Tag: Cloud Industry Forum

Skills shortages and integration stuff up digital transformation

The Cloud Industry Forum and BT have woken up to the fact that skills shortages and migration and integration issues are causing problems for firms keen on digital transformation.

According to the pair’s study, three quarters either have or are thinking about digital transformation strategy in place or are rolling one out.

When customers talked about hurdles, barriers and problems the main one was around skill shortages with 59 percent thought they lacked the staff with integration and migration skills,

Cloud channel support is slack

Every silver has a cloudy liningThe Cloud Industry Forum has warned cloud customers are not getting the levels of support they need from channel partners when it comes to help migrating to the cloud.

In a report the Forum said that part of the problem is that there are some inexperienced channel players who are yet to really grow into being cloud providers and customers needed to make more careful assessments of potential partners.

Customers were having to deal with the result of poor integration with existing legacy systems and a failure by the partners to thoroughly assess the ability of the user’s network to deliver a stable product.

Overall the CIF findings were positive with 90 percent of customers expressing a positive satisfaction rating and 70 percent of IT buyers expecting to increase their use of cloud in the year ahead.

But since cloud migration is a key part of the whole business it does seem to be that more work needs to be done.

The CIF findings also come on top of a recent report from LogicNow that seems to suggest there is a worrying disconnect between service providers and customers.

The gap between customer expectations and partner service plans is a wide one, according to the LogicNow ‘Global IT Service Providers Harmony Report’.

The research suggested that most IT buyers started out a discussion with a service provider with the intention of getting help with a specific, business critical need. But the research found that the channel saw the chance to push wider services and tended to follow their own agenda.

Speaking last month, on the launch of the report Dr Alistair Forbes, general manager at LogNow, said that service providers needed to be patient about rushing into talk to a customer about a range of investment options, rather than dealing with the specific concern brought to their attention.

“Pushing strategic consultancy too early in the relationship gives an impression of under-valuing the immediate concern weighing heaviest on the customer’s mind. IT departments engage with Service Providers because they have a particular problem that needs solving. This must be addressed first to earn the opportunity of a strategic engagement later on,” he said.

Ingram Micro sponsors cloud event

Clouds in Oxford: pic Mike MageeThe first UK Cloud awards are to be sponsored by Ingram Micro UK.

The awards have been created by the Cloud Industry Forum in conjunction with techUK and Cloud Pro.

The jamboree is set to take place in February 2014, giving gongs to vendors, customers and individuals notable for pushing the edge of the cloud industry.

Apay Obang-Oyway, general maner at Ingrom UK said he wanted to encourage his company’s partners to submit products, projects and services that could win gongs.

Alex Hilton, CEO of the Cloud Industry Forum, added that the organisation created the UK awards and to showcase the best examples of what the IT world can deliver.

Judges include journos Max Cooter, Maggie Holland and Clive Longbottom of Quocirca.

You can enter the awards by scooting over to www.ukcloudawards.co.uk

Cloud Industry Forum slams Google over .cloud gTLD

cloud 1Industry group the Cloud Industry Forum has slammed Google for what it calls the company’s attempt to control the future of the .cloud generic top level domain (gTLD).

ICANN had been looking at reviewing thousands of gLTDs, and one of the most disputed was .cloud – with three top brands, Google, Symantec, and Amazon, applying for it as a closed registry. This would make the bid winner the sole registrar of the domain and would exercise all control over it.

An open letter to ICANN, penned by Cloud Industry Forum founder Andy Burton, says none of these companies should have the right over a domain that could represent an entire industry. “Clearly none had the right to exercise ownership over the phrase, and indeed none could ever dream to achieve it in a comparative activity such as registering a trademark,” Burton said.

The CIF thinks Google’s moves to convert the closed .cloud application to a “restricted” one has done “little to allay industry fears, and is likely to compound competition concerns and give Google an unfair advantage over everyone else in the industry”.

The threat is that, by controlling the .cloud domain, other players will be relegated to third level domains and, as a result, will give Google an unfair ability to promote, categorise and develop cloud services.

“As one of the largest and most powerful cloud services companies in the world, Google would have both the incentive and ability to undermine its rivals’ ability to innovate and promote their own cloud services via this gTLD,” Burton writes. “A situation we believe, that no matter what the positive motive of Google’s application may have been, should not be allowed to arise in the first place”.

“We cannot allow market size and funding to win over common sense and fairness in matters such as the control of a generic term,” Burton said.

The letter is available to read in full here.

Although Google does its best to distance itself from anticompetitive claims, the company has been under the eye of both the US FTC and, now, the European Commission. Critics have alleged Google used its market leading position to redirect search results to its own services, and away from those of rivals.