As we “Journey to the Cloud”, whether it’s for a business or individual, the need to learn new technologies, new skills and new operating models is a given. The old “systems integrator” type of IT consulting firm must evolve into a “cloud integrator” in order to guide organizations in the design and implementation of the many details involved in moving to the cloud. There is plenty of mystery and confusion in the current mass of cloud products and services.
Companies need to have visibility and transparency of application costs, application/data geography, and application status/performance across any cloud through a consistent management interface.
One of the areas where cloud integrators can help shed some light upon is an accurate financial analysis on different hybrid cloud options and an organization’s true cost of providing IT services. This will enable design of a much more cost-effective hybrid cloud architecture as well as a charge back system that optimizes resource utilization.
With vendors pushing “converged solutions” and cloud providers offering “on-demand solutions”, it forces the integrators to decide if they invest in people (architects, consultants) or software (development) expertise. Both can be profitable, but both are also considerably different business models than traditional “systems integrators” delivered in the past.
