Becoming a Cloud Partner: Journey of B M Infotrade

In this very unique segment of DQ Channels, we have covered B M Infotrade Pvt. Ltd. becoming a Cloud Partner from a traditional Channel Partner. Anshul Goyal, Group BDM shared his entire journey about how did he move to the cloud business, challenges, growth, and future vision. 

When and how did you move to Cloud Business?

We moved to the cloud 7 years ago when our team researched and found that it was best for business and not only for the present scenario but also for future perspectives as Cloud computing offers huge flexibility and elasticity to our design approaches. One can choose to have as many or as few resources as required, & cloud supports utility-based metering which enables you only pay for what you use, the cloud also supports On-demand resourcing which means that when you need to provide a resource within the cloud, it’s almost immediately available to you to allocate where and when you need it. Cloud also provides high availability for your workloads and security of your data.

What different Cloud services do you offer?

Ans. We do offer almost all cloud services including SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS services from different CSPs. We offer cloud-to-cloud migration for the workload already shifted from on-premises to a cloud server, we can design & implement to achieve a multi-cloud environment; we can do the on-premise to cloud migration & migrate the IT workload from On-premise data center to cloud; we offer cloud security and design, implement & deploy the cloud solutions with security management strategies to mitigate advanced threats; we also offer Disaster Recovery & implement the DR on the cloud, as well as assisting the customer with DR drill; We offer design, implementation & support for the hybrid infrastructure environment where some of the workloads are on the cloud and the other at the On-premise network and so on.

What sort of changes have you done to move to the cloud within the organization in terms of Team, skill set, infrastructure, and others?

We had to make some changes within the organization in terms of the team, skill set, and infrastructure for the betterment of our business and infrastructure. We had to appoint some new employees with the required skillset and upskill the existing employees by conducting virtual training and webinars. Our employees also prepared and achieved cloud certifications. Our physical infrastructure is reduced to some extent as now we have infra deployed over the cloud which also saves physical space and reduces maintenance costs so that we can focus on our core business rather than worrying about infrastructure.

How are your old and new customers adopting the new technology and moving to the cloud?

Usually the old and new customers start with proofs-of-concept to validate the cloud resources. Customers generally request a DR on the cloud to validate the implementation and the performance on the cloud. After the successful completion of the POC and running the DR for a year on the cloud, the customer may think to migrate their existing Infrastructure to the cloud. Our cost-effective & optimized solutions, after thoroughly understanding the customer’s landscape, play a very important role in letting the customer decide to start their cloud journey.

Microsoft Office 365 attracts many customers as the office apps are widely used and support easy to use approach. Office 365 also supports collaboration and sharing which makes teamwork easy.

What are the different challenges did you face in this journey?

During the decision-making process, the budget plays an important role, when customers compare the cloud resources with the on-premises servers. It takes effort to let customers understand the CapEX and OpEX costs while making decisions keeping close observations for expenses 5 to 10 years down the line. Next is the delay due to the Management decision-making process on the customers' side that require approvals at various levels. For complex issues on the cloud, the unexpected delay to provide support from the OEM side is another challenge.

What is your overall growth being a cloud partner?

The talent set of a Cloud Computing expert is not limited to infrastructure management but additionally consists of many other areas like network management, safety, statistics safety, disaster recovery, business continuity plan, etc. You can work on new projects every day.

What are your future goals?

Our aim is to design, innovate & implement cloud-based solutions for all our new & existing customers. We aspire to be the most preferred go-to partner for all our customers and bring value-additions to IT Infrastructures with their delightful experiences. With innovation, we want to design optimized & cost-effective solutions that can ensure continuous business growth.