The cloud. Cloud computing. Born on the cloud. Saved in the cloud. Backed up to the cloud. Security in the cloud. Public cloud. Private cloud. Hybrid cloud. Software as a Service. SaaS. Platform as a Service. PaaS. Infrastructure as a Service. IaaS. Infrastructure. Bare metal servers. Virtual servers. Pay for use. Self service.

The advent of cloud technology has been responsible for a number of new terms coined to describe its different forms and functions. While cloud computing doesn’t have the celebrity and popular appeal of Merriam Webster’s 2013 list of new technology words that included selfie, tweep, hashtag, and crowdfunding, it’s not surprising that in 2011 the American Dialect Society (ADS) added cloud under the category of words most likely to succeed.

Sunny Skies Forecast for Cloud

Also not surprising was that earlier this year Forbes compiled a round up of cloud computing forecasts and market estimates, including these:

• By 2018, CIOs expect cloud to play a critical role in enabling their organization’s strategic vision.

• The cloud software market will surpass $75B by 2017 attaining a five year compound annual growth rate of 22% in the forecast period.

• Cloud-related tech spending by businesses is forecast to triple from 2011 to 2017.

• Cloud applications will account for 90% of total mobile data traffic by 2018, compared to 82% at the end of 2013. Mobile cloud traffic will grow 12-fold from 2013 to 2018, attaining a compound annual growth rate of 64%.

Service Offerings to Help Your Clients Embrace the Cloud with Confidence

Clients can be easily overwhelmed both with the promise of and the challenges they face implementing cloud computing. To help them master these challenges and embrace the cloud with confidence, IBM has a broad portfolio of Business Partner enabled Cloud Services offerings available, including:

• Cloud Managed Services

• IBM Cloud Managed Services for Oracle or SAP Applications

• IBM Private Cloud Delivery Partner Services (PCDPS)

• IBM Edge Delivery Services

Cloud Managed Services

The Cloud Managed Services offering was designed specifically for the rigors of managing critical enterprise workloads, including Oracle, SAP and SAP HANA applications. The benefits of cloud are available with this managed enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure for critical web, mobile, and social applications, development and test, industry-specific solutions, and data center transformation.

By more quickly delivering SAP environments on a security-rich, cost-effective and scalable cloud infrastructure, IBM Cloud Managed Services for SAP Applications helps reduce cost and improve flexibility. Deploying cloud-based SAP environments result in faster provisioning of SAP applications, greater flexibility in SAP environments, and improved service levels for SAP users.

For SAP HANA, your clients can bring their own box and have it connected to the IBM managed cloud infrastructure, where we provide the hosting and administrative services needed to run HANA in the cloud. Or, run HANA as platform as a service where IBM provides a dedicated HANA appliance.

IBM Cloud Managed Services for Oracle applications can help reduce Oracle infrastructure costs and complexities with a flexible, agile infrastructure that delivers faster provisioning, cloning, refreshes, improved service quality and speed, and high scalability for large deployments, plus many other benefits.    

Business Partner as Primary Offerings

In addition to the IBM Cloud Managed Services offering, there are currently two cloud services with Business Partners as the primary sales channel in the United States.

Edge Delivery Services powered by Akamai, helps reduce infrastructure costs and management complexity while providing a fast, predictable, scalable, highly available and secure network for delivering online workload to end users —anywhere and on any device. Regardless of your client’s industry, this intelligent cloud platform can help them improve the performance, security and user experience of their Internet-facing workloads.

According to Brad Rinklin, Chief Marketing Officer at Akamai Technologies, “Consumers expect instant, reliable, and secure access to your clients' products online, regardless of location or device type. IBM Edge Delivery Services powered by Akamai can help your clients' enterprise platforms be viewed as trusted, reliable and secure, enabling them to gain agility and focus on growing revenue and accelerating enterprise web applications for global business.”

Private Cloud Delivery Partner Services (PCDPS) delivers a packaged IBM solution of predefined managed hosting services designed to be cost efficient and easy to implement, and supports a variety of IBM platforms including System i. The enforcement of strict security and certification standards help better manage compliance with regulatory requirements, and includes around-the-clock skilled support, provided by a delivery partner.

We’re excited about a new remarketer model for IBM Edge Delivery Services and Private Cloud Delivery Partner Services that allows for enhanced margin opportunity and the ability for Business Partners to recognize top line revenue for selling these Services. This option is available for IBM Distributors and Solution Providers and Resellers acquiring services from an IBM Distributor in the United States. Current IBM Business Partners, see the Announcement Letter for details, and contact your IBM Distributor or me if you have questions.

Are you ready to help your clients master their business challenges with IBM’s strong portfolio of cloud managed services offerings? Email me at dcromwel@us.ibm.com, connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me on Twitter to talk about joining the IBM® Global Technology Services® Business Partner team.

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