Issue 10 2019

32 CORPORATE VISION / Issue 10 2019 , The Consequences of Hidden Costs Hidden costs and the lack of a human element are the sting in the tail for hyperscalers, warns Memset. New research from IBM suggests that despite the uptake of multi-cloud, hyperscalers are not offering the support businesses need tomake strategies a real success. Hyperscalers lack a human element and tailored customer support in the service they offer to clients which – according to managed service provider, Memset – has resulted in many organisations struggling to get the advice they need to successfully implement multi-cloud strategies. The warning follows a recent survey from IBM which found that, while 85% of organisations now use multi-cloud business models, only 41% have an active multi-cloud strategy in place. A multi-cloud environment is becoming more and more of a popular choice for companies. Some opt for this approach because it provides the ability to avoid lock-in, the power to mix and match cloud implemen- tations, or the lack of a single point of failure. Despite this clear appetite for multi-cloud, the fact that cohesive strategies are still not commonplace means more still needs to be done. Chris Burden, Chief Commercial Officer at Memset comments: “The findings from IBM lay bare the fact that many organisations are managing multiple different clouds on the fly, without the guidance they need to ensure a multi-cloud strategy works for their business and offers the level of security required. “Hyperscalers are still a popular choice with businesses due to their established names, however as they are so vast, it is impossible to provide all but their largest customers a level of personalised service and support that takes into account the intri- cate needs of every organisation. In most cases, hyperscalers, will direct customers to their public cloud offering, which in the first instance is fairly cheap. However, this quickly changes when customers are then persuaded to pay extra for a series of add-ons to bolster their service.” Additionally, AWS recently issued new partner marketing templates and advice stating that they had to remove the words “multi-cloud”, “cross-cloud”, “any cloud” and “every cloud” from all collateral. Chris Burden believes this suggests that AWS wants to reduce customer awareness and the ability to pair its cloud with other providers, which does not provide a positive outlook for businesses looking to work with a cloud provider that can support multi-cloud strategies. Chris added: “The fact that so many businesses that use mul- ti-cloud don’t have strategies in place suggests that many organisa- tions are not working with the right partners, which is something that needs to change if they are to truly build a multi-cloud environment that is both efficient and secure. “In short, hyperscalers are simply too big to provide the same level of care that smaller cloud providers do. Security is a key area where hyperscalers often fall short, because the platforms are complicated and difficult to safely manage without the right in-house technical skills or expertise.” Chris concluded: “It is critical with multi-cloud strategies that busi- nesses receive a personalised, localised and tailored service. The increasing use of multi-cloud infrastructure is a great market opportunity for small cloud provid- ers to collaborate and build on each other’s niche specialisation.”