Poll: Is The Cloud A Double-Edged Sword?

It seems that the cloud giveth and the cloud taketh away.

While cloud technologies have led to changes in business models for many solution providers – shifting from more transactional-type sales to those focused more on services – there's a difference of opinion over whether cloud is stoking hope about the channel's future, according to a result in CompTIA's sixth annual "State of the Channel" survey, which was released last week.

The survey said 39 percent of channel firms find the opportunity posed by cloud is the top reason to be optimistic about the future of the channel. On the other hand, 30 percent called cloud a leading reason to be pessimistic.

What’s happening here? The shift to the cloud is not steady, but "more of a classic two-steps-forward, one-step-back" pace, CompTIA wrote in its report on the results.

But what about you? How much has the cloud helped or hurt your business? Click here to take our poll and drop in a comment.