CHESSINGTON, England, May 21, 2010 — A new White Paper, entitled ‘Moving from On-Premise to the Cloud – the importance of partnership‘ by hosted managed services provider the Cloud Computing Centre www.cloudcomputingcentre.co.uk explains the key issues facing organisations – from infrastructure to business model – and explains the pitfalls & opportunities, as well as highlighting the critical factors of a strong cloud computing partnership. The White Paper http://tinyurl.com/whitepapercloudcc provides recommendations and direction to companies who are looking to migrate to cloud-based applications.

The move away from on-premise into the cloud appears inexorable, with research organisations predicting a wholesale transition to cloud-based applications over the next decade. For IT providers, from Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to consultancies and technology providers, this shift in approach to the acquisition of technology, from hardware to software and services, represents a major upheaval – and challenge.

Keith Bates, Chairman of the Cloud Computing Centre, says, “Cloud computing and hosted managed services will without doubt become the primary method of IT delivery to organisations large and small. And while some customers may opt to ‘dip a toe’ in the market to assess the pros and cons, IT companies cannot afford the same luxury. This is the biggest change in business model since the inception of the industry: get it wrong, by partnering with the wrong data centre, choosing the wrong pricing model or failing to incentivise the sales team correctly and organisations will rapidly be facing the prospect of business failure.”

This White Paper from the Cloud Computing Centre highlights the importance of the choice of partner to the success of the moving from on-premise into the cloud. It highlights the three key areas that need to be considered when choosing to move to the cloud including Infrastructure, The Business Model and Support. It explains how without the right infrastructure in place, a move to cloud-based applications will fail before it starts and that organisations have got to understand the new requirements for the data centre. The essence of the Cloud’s customer appeal is the flexible model: it is therefore essential that the data centre can support that flexibility without demanding massive additional cost.

“Technical infrastructure is just part of the challenge”, adds Bates, “Making the application perform well in the cloud is also imperative; but so is the business model. Understanding how best to price the application, develop a cloud based contract and create a deliverable SLA are fundamental requirements of the new approach to solution delivery. Given the very real financial challenges that ISVs will incur during the on premise to cloud transition, it is essential to get the business model right from day one. And this must also include the way support services are delivered.”

Bates concludes, “Make no mistake; this is a major shift in technology, business model and attitude.  From winning the first customer to getting the right pricing and sustaining excellent performance, choosing the right hosting partner is essential. There is no leeway for getting this wrong, in this market; few businesses will be able to recover. Get hosted managed services right, and ISVs will transform revenue stream, build stronger customer relationships and create a far more sustainable long term business model.”

The White Paper, “Moving from On-premise into the Cloud – the importance of partnership” is available to download free of charge from http://tinyurl.com/whitepapercloudcc

About the Cloud Computing Centre

The Cloud Computing Centre provides cloud-based applications to hundreds of companies with many thousands of users across the UK and Europe. The Centre maintains over 500 managed servers requiring petabytes – that’s 1000s of terabytes – of data storage – all with high-speed access – at locations all over the Cloud.

As specialists in Cloud Computing, its customers receive on-demand, ‘hassle free’ utility computing, carefully managed and secure data and applications, fully scaleable bandwidth and network infrastructure, comprehensive disaster recovery and complete business continuity planning, provided by a team of highly experienced technical support engineers who deliver 365/24/7 available computing power and support. 

The Cloud Computing Centre has been providing outsourcing, cloud-based applications, hosted managed services and technical support services to hundreds of ISVs, technology partners and end user businesses across the UK and Europe for close to 25 years. In addition, the Centre was accredited to ISO 27001 standard in 2009 – the international standard for Information Security Management – which is a set of standards for establishing and maintaining effective information management systems, based around best practice principles for governing security of information and network systems.

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SOURCE Cloud Computing Centre