Is Cloud Verticalization Your Next Opportunity?

I was having dinner with a very good friend of mine over the weekend. He’s an artist, a very good one. He has worked for a number of very large animation companies on well-known comic books and mainstream movies. Like most people outside our industry, they don’t understand what we do — a common issue for those of us in IT. It usually boils down to “if your computer is broken, we fix it” just to end the painful conversation of explaining IT services to the laymen. 

He’s a smart guy, so I started the conversation — always a difficult one — explaining “the cloud.”  This is a slippery slope with those who don’t practice IT every day, much less the ongoing debates we have in our own industry about the security, opportunity, marketing, anxiety and other topics. One thing is for sure, the cloud is the future of our business operations.

He listens to me intently, nodding the whole time, as I get more excited. He understands! We are making a break through. End users like my friend are finally starting to get the cloud, maybe even learning to love it. Then he drops the bomb, stating “I don’t trust it.” Little does he know he’s probably been in the cloud for decades.

I start digging into his concerns, which I’ll come back to shortly, when he starts telling me how he uses IT today. Lo and behold, he’s actually using many cloud services but doesn’t even know it. This is the classic issue many channel professionals face. That being said, we as the IT community continue to do a poor job at making people feel safe in the cloud.

Connect With A Specialization

This got my wheels turning. As we continue to see IT evolving there is an ongoing debate about verticalization. Should you? Shouldn’t you? What are the best-in-class guys doing? What if I verticalize, or specialize, into a specific industry and then it busts?

Everyone has a different opinion, but here is what I believe. First of all, there are only a few reasons to turn business away. Verticalization is not a reason in most cases. Most of the managed service providers I’ve met (surely well into the thousands at this point) have some form of verticalization. However, 95 percent of them are not exclusive, but that is another debate for another day.  

Going back to my friend and why he doesn’t trust the cloud. You have to understand the client’s objections before overcoming them. He explained to me that his art is like his children, though it is also his livelihood. Would you trust your children to someone who is consistently in the news with stories about their unreliability? Of course you wouldn’t. After understanding what his main concern was, I asked this hypothetical question. “If I had someone (a solution provider) who completely understood the needs of every designer or illustrator or artist, who employed a cloud service that a substantial amount of other artists used, would you feel more comfortable?”

This got me thinking. My company has a ton of customers (partners) with market specializations. But are they cloud verticalized? A quick Google search came up with very little information — just another reason why this may indeed be your next big opportunity. If you are verticalized, you take great pride in understanding your customers’ market, speaking their language and understanding their unique challenges. Why not leverage that with the cloud applications your company delivers?

Here’s the key. You’re already doing it today, even though you may not be marketing or selling it that way. The first step is to start adding the word cloud into your materials, like your website, mailers and blogs. Next, become the expert. Discuss things like “The 4 Things Every Dentist Needs To Know About The Cloud” or “10 Questions Every Lawyer Needs To Ask About The Cloud.”

So back to the question I asked my friend: If I had a solution provider who completely understood your talent and your concerns around the cloud and could provide you the peace of mind you need to feel comfortable using the cloud, would you be interested? His answer: “Absolutely! Can you introduce me to him on Monday?”

Rob Rae is a member of the CompTIA Vendor Advisory Council and vice president of business development at Datto.