Preparing partners for the new reality of hybrid cloud

Microsoft’s Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA) launched over twenty years ago and still remains an important licensing vehicle for hosters, MSPs, ISVs, and service providers.  However with the rapid adoption and inherent benefits of cloud, many service providers find themselves at a crossroads of mapping their future infrastructure strategy.

Microsoft SPLA continues to grow and offers flexibility to partners through its diverse offering.  The future of SPLA remains a bit uncertain in the near term however as Microsoft remains focused on the transition of SPLA to the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program.  Microsoft continues to put resources and investments behind CSP and often prices their cloud solutions more attractively to incentivize cloud adoption.  As Brett LaForge of Octopus Cloud referenced in SoftwareOne’s webinar titled “The New Reality of Hybrid Cloud for Hosters and MSPs”, Microsoft SPLA won’t be going away anytime soon but changes may be coming including reporting by end user, increase in software assurance uptake, and more SPLA audits.

SoftwareOne is rapidly expanding and investing in new capabilities across many technologies that will support partner growth. These solutions are being brought to the channel ecosystem that often complement existing solutions and will drive net-new profitability for the partner business.

SoftwareOne and Octopus Cloud have partnered to bring tools, insights and advisory services to hosting providers to plan the roadmap of their respective infrastructure. Octopus Cloud offers a business intelligence platform for service providers. Their SPLA License Optimization solution brings clarity to what’s deployed versus what’s being reported in an effort to reduce compliance risk.  The Customer Cloud Roadmap solution offers real-time insights into current and future (cloud) infrastructure.  The Self-Service Inventory Scanner delivers automated and continuous hardware and software scanning accessed by end customers. 

SoftwareOne respects the legacy investments hosters have made in their existing infrastructure.  It is our goal to advise and bring insights that will lay the foundation for the future business.  We will help you identify specific areas of your business that will optimize, modernize and improve your end customers’ experience. 

Cleyton Leall, Application Services Practitioner Lead at SoftwareOne shared his perspective with the webinar attendees by highlighting some key statistics on legacy applications:

• 63% say legacy applications are their biggest integration challenge
• 25% find it difficult to integrate new apps due to the legacy’s inadaptable infrastructure
• 64% report that updating legacy systems is a core IT spend driver

Legacy applications constitute the greatest challenge on the path to digitalization. In many companies there are specialized applications in use that have been adapted and optimized for precisely these work approaches and internal processes. Old applications (legacy apps) are often unable to keep pace with the transition in IT, suffering from performance weaknesses and a lack of interfaces in the new systems.

What approach can application development take regarding this?

• Business agility: How do companies keep their business model agile, so that they can respond to changing requirements? IT is relatively rigid – trapped in update/upgrade cycles, with software solutions purchased for years. How can this be changed?
• Transformations roadmap: How can a strategy for the transformation of applications be developed?
• Budget allocation: How can the innovation budget be increased and shared out? Can tasks be reassigned to free up funds for new (innovative) projects?
• Current data stock: How can the existing data stock be made available for improved processing?
• User experience: How satisfied are employees and customers with the applications currently provided? Can facilitated working deliver added value?

SoftwareOne's Application Modernization services help you transform and automate your business through the construction of applications that integrate new functionalities, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, under a Cloud-First, Mobile-First model. As part of this service, Application Modernization Advisory guides you on your first step of defining and designing the best approach to modernize your applications using cloud technologies. Focusing on re-platforming or the refactoring of your applications, our Application Modernization goes beyond lift and shift, delivering the pre-defined outcomes and closing the gap between your business demands and your current cloud application estate.