It is important to understand that the cloud is not a ‘direct only’ model. Ultimately, it is not going to be the sole realm of companies like Amazon and Google. Indeed, there are, and will be, many opportunities for VARs, Solution Providers, or MSPs of different sizes.

For instance, clearly the smaller part of the SMB market is already embracing cloud storage. In terms of internal or private clouds, the classic enterprise market has the biggest opportunities. Companies that may fit the profile have +25 to 50 servers and +25 terabytes of storage. However, like all buyers, they may still be resistant to new technology or solutions.

In the archive market, a lot of interest in the cloud is seen in any industry that is heavily regulated, such as healthcare. From a regulation standpoint, everything in healthcare just got very complicated since congress passed the new healthcare law, and they are looking for relief. The energy sector is another area where companies are becoming very concerned about regulation and compliance as well.

There are a variety of areas that spell opportunity for the VAR in backup. As a matter of fact, any company that has a need to offsite or DR data but does not have a proper site to send it can be sought out as a potential opportunity. More companies are either looking at that scenario or implementing it.

In addition, using the cloud as a disaster recovery site is very viable. Most of the enterprise backup software is being built in a cloud replication type of option. There are some cloud providers that allow the VAR to sell their equipment, which will run the backup and send it up to their cloud.

Another growing opportunity is tier 2 storage capacity. This can be thought of as a big NAS used for storing documents. These scenarios are typically more regionally placed so that the user can be closer to the data. Also, users are buying a “metro link” into a storage provider. Using this link, they are able to quickly load documents into their local network.

These are just some of the many opportunities that can be found surrounding cloud storage. Hope you find them useful.

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