Aussie customers want partners with cloud skills: Westcon-Comstor report

Jacquie Young, managing director – cloud APAC explains the struggle for partners to get cloud-based skills.

Australian customers are on the hunt for partners with specialised cloud skills, but not all partners are confident in meeting this demand, according to a new report.

In the Westcon-Comstor report, Mastering the Maze, the company found that 68 per cent of Australian-based partners are looking for specialised cloud skills, however only half are confident in fulfilling this demand.

Having a cloud practice, is a non-negotiable with 89 per cent of Australian partners surveyed see developing a cloud practice as a priority.

Speaking to CRN Australia, Jacquie Young, managing director – cloud APAC at Westcon-Comstor said the path to being proficient in cloud practice isn’t easy.

“From what I see of partners that want to get there, it's complicated. The programs that these companies have, from a channel perspective, are not very mature,” she said.

“There's mature channel vendors out there, like a Cisco, for example, that's aced how to set up a channel. Whereas the cloud vendors are relatively new in that space, and so the programs are harder to understand.”

Young said the technology requires a different skill set, and time to be proficient, which can scare off partners.

“In AWS, for an example, to build a competency even if you are ready to submit for a competency like it would still take six months to get it. It generally is about a two-year journey, and so that would probably feel daunting for a partner,” she said.

Young said there is a lack of expertise amongst partners to deliver and develop a cloud practice.

“Their partner may not have developed that depth of expertise in the cloud yet. They're saying, ‘Yes, I want to make that move, but the person that I trust with my technology, I haven't seen if they've developed that skill set yet’,” she explained.

There is also a skills shortage for partners to hire people with cloud knowledge.

“But in general, it is hard to hire. In Australia, it's very expensive in terms of the salary that you've got to pay people,” Young added.

“Then by the time you get someone on board and comfortable with their work. That tends to take a year or two, and then sometimes people change jobs in that time, so it's quite hard to create that stability.”

Confusion on partner programs

When customers are looking for partners with cloud-based skills, some don’t know who to turn to. The report highlights the challenge to leverage cloud provider programs to full effect.

According to the results, 54 per cent of Australian partners said this is one of the biggest barriers they face when advising their customers on cloud cost optimisation.

Young said some partners have the luxury of building a cloud team of 30 people, while resellers don’t share the same benefits.

“It is daunting for them to even think of and maybe don't even consider a distributor can help,” Young said.

“The amount of people that I meet that say to me, ‘oh my god, cloud can go through distribution? I thought it goes on your credit card?’”

Young has had to clarify to resellers that the cloud still preserves the channel.

“It still can go [through] vendor, distributor, reseller, customer. But because of everyone experiencing cloud providers where you put your credit card in, just like on Amazon they don't think it can be done in a channel way,” she ended.