So, you think you are a cloud provider. Not so fast. The same issue of "provider or reseller" that plagued MSPs a few years ago is now affecting cloud companies today. What is the problem, you ask? Let's take a look.
Years ago, MSPs actually delivered services, had NOCs, had help/service desks, and delivered nearly all of their services to the end-user. They actually were the provider of the managed service. Maybe an odd concept to call attention to but an important one for purposes of this article.
Some time after managed services became mainstream, MSPs stopped being providers and started reselling offerings delivered by other MSPs. It can be, and has been, argued that MSPs who were smaller were now able to enter the market by reselling another MSPs' solution rather than building and delivering that solution themselves. There is still a debate when it comes to the advantages and disadvantages of this MSP reseller model. Now, we have the same thing occurring with cloud companies.
Cloud providers come in a lot of shapes and sizes, offering a wide variety of solutions. But, today we have a new phenomenon occurring in cloud providers no longer delivering the services but reselling another company's offerings. We see it particularly around more commodity solutions like online backup and hosted email. When you peel back the layers, the "cloud" provider is not really delivering anything other than a basic level of support and billing, but that is it.
So, here's the question. Do we classify these companies as cloud providers or are they something else? If they are cloud providers then do they get scrutinized in the same way as other providers who do deliver their own solutions? Do we require these resellers to go through the same level of training, certification, and audit? These are all important questions and no matter which side you are on, these issues need to be resolved in order to present consistent and logical information to the end-users.
