6 strong advantages when selling cloud services

Scalability, cost efficiency, the expansion of the portfolio without investment costs and a chance to deepen customer loyalty: Cloud computing offers IT service providers numerous advantages in the management of their customers' IT environments. Cloud services can be adapted or expanded with just a few mouse clicks and only the services actually used are charged. One of the other advantages: There is no longer any own hardware that has to be renewed every five to seven years. Cloud service resellers are thus given more leeway in the support of SMEs and growing businesses in the rapid expansion of websites, company blogs or online shops - and this without investment costs. The monthly billing according to effective use enables scalability if required and at the same time protects the budget of resellers and end customers.

In this blog post, you will learn how IT service providers can better serve their customers and increase cost efficiency by sourcing cloud services from a reliable partner and what to consider when choosing an external cloud provider. Only with the right business model for cloud resellers can the potential of cloud computing be fully exploited.

How cloud services work for value-added resellers

Many IT resellers have included cloud services in their portfolio and work together with an IT infrastructure provider for this purpose. An external partner provides highly available, stable, and scalable cloud services. A reseller often referred to in the IT industry as a value-added reseller (VAR) or system integrator, can use cloud services to quickly and easily expand its offering without having to make major investments. In contrast to operating physical servers on-site, cloud services do not require you to build your own hardware. Regular hardware revisions and the permanent assurance of ideal conditions for server rooms such as ventilation or air conditioning are therefore no longer necessary with cloud VAR. In the event of IT disasters, end customers do not lose any valuable data, as this is stored externally with a reliable provider.

These are the advantages of cloud services for IT service providers

Especially when supporting the IT environments of SMEs and growing start-ups, the scalability and cost-efficiency of cloud services is a key decision criterion when choosing the right cloud reseller, while at the same time meeting the highest data protection standards. Below is a brief summary of the main benefits of cloud services for IT resellers:

• Scalability: Growing businesses are dependent on the IT environment being able to be expanded within the shortest possible time. Reasons for this can be new customers, additional projects, or hiring new team members. Cloud services enable resellers to expand their customers' infrastructure at the click of a mouse and implement changes flexibly.
• Cost-efficiency: Instead of hoarding power in stock with their own bare-metal server and having little room for expansion, cloud service resellers purchase customized services. Thanks to the purchase of cloud services, the portfolio can be expanded without large investment costs and customer change requests can be implemented within a very short time. Cloud services are often offered in an attractive pay-as-you-go payment model. Monthly billing based on effective use allows for scalability if required, while at the same time conserving the budget of resellers and end customers. Many service providers - including us - also offer a reseller partner program, which ensures IT service providers an additional margin on recurring revenues.
• Maximum data protection: In the event of IT disasters such as cyber-attacks, major fires, or floods, end customers do not lose valuable data because it is stored off-site.
• Better customer relationship: reselling cloud services generates recurring revenues because the services are usually purchased on a monthly basis. In addition, customer loyalty is deepened because the reseller can offer a wider choice and design individual and scalable solutions in cooperation with the end customer.
• Increased market share: Depending on the customer's goals, budget, and innovation potential, cloud resellers can also up-sell or cross-sell and thus, in the best case, take over market shares from the competition.
• Time saving: As mentioned above, there is no need to build up your own hardware when purchasing cloud services. The IT service provider is therefore no longer responsible for regular hardware revisions and the permanent assurance of ideal conditions for server rooms. The time- and cost-intensive recruitment of cloud experts are also eliminated, allowing resellers to invest more time and energy in finding talent in other areas. By working with a cloud service provider, efficiency is increased by eliminating waiting or delivery times and allowing employees to provision servers at any time of day or night.

A large proportion of IT resellers in Switzerland have recognized the opportunities offered by cloud service reselling and are aware of the importance of the new strategy in supporting SMEs and growing companies. However, resellers often lack the financial or human resources to build their own cloud infrastructure or professional cloud services. The solution for this could be to work with an external IT infrastructure provider: an IaaS partner specializing in cloud computing provides highly available, stable, and scalable cloud services. This provides end customers with a functional IT environment for their daily work. Last but not least, cloud service integrators who know their infrastructure is in good hands can concentrate more on their core business: customer care and the acquisition of new customers.

What to consider when choosing a cloud provider

The Working with an IaaS provider and integrating cloud services enables IT service providers to rapid and flexible expansion of the product range and the focus on Core business, while saving the budget. To provide the best possible support of their customers, IT resellers are dependent on reliable and infrastructure providers.

How to find IT service providers the right cloud services provider for a long-term reseller partnership? Well-known names like Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services often offer attractive Price models. However, these predefined packages of the hyperscaler fulfill rarely meet all the requirements of growing SMEs and are therefore not the right cloud seller or partner for Swiss cloud system integrators, whose target group usually consists mainly of companies of small or medium-sized enterprises of medium size. When choosing a cloud service provider, it is crucial that the solutions are scalable and flexible.

Further should the external cloud partner know the Swiss SME landscape, so that in cooperation with the IT service provider suitable cloud concepts can be developed for the end customers This is how Resellers are able to offer tailor-made IT environments for companies of all size (from micro-enterprises, to growing start-ups, SMEs and large companies). The experienced technicians of Xelon know the Swiss market and are at the same time well networked in the international cloud ecosystem so that they are always up to date when it comes to current developments and technological innovations. We speak the language of our customers and offer IT service providers tailor-made solutions for the best possible support of end customers.

At a local providers are resellers and their customers are not just a number. Occurs with Cloud integrator on problem, the personal contact at the cloud service provider can react quickly and offer support. Who from Xelon Professional services, receives on-site support, which ranges from a situation analysis to a the taking of additional security measures up to the creation of a IT contingency plan in case of disaster is enough. Xelon guarantees all resellers - whether value-added resellers of cloud services, cloud hosting resellers, or cloud storage resellers - Reliability, stability and flexibility in the support of the IT environment of their customers. Only in this way can the potential of cloud computing be fully exploited.

Also a local cloud service provider should be selected, whose infrastructure is located in Switzerland. The access to data, as it is used for Example using the American Patriot Act for US companies without judicial control is practiced, is not permitted in this country. Local providers comply with Swiss data protection laws and can therefore offer the highest guarantee data security standards. Our infrastructure is located in computer centres in Switzerland and all customer data are subject to the Swiss Data Protection Act.

Conclusion

Cloud services enable IT service providers to easily expand their portfolio without investment costs. In this way new customers can be acquired and existing customer relationships are deepened or expanded. Above all in terms of support of the IT environments of SMEs and growing start-ups is the scalability and Cost efficiency of cloud services an important criterion.

A The majority of IT service providers in Switzerland have taken advantage of the opportunities offered by the cloud recognized. For the development of an own cloud infrastructure or professional cloud services, however, resellers often lack financial or human resources. The solution to this could be cooperation with a Being an IT infrastructure provider: An external partner provides highly available stable and scalable cloud services. This means that end customers provided a functional IT environment for their daily work. The external IaaS partners ensure that cloud resellers have a stable and secure cloud infrastructure can work. When choosing the external cloud service provider, play Flexibility, cost efficiency, support options and company location a central role.