Most companies in the cloud will become cloud brokers, according to a new report by Forrester.
The analyst firm said that majority of telcos, system integrators and other cloud providers are moving to a cloud broker model, while the rest already recognise a pulling momentum from their customers and regional markets.
In the firm’s report, Cloud Brokers Will Reshape The Cloud, it said that while most companies would moving over to the cloud broker model, very few a “mature understanding” of the term.
The report, commissioned by cloud platform provider Cordys, found that although adoption of the cloud broker model is increasing, there is still confusion around the term itself.
“Our own experience confirms Forrester’s findings that demand for cloud broker services is on the rise,” commented Sudir Chopade, Senior Vice President Engineering, Cordys. “Yet there is clearly still confusion over what exactly the broker model entails. If telcos and service providers are to fully exploit the opportunity cloud broking offers, it’s crucial that they get to grips with their place in the market.”
More in-depth interviews conducted by Forrester on respondents found that four respondents indicated that their company had an immature understanding of the term cloud broker, typified by the lack of recognition and the use of inconsistent definitions by various stakeholders; three interviewees showed an emerging understanding, with wide acceptance of the cloud broker term but still lacking a consistent definition across the organisation; and only three respondents showed a mature understanding, with the majority of the employee base accepting the term cloud broker and using only one or two definitions.
The research identified the different areas of growth for telcos, SIs and dedicated cloud providers. The telcos interviewed saw the most immediate demand for a broker services coming from the SMB segment. Some SMBs are already actively looking for the best ways to subscribe to SaaS applications, while large enterprises are mainly demanding specific cloud infrastructures. Only one telco firm already sees large enterprises demanding SaaS applications.
In contrast, SIs see large enterprises increasingly starting to consider cloud broker services. They are tired of paying license and maintenance and so are starting to engage in enterprise solution stores.
Pure cloud providers target a global audience of all company sizes via standardised offerings. All of the interviewed cloud providers prefer the infrastructure broker model because they realise the preference of their enterprise customers and understand the necessity to supply SaaS brokers with localised SaaS applications. The unified self-service and app-store capabilities are key to underpinning their positions as pure cloud providers.
Chopade said that becoming a cloud broker would allow telcos and service providers to "encourage adoption of cloud services, open up new revenue streams and launch value added services.".
