What does an “always-on” world need? To make our hyper-connected world go round, it needs more mobility, data, access, tools, and collaboration. We live in an era of tools and apps. Accounting, email marketing, customer service, project management—literally every area of your business has access to apps to streamline business operation. As business becomes more demanding and complex, organizations fight to become more productive, competitive, and profitable.
Perhaps this is why we continue pushing the envelope when it comes to time spent on our devices. We are constantly looking for ways to be more productive. What do we find? More tools and apps! This inevitably leads us to app overload. It’s almost a situation of “organized chaos.” It’s not easy to switch between a score of different apps and to stay productive. It gets even trickier as you juggle to keep up with your entire team’s activity.
Cloud marketplace is growing
Today companies are looking for faster and more scalable solutions on demand, to simply swipe a credit card and build your cloud solution. This is the fastest way for companies to build from the ground up without a massive investment. The problems and challenges of competing successfully in today’s highly digitized business landscape are greater for companies that ignore the technology they need to run their businesses.
Responding to changing business needs, the number of cloud service providers is growing. For every large company providing cloud services, there are dozens of startups emerging with new solutions, tools, and apps. This is where partnerships becomes crucial. Why? These partnerships give rise to “cloud marketplaces.” A cloud marketplace is essentially a large shopping center where you shop around for all your cloud solutions under a single roof (so to speak). For instance, IBM’s Bluemix is a one-stop shop where you can discover, test, and experience a host of enterprise cloud services from IBM and its partners.
Cloud solutions for every business need
No matter what your industry, competition is getting more intense. In order to keep pace, businesses need to perform better and deliver faster turnarounds. With this comes the need to automate key business operations like accounting, marketing, collaboration, and CRM. Leaders like Microsoft, Salesforce, Adobe, and Google, as well as thriving startups such as Freshbooks, offer business solutions for companies of all sizes and budgets.
While security and uptime are two main concerns for adopters, cloud service providers are well-prepared to handle these issues. In any case, the benefits of cloud services far outweigh its challenges. Businesses realize this; an increasing number of them opt for cloud services. This explains why the cloud marketplace is booming. In terms of hard data, estimates put the cloud marketplace reaching $191 billion by 2020.
Let’s organize the cloud – Managing the cloud app services
With a rise in cloud marketplaces and complete SaaS offerings, organization is key. This is where the most strategic tech companies and their partners come into play. Cloud-based app management services will be the next big thing as they help businesses from across the world organize their cloud.
For all its benefits, working in the cloud can sometimes be tricky and confusing. This is especially true with the rapidly expanding cloud marketplaces. The biggest problem arises when companies toggle between different cloud apps to do and monitor different functions. A single point of activity saves time. Many tech startups provide time-saving solutions.Flowdock and Zapier are cloud app management services that organize cloud-based apps. This allows businesses to view, monitor, and share their team updates from apps like Basecamp, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Evernote. You also keep all your cloud app analytics handy with app management platforms like Geckoboard.
This is just the beginning. As cloud marketplaces grow and expand, the need to organize the cloud will be stronger than ever. It may even become a differentiator in successful cloud adoption down the road.
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This post was brought to you by IBM for MSPs and opinions are my own. To read more on this topic, visit IBM’s PivotPoint. Dedicated to providing valuable insight from industry thought leaders, PivotPoint offers expertise to help you develop, differentiate and scale your business.
This article was originally published on Millennial CEO Blog.
