CV_JulAug_21_3

While Cloud Services Reign, Buying Nuances Remain By Bruce Christian A ccording to a March survey from Spiceworks Ziff Davis (SWZD), the business impact of COVID- 19 accelerated cloud migration in most companies (53 percent), and going forward, the adoption of public, private and hybrid cloud will increase. The study estimates half of workloads will run in the cloud by 2023, up from 40 percent this year. This continuing shift to the cloud certainly presents opportunities for technology vendors and their channel partners, but SWZD cautions that with stiff competition in the cloud space, partners will have to be in tune with their customers’ needs and buying patterns. Its survey involved more than 500 IT and business decision makers, and while some respondents continue to have trepidation about moving to the cloud, the COVID-19 work from home experiment accelerated many more companies to move in that direction. What SWZD learned is that depending on the size of a company, the decision made on whether to move to the cloud involves anywhere from three people for small businesses to 10 for larger- sized companies. The vast majority of respondents, 91 percent, agreed that such a decision is a collaborative one, and in 88 percent of those determina- tions, IT decision makers are involved in the buying process. Specifically, the study showed IT decision makers play a critical role in determining needs on the front end, evaluating solutions and advising business decision makers on purchase decisions. Company business decision makers, meanwhile, are involved heavily in approving funds for purchas- es, making final purchase decisions and signing off on purchases. In terms of the buyer’s journey, respondent view cloud buying to be a process, and a majority of respondent (58 percent) see that journey taking place between one and six months. About a third estimate the buying process takes seven months or more. BUYERS SIDE By Bruce Christian 50 CHANNEL V ISION | July - August 2021