Kumar warns that "this is an enormous task and needs an army of qualified people to manage".
The downside is that companies will become far less autonomous, relying on these brokers to understand them well enough to know which services will suit them best.
The upside is that paying these brokers will save companies money.
According to Kumar, they will be a "cost-effective and cutting-edge value proposition".
