The Cloud!
It seems everyone is talking about it. Some say ignore it, some love it. But what is it really and how does it effect us SMB IT Consultants.

First thing is, we have all been using cloud computing for a decade. No we haven’t some say…Well their wrong. Where is their website based? I bet it’s not on a server in their ‘Server Room’ (broom cupboard!).
That’s right, it’s outsourced and hosted from the web to other web users. They use the admin control panel to upload etc just like we would with a hosted Exchange Server.

Right, that’s out the way. Now, what is the Cloud. I can’t be bothered going over old ground and political arguments about it. For real life views, and notice I didn’t say definitions, have a look at IT Weekly and other trade press or have a gander at Karl Palachuk’s excellent blog and punch in cloud. Remember to read and re-read all of the articles from this year!

There is no real definition as different people say it means different things. To me it means as Karl says ‘we don’t care where the server is’. It then becomes a true server, somewhere out there which servers a purpose, not a time and money draining expense for the client. I personally see it is a way of less stress for us. We don’t have to take care of the physical box unless we want to. Being a non-geek business technology consultant, I want to consult on ways to help business use their technology to make them more efficient, save them money and give me money for that service. I don’t want to be bogged down with remoting in to a server cause Microsofts latest patch has failed etc etc. I want to be thinking about real life technology and how small businesses can leverage corporate level stuff at an affordable cost in order to better their rivals. I am I suppose, an SMB technology evangelist.

Now sometimes, an inhouse private cloud or even an old fashioned SBS server in the corner is the best way to go. It’s horses for courses and our job is also to deflect the client from buzzword technolgy that they don’t need and that their grandson uses or saw at the end of a BBC news section. If they don’t need a technology or it won’t help them, I tell them so and am not interested if they ignore my advice.
I will still be doing old fashioned server installs and maintenance for the next couple of years but am gearing up for the cloud NOW!

As Karl P mentions, if you don’t have a plan now and think it won’t happen, you will follow the very crowded market and struggle. The same happened with ‘Managed Services’. That is so 2005. There are still people now talking about starting a managed service consultancy. Good luck to them and I really do mean that, but they should be looking more at the cloud than the old model.
Think about it, there are young companies out there who have grown up with nothing but web this and web that, it’s normal to them. They don’t have 10+ experience in the IT world so have no baggage concerning the old model of sell a server every three years, maintain it and repeat and repeat. They don’t even know what that model is. They go ahead, get services out there that people want and grow quickly whilst some of us dinosaurs say ‘it won’t happen because most of my clients want their data in their own server that they own’. Come on, I’ve used that line in the past, but how secure is that data when the office is in the high street, a mere break in away! Yeah it’s backed up offsite but really, if someone owns the computer hard disk, they own your data.

One thing to look at is the amount of clients who ask you about internet backup. I have been having more of mine do that. All the ‘it will take ages to restore or we will have to send them a seeded hard drive crap’ doesn’t wash. They use it at home, their grandson uses it and Google Docs etc. When things like that become the norm even if it is only in their heads, no amount of advice will stop that. People are looking for solutions that take away the human factor. Technology consulting till now has been based around some human looking after the clients technology. I don’t want to do that anymore, I’m bored of it and want a more lucrative and enjoyable way of working.

Remember: ‘It doesn’t matter where the ‘Server’ is. If it works, is said to be secure and doesn’t cause me or my client grief, then great. I love that idea and can’t wait to get going. I can then get on with what excites me and pass that excitement to my clients. People at the moment mostly hate technology cause they are too close to it and see the failures. I want them to LOVE it and see how it can help their bottom line.

Bring on the Cloud, get the engines going and leave the old guard behind!

It seems that the average speeds across the country are about 2Mbps download with some place like Northern Ireland being less that that or indeed, crap!

Some bloke who works in a little village up northern Scotland has to take his boat out to cross a loch just to receive email.

Now don’t get me wrong. I know there are the infrastructure arguments about the UK roll-out of BT’s 21CN network etc etc yawn yawn and how much it will cost. That’s for another blog post.

The real point is that to me, this guy in his boat and many many others like him are the ideal candidate for the hosted/cloud Exchange or Sharepoint. He and his fellow company people may turn over a healthy amount by designing the next big engineering marvel. Just so happens they are geographically spread. They like to live in peaceful remote places. Just one scenario, as is the traditional ten people in a city office sharing info.

