Claranet finds channel needs to increase cloud support

The channel needs to provide more support for customers planning to make an investment in cloud technology as a significant number of users continue to hold reservations over risks and the transition process towards hosted services.

Research from Claranet has indicated that although cloud has now become mainstream, with three quarters of users now having accepted they could use the technology, there are still reservations about risks and costs.

The managed services specialist has undertaken research for the past three years that indicates that cloud adoption is growing but there is still work for the channel to do in terms of making the costs more transparent as well as helping make the transition to a hosted environment easier for the user.

"There is a huge opportunity for the industry to provide some advice and help them with their cloud hosting decisions," said Simon Bearne, director of sales and marketing at Claranet.

"There is still a long way to go to provide help in transition services. There might be a bigger opportunity to provide better services to customers," he added that there was also a need for more transparency in the way that cloud was sold.

Claranet's research also found that data privacy remained a real worry for users and many didn't always find that they were able to understand the costs or establish if their supplier had delivered ROI on the deal.