Cloud Computing Insights: Interview with TMC

The following is Online Tech COO and President Mike Klein’s interview with Rich Tehrani, TMC CEO, sharing some insights on cloud computing and the MSP industry at large. Originally posted on MSPNews.com.

Mike Klein presented the session, titled, “Private Clouds, Managed Clouds or Public Clouds? Which Cloud is right for your Customers?” on Tuesday, September 13 during MSP World at ITEXPO.

RT: What do you see as the next disruptive force in the technology or business model and how will it impact MSPs?
MK: We see cloud computing causing 3 disruptions in the market:

1. The movement from office-based servers that require capital deployment to the cloud with no capital deployment required – especially when the cloud can deliver a much higher level of application availability than seen at most SMBs.
2. Desktop virtualization in the cloud will dramatically lower help desk support and deployment costs for many mid-sized businesses.
3. Disaster recovery of mission critical applications becomes much more cost-effective with faster recovery times in the cloud.

RT: How has the acceptance and adoption of the cloud model influenced the MSP business?
MK: Cloud computing is in the process of changing the entire MSP delivery model – from mission critical applications to virtual desktops. The key for MSPs is understanding and selecting the right cloud model that matches the client and application requirements.

RT: What is the most common request you are seeing from your customers? How is your company addressing these demands?
MK: We’re seeing significant demand for private, managed shared, PCI and HIPAA compliant cloud computing. Online Tech is delivering hosted high availability private cloud and shared cloud offerings, and we have recently completed a comprehensive HIPAA audit.

RT: How is the continued growth of social media changing marketing and sales strategies?
MK: Social media has opened up a lot of doors to create instant networks and contacts with immediate marketing exposure. As part of our online marketing strategy, social media has continued to generate interest and sales leads by allowing us to share our knowledge and position ourselves as thought leaders. Since social media is almost entirely content-driven, our focus is mainly on sharing quality blog posts and articles on current industry topics – and with relative frequency, to keep clients educated on our solutions. But social media isn’t just a one-way conversation. Social media is improving the communication model of traditional marketing to include instantaneous, valuable feedback with the ability to monitor industry trends.

RT: Will Google+ become bigger than Facebook and Twitter? Why or why not?
MK: Likely not anytime soon, as it has a few major limitations, mainly with membership. With an invite-only based social media model, a large part of the public demographic is excluded.  Right now, the dominant age bracket is 25-34 and mainly male. Twitter and Facebook have already broken numerous demographic barriers and become an integral part of a lot of people’s daily online activity, as well as attracting a sizable advertising market.  It depends on how Google+ evolves in its business strategy, but right now it doesn’t appear likely to outgrow the current social media giants.

RT: What are you most looking forward to at MSPWorld in Austin? What do you see as being the biggest trends at the show?
MK: I’m really interested to see how MSPs are adopting cloud computing into their solution sets and which models they are migrating toward.

RT: What issues will you be addressing during your MSPWorld session and why should attendees be sure to attend?
MK: I’m going to talk about navigating the world of cloud computing, recent trends and the opportunities these trends offer for MSPs.

Get more cloud computing information by watching our educational webinars:
HIPAA Compliance in the Cloud & In the Data Center
Disaster Recovery in the Cloud – SAN to SAN Replication
Cloud Computing and VEEAM for Backup and DR Webinar