MSPs key to making Amazon, Microsoft and Google cloud services accessible to mid-market.

Adoption of hyper-scale public cloud platforms is increasing across the UK market but the potentially huge business benefits are being missed because of a lack of understanding of the complex tools available for automating, migrating and managing public cloud services.

The transformational benefits of public cloud have been widely documented and it is increasingly seen as an acceptable platform for businesses to use. However, the complexities and extensive toolsets of the Big Three (AWS, Microsoft and Google) hyper-scale public cloud platforms are such that many businesses lack the expertise required to properly harness them.. Managed Services Providers like Claranet are ideally placed to bridge that gap, providing both the expertise and knowledge to get the most from any cloud deployment.

Neil Thomas, Product and Marketing Director, Claranet UK, explained:

Public cloud is for good reason a huge growth market. With the expertise, innovation and scale that Amazon, Microsoft and Google are throwing at the development of cloud services, businesses stand to achieve significant benefits. However, it is important to understand that public cloud is not just an alternative infrastructure but a completely different tool with many additional services. If end users do not harness these services, then it would be a waste to make a move to the Big Three. Service providers like Claranet have developed their public cloud experience and work closely alongside the main providers to stay up-to-date with the new tools and services, which are being launched nearly every week.”

Businesses need to focus on guiding the development of applications and processes that will differentiate their organisations, ideally by taking a DevOps approach. By using automation tools to deploy and manage infrastructure, deploy code onto that infrastructure, and then to maintain the code base and any changes, IT leaders will be far more effective at supporting the bottom line of their organisations.

Neil continues:

With our customers, we have noticed a close link between those that use a public cloud deployment to best effect and who also deploy an effective DevOps way of working. The potential for automation that comes with the Big Three in terms of infrastructure and code deployment is ideal, and I would say essential, if a true DevOps approach is going to be successful. An experienced partner allows businesses to focus on their applications while the provider uses their skills in the platform, and the required associated tooling, to unlock the transformational benefits public cloud can bring.”