Second, find ways to reduce prices. The No. 1 complaint I get from cloud users looking to exit the cloud is that the costs are too high. They have a point. Hardware prices have dropped, and the price of cloud services has remained relatively the same. Of course, I’m not in those meetings where cloud providers talk with the investors who have been with them for up to 15 years and insist on a good ROI. There may be a compelling reason that vendors are not reducing prices.
The days of enterprises buying cloud systems in haste left too many to repent at leisure. Vendors must better understand what enterprises should pay to find value and thus reduce the exodus to colocation providers, managed service providers, and enterprise data centers. Those that offer these three options excel at providing cost-effective platforms, prompting enterprises to opt for them. Cloud providers don’t need to wonder why: It’s basic math.
Yes, I understand the soft values of agility and speed to market, but in many instances, those attributes don’t consistently hold value within an enterprise. Again, the cloud alternative has gotten pretty good at “cloud emulation” and thus offers almost the same value at a significantly reduced price.
