The Biggest Cloud Providers Are Hurting Your MSP

Area 1 – Support

Let’s say, you partner with a cloud provider, and their pitch is great. They talk about 24 x 7 support for your business and how many issues you have can be fixed with a quick call or email. 

Here is the reality of support with these providers.

1. 1. Support is difficult to reach in the first place. Oftentimes your calls will be put on hold for an indefinite amount of time. This is if you even have the option to call. Sometimes support is done entire through email, meaning you can’t talk to anyone. If you do reach a rep, language barriers can make it difficult to communicate your issue.

1. 1. It’s a waiting game to get to the right resource. After the initial hold, you’ll need to make your way through the different levels of support depending on your issue. You’ll need to wait to get in contact with a level 1 tech, then a level 2, then a level 3. This escalation can take days or more while you wait for a solution.

1. 1. Support can be an additional cost! If the previous issues weren’t annoying enough, you may get charged for the inconvenience. This seems ridiculous, but it happens more than you may think.

1. 1. Understanding your issues. The large cloud providers don’t focus on any one industry, their only driven to increase revenue by adding more virtual machines. They don’t understand the MSP industry and what you are doing. It takes time to try and educate them on your set up and how it is supposed to work before you can even explain to them what is not working properly. A waste of precious time when your customer is down.

1. 1. High prices. Large cloud providers charge premium prices. It is almost impossible to close a cloud deal by the time you mark up their costs to your customer so you can make a decent profit. MSPs are forced to either make so little on the deal it doesn’t make sense, or make nothing at all. This causes many MSPs to just avoid the cloud all together.

The support team is the heart of a cloud provider’s service, so these are big issues that add up. Settling for this level of support is a massive detriment to your MSP.

Area 2 – Costs

You care about costs and your clients care about costs. The way that large cloud providers treat them, you wouldn’t be able to tell they care. Here are the issues that we noticed when it comes to billing:

1. 1. Fluctuating costs. These cloud providers charge for transactional fees, ingress, and egress of data. This makes it impossible to determine monthly costs, which makes you feel like you’re gambling on the amount you pay each month. Additionally, this negatively affects your customers. Either you markup your customer’s prices to handle the fluctuations, or you bill your customers a different amount each month. Neither builds goodwill with your client base.

1. 1. Unreliable quotes. Half the time these providers can’t figure out what to quote the customer because it is extremely complicated to determine what they offer. Many times, this leads to costs that are too high.

1. 1. Hidden fees. No one wants to hear about these, but many MSPs don’t realize what they are being charged for and how much. Unsurprisingly, this does not build trust between you and your provider.

1. 1. High prices. Large cloud providers charge premium prices. It is almost impossible to close a cloud deal by the time you mark up their costs to your customer so you can make a decent profit. MSPs are forced to either make so little on the deal it doesn’t make sense, or make nothing at all. This causes many MSPs to just avoid the cloud all together.

We don’t need to elaborate much more on pricing. It is unfortunately but you may be getting taken advantage of by your cloud provider, and if so, it’s time to put a stop to it. Stop settling for cloud providers that offer impersonal solutions and actively hurt your MSP: It doesn’t have to be this way.

Here at Cloud Services for MSPs we are committed to eliminating all of these issues for your business. Our team provides cloud services that you can be proud of, with no predatory practices to speak of.

Our certified engineers are

• • Easy to understand.

• • Are available to talk to.

• • Will be there when you need them.

Our pricing is

• • Stable. It won’t fluctuate like the large cloud providers.

• • All inclusive. No surprises from us when you get your bill.

• • Cost effective. You’ll be able to mark up your price from us and make a great profit.

We know what it’s like to be in your shoes because we were an MSP in the past, so we know how to be successful in the cloud. We understand what you need to do and how it needs to be done. Our team are experts in this industry.

Are you stuck with one of the big cloud providers and want a better solution? Here’s what to do next:

• • Give us a call. We’ll talk to you more about what you are doing and how we can help you grow your MSP with Cloud.

• • Join our Partner Cloud Academy by clicking on join cloud academy at the top of this page. This will give you access to the knowledge and strategies that made us a successful MSP in the past.

Don’t wait!