The push for the cloud continues to be on the highest priority for all vendors that are focusing on enabling customers to the cloud. Yet all the big sharks in the market are after the big bites be that banks, telcos and large enterprises . SME markets seem to be seen as only target consumers of cloud services that those big bites are going to offer.
While eventually the biggest cloud market will remain in those sectors , but yet I think that there is an untapped sector which is an IT SME providing cloud services to the SME market.
Hence comes the idea of making a “cloud in a box” . IT vendors should start looking at enabling small startups kick start their clouds , by creating a product that has everything in a plug and play mode , meaning the server,storage,connectivity and most importantly the application . That application can be a CRM , ERP or any kind of application that SME’s would want to buy . The problem with the current market scene , is that large enterprises are thinking too big on how they want to launch these services, and the cost of integrating those applications with infrastructure etc, is costing a fortune and taking too much time, and also preventing small companies from starting up their own cloud service provider companies.
Giving those small companies, specially in undeveloped markets a ready made cloud in a single box, means they can start selling software as service immediately.
Strongly believe this can create a new market area that remains untapped.
P.S: have heard that CSC have started doing this already , but yet to read more about it.