How the hell will the cloud work when the usual even business class broadband in this country is so crap. Yes you can buy reliability nowadays, but we need more bandwidth and speed. Try cloud Sharepoint over an ADSL connection whilst looking at your cloud Exchange mailbox and surfing the web. Oh dear….why is this so slow. The data center may have loads of bandwidth to t’internet but that matters not once it’s out there and needs downloading.

And before anyone suggests that the client should just go and get a T1 or leased line or whatever bandwidth rich connection…well I don’t know of many clients who would swallow that cost just to move to the cloud!

http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/archive/2008/04/12/where-will-your-customers-be-looking-for-solutions-will-they-stick-to-on-premise-or-will-they-move-towards-a-s-s-or-saas-solution-not-from-you.aspx

Microsoft are now offering hosted Exchange and Sharepoint and many partners have been doing so for a while.

Many in the community of Microsoft partners are worried about the impact hosted services will have on their own business. If client companies no longer need a physical servir in their office, where will we get the services revenue from?

Cloud based services will be a fit for some but not a fit for others, there is no size fits all in this game and probably never will be.

Anyway, here is my post. Does anyone have any comments? Hopefully you will as this is something that will need to be debated sooner rather than later and not just split between the Vlad’s Cloud is everything argument and the we will survice small IT shops!:

“Hi all,

With all the talk of hosted this and SAAS that, what do you think the
landscape will be for the ‘typical’ SBSC consultancy firm in the next
few years?

Vlad has made it pretty clear what he thinks, though he would, being
a seller of ‘Cloud’ services

Susan Bradley has pointed to the very real fact that some business
owners just don’t trust the web to deliver the services they need or
that privacy concerns play a part. Some companies like or need
physical server infrastructure. It is tangible and they have some
control over it.

I personally think that the market will fragment. The low
end ‘consultant’ or SPF in Vlad speak, the type who sell action Pack
to their clients will disappear or go back to getting rid of viruses
on little Johnny’s porn riddled home PC.
The companies they used to service may well go for the Cloud hosted
Exchange/Sharepoint or even cheaper, hosted Office/Google Apps etc.

The larger SMB on the other hand may want to cut costs by getting rid
of costly internal IT staff and go Cloud based.

I still see a good market in the middle for the focussed, valued and
personal services of a small consultant who has the best interest of
the clients business in mind.
My personal market target is SBS server, maybe multi-site with 5-20
PC’s. I have been told over and over again that it is precisely
because of the way I help the client business that they consider me a
valued business partner. I pick up work from larger ‘faceless’
IT companies who see the client business as a commodity. The business
owners certainly do not think that they are a commodity!

Don’t get me wrong, I think that the Cloud will become a major player
but I don’t think that it will be a good fit, ever, for some
companies. I happen to be excited about the Cloud as I see other
opportunities and don’t want to be all doom and gloom like some
others in the community i.e. we will all be out of business in 3
years time because Microsoft is offering hosted Exchange/sharepoint

Anyway, thanks for reading.
Thoughts?

Dave Whyte
101 Digital Services”

You may have noticed, if you were interested, that I haven’t blogged for a while.

The reason…basically I haven’t been really passionate about anything much in the last month or so. Don’t know if it is to do with a slowish start to the year, being a one person business working in slight isolation or just one of those things.

Although Windows 2008 and Vista SP1 have arrived, I still didn’t feel the enthusiasm of earlier launches as I blogged about before.

Thinking about this though, the one thing I am very passionate about is helping my clients. Helping them run their businesses better by getting to know how and why they run the business. How technology and especially the right technology can help run their business better. Becoming a trusted partner to their businesses. Basically, everything that myself and many many other single person or small IT businesses can/should provide to their clients. Something I think the big (PC World/BT/Dell etc) service providers cannot, although they claim local presence etc.

The credit crunch may be beginning to hit with some clients looking at leasing instead of buying outright. However, I haven’t detected companies not wanting a focused, personal, local, trusted IT provider to become their outsourced IT department and business partner.

Roll on SBS 2008…now that is something I am enthusiastic about

I do appreciate the thought of an extra pair of hands. Wage bill alone doesn’t bear thinking about even if it was a part time student to do some techie stuff. I would have to treble monthly contracts income overnight to contemplate getting help onboard!

