The Cloud Wars: How Marketing Initiatives Can Help Service Providers Boost their Competitive Edge
Utilizing marketing tactics can help service providers attract and retain enterprise buyers, finds Stratecast | Frost & Sullivan
MOUNTAIN VIEW, California, Feb. 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- As the cloud market matures and enterprise preferences become clearer, cloud infrastructure services are inching toward commodity status, with similar technology, features, and functionality. When vendors' services are largely similar in form and function, buyers place increasing emphasis on factors that extend beyond the product. According to results of the recent Stratecast Cloud Survey, an enterprise's choice of cloud service provider is increasingly influenced by criteria that fall within the bailiwick of the marketing department, including provider cloud pricing, service level agreements, brand equity, and technical support.
Stratecast | Frost & Sullivan's latest analysis, To Win the Cloud Wars, Invest in Marketing, not Technology (http://frost.ly/1b), examines several service characteristics that shape buyer perceptions of cloud infrastructure services, as revealed in the 2015 Stratecast Cloud User Survey. In addition, the analysis offers marketing recommendations for cloud service providers seeking to improve their competitive positioning.
For complimentary access to more information on this research, please visit: http://bit.ly/1SyrwBK
In these early days of the cloud era, businesses are still trying to understand how to leverage the cloud model; how it can help solve chronic problems but also how it can create new opportunities. As cloud service providers focus their technology investment on higher-value services, it will be up to the marketing department to be sure their message is heard.
"In Stratecast's observation, many technology companies continue to underestimate the importance of marketing; instead, relying on their technology research and development organizations to introduce innovations," states Stratecast | Frost & Sullivan Cloud Computing Services Vice President Lynda Stadtmueller.
Cloud service providers have an opportunity to differentiate their services by alleviating some of the complexity that enterprises associate with cloud. Providing clear information about pricing and SLAs, offering value-added services to help with planning and migration, and providing access to service technicians are examples of marketing tactics that cloud service providers can adopt to attract and retain enterprise customers.
"The future of cloud will play out not just in the research lab, but also in the marketing department. Marketers will help to redefine how we purchase and utilize cloud-based IT resources," notes Stadtmueller. "To do so, they will need to engage in a continual dialogue with potential buyers; both following the market (understanding buyer needs and preferences) and driving the market (educating buyers on the unique value of their own services)."
To Win the Cloud Wars, Invest in Marketing, not Technology analysis is part of Stratecast's (http://stratecast.frost.com) Cloud Computing Growth Partnership Service program. All research included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.
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