IaaS or Webhosting

In december 2010 Gartner published it's Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service and Web Hosting.
Although a bit old, we can still learn from it.

Gartner's forecast was that around this time 25% of this business is Cloud IaaS and they divide this into three major use cases.

• Self-managed IaaS, for cost-effective agile replacement of traditional data center infrastructure.
• Lightly managed IaaS, for customers who wish to primarily self-manage but want the provider to be responsible for routine operations tasks.
• Complex managed hosting, for customers who want to outsource operational responsibility for the infrastructure underlying Web content and applications.

Gartner's advice to your potential customers is to choose a provider based on its ability to provide a cost-effective architecture and high-quality customer experience for your envisioned use case.

Their advice to providers is to understand that as a hoster you need to make the shift towards IaaS or lose ground.

So, step one is to look for the most common use case for your target customer. And then tailor your offering to match that. As always it needs to be cost-effective. The program supports your development in many ways and the cost-effective one is certainly one of the benefits. Whether you are a Cloud Provider or a Cloud Builder or a Cloud Reseller, the program holds many quick starters with the solid base for building, growing and maintaining your Cloud Business.