News Flash for Cloud Marketers: The Cloud Just Went Mainstream

Microsoft just changed the game in cloud computing with their recent announcement of Windows Azure appliances, knocking down key sales barriers and opening up big-ticket, high-end enterprise markets for cloud companies to serve.

For as long as startups have been on the cutting edge of technology, they’ve struggled to win large, marquee accounts.  With a critical mass of well known reference accounts, startups boost their credibility and expand beyond early adopter markets into mainstream markets.

“Cloud companies” selling any kind of new tech over the Internet–from SaaS to PaaS to IaaS–face the same challenges startups have always faced when pursuing those all-important marquee accounts.

But now Windows Azure appliances promise to knock down some of the greatest barriers cloud companies face when selling into large, enterprise accounts.

One of the greatest barriers to selling cloud technology to enterprise prospects is the fear, uncertainty and doubt that executives at these companies have toward the Internet and the loss of control that the Internet demands.  Executives who might otherwise want the economic benefits of offloading their tech to a cloud provider stop short of signing on the dotted line when they consider the security implications of their data flying around the public Internet and being stored by third party cloud providers.  They would rather pay more to have their IT departments build and manage all their tech in-house, just to keep direct control.

That’s where Windows Azure appliances come in.  If we are to believe Microsoft’s claims, these appliances will offer a turnkey hardware and software solution for any company to build and manage their own private cloud.  Now executives at large companies will get a chance to have their cakes and eat them, too.  Their own IT department will be able to deploy a cloud technology without ever having to touch the unwashed public Internet.

Startups looking to knock down sales barriers in high-end enterprise markets will devise “complete solutions” that include their public cloud offerings running on private clouds powered by Windows Azure appliances.  The right Azure-based solution could instantly neutralize sales objections based on security concerns and lack of direct control.

Wow, you read the whole thing! You should subscribe by e-mail or by RSS and follow Twitter to get new posts while they’re still fresh from the oven and piping hot.