Several years after the cloud boom first began, some MSPs and their clients are beginning to worry cloud is to expensive to justify, or at least more complicated than first believed. Nerdio’s CRO and co-founder Joseph Landes shares why he sees cloud cost as an optimization concern, and how partners can course correct without losing the agility and other benefits of cloud computing.
Cloud cost concern rising due to lack of optimization
Nerdio is dedicated to supporting Microsoft partners in their various products, including M365 and Azure. Over time, the conversations around cloud adoption have shifted.
“The challenge MSPs were facing is that they didn’t have anyone in their practice who knew much about Microsoft Azure, and if they looked at Microsoft Azure and tried to put a customer into it, it would be complicated,” Landes said of the early days of cloud adoption. “They also didn’t know how to make money on cloud. They know how to make money buying a server, because that’s what they had been doing for 20 years or so, but the cloud was a whole new model.”
Landes says over the years he and his team have talked to thousands of MSPs, and the takeaways from those conversations have informed how the team addresses issues at the root of the cloud cost discourse.
“This perception that the cloud is more expensive really comes from what we call an unoptimized environment.”
Landes notes that for many partners, the pay-as-you-go purchasing model is the most expensive option offered for Azure consumption, and often the one MSPs new to the cloud default to. This, Landes says, can skyrocket costs and leave inefficiencies in usage relative to spend. Then, for those MSPs, cloud seems too expensive to be worthwhile.
“No MSP who really knows what they’re doing is buying Azure that way. They’re leveraging different programs Microsoft has, and they are leveraging tools like Nerdio to optimize the cloud environment,” Landes said. “Typically, when an MSP optimizes their environment they see incredible cost savings.”
Nerdio’s Manager for MSPs solution automates and streamlines otherwise time-consuming workflows across AVD, M365, and other Microsoft products. The platform consolidates disparate tech and data sources to pinpoint spending inefficiencies, leverage security features, and bundle offerings, all of which save MSPs time while increase revenue opportunities.
“Our technology is designed to help IT professionals strike the perfect balance between minimizing costs and maximizing performance. Nerdio Manager, for instance, intelligently powers down or destroys resources when they aren’t needed and scales up resources when demand increases,” Nerdio VP of Sales, MSP Will Ominsky told Channel Insider in an October interview.
Cloud remains one of several key areas even as focus turns to AI, others
Many have compared the current AI explosion to the adoption wave that cloud technologies experienced several years ago. Landes, too, sees AI as the next big thing for the channel. But, Landes argues, MSPs can’t take ful advantage of AI technology if their data sources are disparate and inefficient. So, even AI is a cloud story to Nerdio.
“If your data isn’t in the cloud, how are you going to leverage tools like AI now?” Landes asked. “To some extent, if you’re an MSP who’s still waffling or unsure of whether to move your clients to the cloud, you’re going to left behind from the standpoint of the way that technology is moving.”
Many of Nerdio’s partner base are MSPs supporting small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and Landes and his team know SMBs in particular benefit from the efficiencies provided by AI technology.
“We all say that time is our most precious asset, and any small or medium business an MSP services is looking to gain back more time,” Landes said. “Whether you’re an accounting firm, a caterer, whatever your business is, you’re working hard to run that business and you want your IT to just work for you.”
“The cloud has such an incredible multiplier effect on people’s time and productivity that it’s almost a mandate now,” Landes said. “That’s where the question for the MSP is, well how do you do it? And that’s where a company like Nerdio can really help.”
How Nerdio keeps its partners, and their feedback, at the heart of its strategy
Landes and his co-founder Vadim Vladimirskiy started Nerdio to enable MSPs as they were beginning to dip their toes into the cloud waters with M365 and Azure years ago. While many facets of tech and the channel have changed drastically since then, Landes says the company’s commitment to its partners has not.
“Everything we do is influenced by our partners,” Landes said. “And I think that’s the best way for any business- if you want the truth, you have to go the customer and ask for it.”
This approach also informs much of Nerdio’s product strategy. After hearing feedback from current partners, the company expanded its offerings to include more of the Microsoft suite and meet MSPs where they are with M365 capabilities and a partnership centered on security.
Landes also has his eyes on a future continuing to move workloads on to the cloud as workers increasingly want the flexibility of being able to access their work from anywhere. He says he sees a similar trajectory coming in this space as companies move away from the on-premises world of VDIs to the more cloud-based DaaS solutions hitting the market.
“We’re seeing a massive shift in that world right now of people moving from on-prem VDI into cloud-based DaaS,” Landes said. “And we’re seeing the incumbents in that space, like Citrix and the former VMware, now Omnissa, really having to rethink what they do because the rest of the world has moved on to the cloud.”
As cloud cost optimization continues to be a trending topic, consider comparing AWS, Microsoft Azure, and GCP to find the right fit for your customers.