Partners selling cloud solutions experience nearly double gross profits and faster business growth, according to a new IDC study, sponsored by Microsoft.
The study notes that the transformation taking place in business as more organisations of all sizes move their technology infrastructures to the Internet "cloud."
According to the study, cloud-oriented partners, defined as those that generate over 50% of their revenue from the cloud, grow at double the rate, attract new customers more than two times faster and generate 30% more revenue per employee compared with noncloud-oriented partners.
IDC programme VP of channels and alliances research Darren Bibby said cloud alone hasn’t caused these impressive numbers and that top-performing partners were visionaries who took on cloud technologies before their peers.
"We’re at the point in the industry’s overall cloud transition where partners that don’t move some of their business to the cloud likely won’t survive. And some partners that are getting ready to sell their business or retire may be OK with that. Most won’t be," Bibby added.
The study revealed that 63% of customers expect to have a single cloud service provider to meet their needs and 67% anticipate to purchase a variety of cloud services from a single vendor.
About 74% of surveyed expect their cloud service provider to be able to move a cloud offering back on-premises if needed.
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Microsoft corporate VP of Jon Roskill said IDC’s data reveals that businesses prefer to buy end-to-end IT solutions from a single cloud vendor and want to work with a company they have an established relationship with.
"With Office 365 now on a $1 billion annual revenue run rate and more than 250,000 customers using Windows Azure, with thousands more added every week, our partners are in a prime position to support this," Roskill said.