It makes me wonder how others in my shoes get on? It must be a very common problem.

Anyone?…

One of the problems of being a single person company (or SPF: Single Point of Failure as Vlad puts it) is the time/work ratio.

This is the only thing that I sometimes have issues with. Not being able to delegate to someone else. It is the good and bad part of running your own (not OWN ) company. I am the SPF; the techie, the business promoter, the net-worker etc etc etc!

Things are now changing here at 101 Digital Services though.

Can’t talk about a few of them yet but mostly it is the realisation that I need help with certain things. Business processes must change so in that respect the following are being made;

1. Make more use of the tools I already have without spending too much time away from running and more importantly promoting the business. MOA with Outlook and BCM for one. Use ShockeyMonkey/Kaseya etc to my full advantage. Make time to do this by….
2. Passing off business processes that I have no inclination or skills to cope with. Bookkeeping is one example I have been struggling with since the start. I thought because I was in computers, that I should be able to do it myself. It’s like database and programming stuff, have tried to learn a few times but just don’t have the type of mind to do it. I know people who do though.
3. Making use of existing and new networking/word of mouth marketing opportunities. BNI works for me but need to leverage existing clients and their networks. Join other networking groups. Partner with other providers who can do what I can’t and vice versa.
4. Make use of my time to actually be the business rather than work in the business being the techie etc. If that is all I am seen as by clients then that is all I will be and the same I presume for any other SMB single person IT company.

Having a more productive time lately after a slow start to the year. (Is it me or did anyone else find it especially difficult to get motivated after New Year this time? )

Blogging took a bit of a hit but I am back now. All focused and that….

P.S. I have had some technical difficulties recently and therefore apologise to anyone who had commented on any of my blog posts but didn’t see them until now. Feel free to comment and these will be shown in a more timely fashion. Thanks to all who have read, tracked back to and commented on my posts! It is very much appreciated.

Business goals. All the time I am asked what goals I have for my business. Where is it going in 2, 5, 10 years? How do you want to grow your business?

Well, lets get this straight. I own and run a Lifestyle Business! See http://www.vladville.com/2007/02/vladfire-20-david-scrhag.html and you will see what I mean.

The goals I have are to become a proper business partner with my clients. Like a solicitor or accountant. They get on the phone to run anything technical by me BEFORE they buy or even consider looking at a solution.

They should want me to sit in on board meetings, go to training seminars in their line of business applications and see me as part of the company.  As David Schrag puts it, to become the CTO of an organisation. Americanism but valid.

As a lifestyle business, I want to work with people and companies that make me feel good. It also makes me feel good when I help these people and companies. See where I am going with this….

My company grew from back to basics, breakfix stuff (getting rid of adult orientated spyware on little johnny down the road’s PC) with me putting flyers through doors. Three years on and I am running down the amount of breakfix to only good clients that I have known for ages and a few great monthly maintenance/managed service clients who pay my mortgage. Two of which are charities. I love to work with charities. I got these through networking and referral in BNI. This is how I grow my business.

There is no rocket science involved here. I speak to people about how I can help them. If we find a fit, I get to do this, if not I can pass them on to other SMB IT partners. My clients get the service they want, I feel good, pay my mortgage, go on the piss at the weekend and feel good about the whole thing.

My clients talk to other people who then ask me to help and it all starts again. It may need to happen more often but I am working on this!

BNI’s motto is Givers Gain and I think this really suits how I do business. BNI is not for everyone but there are other great networking groups out there i.e. Chambers of Commerce etc etc, the point is, GET OUT THERE! Let people know who you are, to a lesser extent what you do and help people. Remember the old saying: People buy people. Well, I have found this to be so true that it is almost a mantra if I believed in that sort of thing.

My business growth will be what I am comfortable with. Simple. I don’t have a huge plan to be able to sell it for millions in a few years, nor may it still be going when i am no longer running it. I just don’t get the traditional business growth model of money/employees/bigger projects ad infinitum.

To me business is simple. If I enjoy it but don’t get paid it is a hobby. If I do get paid it is a business. If I don’t enjoy it I will move on or change it. If I like the people I work with, that is not a fluke…that is essential.