Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it was much harder to start up a tech company because you had to spend massive amounts of capital on servers to store data. These days, just about anyone can start a tech company and bootstrap the process themselves thanks to cloud services. Not only can you use the cloud for your storage needs, but you also can take advantage of the cloud for things such as IT and software. To find the right cloud services for your needs, you can work with a cloud service brokerage.
It’s not just startups that take advantage of the cloud. Among large enterprises, 59 percent use cloud services, and the top reason they cite is because it improves integration between development and operations.
Of course, most people think of storage when they think of the cloud. Anyone who’s ever used Google docs or an email service has taken advantage of the cloud, and businesses do the same thing with much of their data storage. But more and more technical business functions are moving to the cloud. For example, a growing demand for managed security services is leading to predictions that that industry will hit $8.71 billion in sales by 2019. Overall public cloud-related spending is expected to grow to $100 billion in 2016, up from $40 billion in 2012. A full 60% of companies say they use the public cloud for some or all of their business needs while 57% use a private cloud and 17% use a hybrid setup.
With so many cloud options, finding the right setup for you and your business can be difficult, which is why it can make sense to utilize a cloud service brokerage. Cloud services brokers can help you find the right cloud services provider as well as the right level of services you need. For example, a cloud brokerage service might be able to pair you with a cloud provider that needs to fill in gaps in its services. Or if you just need one service, you might be able to find cloud consultants that can do what you need more cheaply than a full-blown cloud services company.