When you’re beginning the difficult journey to selling the cloud, it helps to get some advice from those that have already been there, done that.
As part of the Canadian Channel Chiefs Council’s (C4) first education seminar in September– From Cloud Illusions to Cloud Realities: Cutting through the Hype – three expert panelists shared their experiences with making successful transitions to the cloud.
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Here is some of their advice and best practices from the perspective of a solution provider, a vendor and a customer.
Jeff Dunmall, president of solution provider Imason Inc.
“Find a couple of trusted advisors in your network and work with them do something to get started; do a pilot. The train has left the station and is picking up speed so hop on if you’re not already onboard.”
Carolyn Rollins, director of commercial marketing, Dell Canada
“For partners or OEMs, cloud is not an option. For customers, you’re probably already using the cloud; you probably have parts of the business where someone’s using apps for which you don’t have control. The conversations will only intensify in the months to come. It’s a journey. It’s not a forklift and tomorrow, you’re in the cloud. Start with yourself; you’re the best test case for your business. And really start to look at how you can improve the business for your customers. It’s not about the technology. It’s about expertise, and how you want to put it together in a solution.”
Jim Love, CIO, IT World Canada
“I want relief from the operational stuff I don’t want to have to deal with. With the cloud, there’s so much ability to share solutions. It’s not just the cloud, it’s the culture of the cloud; the reuse and sharing of solutions and the ability to buy things at a reasonable price we couldn’t afford to buy on our own is driving so much innovation and growth.”