Finally, Tudor said HPE's offering includes both a role-based service catalog – which provides a catalog of customizable services for system and cloud architects at the department level – as well as a marketplace portal, which is an enterprise-customizable service catalog for Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).  

"There's still movement here to add additional services and margin," Tudor said. "You can sell this cloud."

Many SMB customers of DirecLogix have already based SaaS applications such as Office 365, and are therefore open to doing public cloud where it makes sense, according to Aleef Adam, managing partner of the Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based solution provider.

But customers with security concerns or those that want to know where their data is at all times are more likely to opt for private cloud, Adam said.

DirecLogix will typically conduct an internal assessment of a customer's applications and workloads, and based off that, will make recommendations about which workloads belong in a private cloud and which belong in a public cloud, Adam said.

DirecLogix typically steers customers with security, regulatory or performance concerns to private cloud, Adam said, while customers who are primarily focused on cost are typically directed to public cloud. And the solution provider recommends a hybrid model for clients that value having portable workloads, Adam said.

"It's a compelling comparison," Adam said.