Yesterday's MSPWorld in Sydney, Australia was yet another eye opening experience for me. I am still a firm believer that the Australian and New Zealand markets are poised for massive growth in IT managed services and cloud spending and yesterday, again, reaffirmed my belief that this market is in many ways leading the global managed services movement.
So, what were my takeaways from yesterday's discussions?
- Infrastructure continues to be a barrier to expansion of cloud but progress is being made!
- MSPs are more open to collaboration with other providers
- Australian MSPs accept the need for greater marketing and education to their clients
- The "Australian cloud" is something that will be a reality in the next few years
- Australian MSPs demand true partnership with their vendors and will accept nothing less
The next 12 months will be interesting to watch as infrastructure continues to build out throughout the country, so will the Australian cloud community. MSPs are very concerned with the large vendors trying to wedge themselves between the providers and the end-users. It seems, at least, that the MSPs here have learned an important lesson from MSPs in other parts of the world.
I had a great time, as I always do here. The MSP professionals here are truly dedicated to their industry and enjoy sharing their enthusiasm with one another. Events like the one yesterday make being in the profession worth all the effort. I can't wait until the next event!
