UK Cloud Alliance Paints Complete Cloud Picture

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Mid-Tier Focus

But why is the UK Cloud Alliance targeting mid-tier organisations and not the enterprise sector?

“The UK Cloud Alliance is aimed at the mid-sized market, and it is those organisations that typically struggle to buy a comprehensive service,” said Tanner. “These organisations cannot afford the enterprise-sized solutions being touted by IBM and the like, but the Alliance does aim to offer mid-tier companies the breadth of services, and this is why the Alliance was started.”

“It is an alternative solution for mid-sized companies seeking the cloud, and is a viable alternative to the legacy distribution channel. Star is a founding member, but other members can form other consortiums around the customer solution, so there is no margin on margin, as we are not reselling other people’s technologies. The days of VARs (Value Added Resellers) are numbered, as the cloud is a real disruptor for them.”

So what is involved in becoming a member of the UK Cloud Alliance?

“Our pre-vetting procedures are thorough because from Star’s perspective we want them to have for example a direct sales force, direct account management, respectable SLAs (service level agreements), as well as technology that can be integrated with our own. They also need the drive and passion for Cloud Computing,” said Tanner.

“Members of the UK Cloud Alliance don’t compete outwardly with any other member, although there is some overlap between members. All members are similar in size to Star, and this was done so that no one member could swamp the consortium. We even included a consultancy to prove unbaised opinion as part of this.”

Tanner also explained that the due diligence checks carried out on all members included credit worthiness checks and solvency checks.

“Thousands were vetted but this was whittled down to number just 17 organisations. Some of these members are are focused for example on certain geographies,” said Tanner. “For example we have two members that are both telephony and LAN specialists. But one is based in Manchester and the other in London, because a customer in Kent does not want an engineer to be dispatched from Manchester. They want their support to be local.”

Special Skill Sets

“Some of the members have been deliberately pigeon holed for their specialist fields and they know it, as they have been told that we want them to provide for example telephony or LAN expertise for the consortium,” said Tanner. “They are ok with that, and the whole thing is a quite unique and transparent process.”

So how does the UK Cloud Alliance actually work?

“Well the customer will contract directly with each partner, but we look at providing an end-to-end solution, by offering a service catalogue that contains service chunks, for example database management, hosting etc,” said Tanner. “We work with the customer to work out the roles and who is responsible for those particular service chunks. Star provides the project management, but in full agreement with other service providers. It is very clearly defined who is doing what, so it is very clean, and very transparent.”

“This has been customer led from the start, and the UK Cloud Alliance officially launches this week,” said Tanner.

He admitted that nothing has been sold under the UK Cloud Alliance umbrella yet, but did say that a third of Star’s deals so far this year have a Cloud Alliance member involved.

“The Cloud is not a ‘one size fits all’ approach, but utilising members of the UK Cloud Alliance allows for more choice for mid-tier companies,” said Tabber. “We are trying to support the IT operation of companies, we are not trying to disrupt them. Effectively we are an alternative to outsourcing.”

“The best way to view this is as very dynamic and different,” concluded Tanner. “There have been lots of alliances around the cloud but this is different because it is customer centric, not technology led. It is what our client base has asked for, and is geared towards those people trying to procure IT.”