What are IT pros looking for in a cloud server provider? This report explores in detail the cloud servers purchase criteria that today's buyers care about most, providing data and descriptions that shed some light on a cloudy marketplace. It also examines the product research habits of these same buyers, revealing the information sources behind their most important IT purchase decisions.

1. Voice of IT
TM
Cloudy with a High
Chance of Sales
How IT Pros Buy Cloud Servers
For today’s IT pros, the forecast is calling for clouds! With all the benefits that cloud servers
have to offer, the future looks bright for small and midsized businesses – especially those
who are looking to minimize capital expenditures while scaling quickly and adding new
capabilities. It’s also good news for cloud server providers – especially those who have a
differentiated product offering and a clear understanding of what cloud buyers want.
www.spiceworks.com/insights

2. Take a peek into the minds of cloud buyers.
73% of IT pros recently surveyed already use cloud servers, are planning to use cloud
servers within the year, or are actively investigating cloud servers as an alternative to on-
premise servers. But for many IT pros, one cloud server looks much like another, which
begs the question: In a commodity market, how can cloud server providers stand out from
the pack? And what exactly are today’s IT pros looking for in a cloud server provider?
Use of cloud servers
27% 36% Already use cloud servers
Planning to use cloud servers
within the year
Actively investigating
cloud servers
No interest in cloud servers
28% 9%
Sample = 332
Here’s what we’ve learned firsthand at Spiceworks, where over 2M IT pros come to research
products and services, interact with vendors, and make IT purchase decisions.
CLOUDY WITH A HIGH CHANCE OF SALES: HOW IT PROS BUY CLOUD SERVERS 2

3. Not all cloud buyers are created equal.
IT pros who are shopping for cloud servers are looking for the same thing – the best
solution for the money. But how they go about determining which option is “best”
depends on a variety of criteria. To help clear the air, we’ve grouped cloud buyers into
five different categories based on the things they care about most. It goes without saying
that the majority of buyers fall into more than one category. But by understanding these
profiles, you can get a clearer sense of who your potential buyers are – and where you
need to focus your sales and marketing efforts.
The “Nuts and Bolts” Buyer
This buyer cares mainly about whether or not the solution is functional
and within budget. Questions this buyer might ask:
• Can the solution support our OS platforms and run our applications? What web
services integrations are available to us?
• Does the solution meet our I/O requirements? What will the latency, response
times and throughput be for our applications?
• What’s the pricing model and cost? What’s my monthly expenditure going to be?
• What are the storage options and costs?
72% of IT pros surveyed ranked “nuts-and-bolts” factors as either #1 or #2
in importance when selecting a cloud provider.
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4. The “CYA” Buyer
This buyer operates in a high-risk environment or highly regulated
industry, resulting in heightened concerns across all areas of security.
Questions this buyer might ask:
• What data protection strategies are offered? Backups, RAID, mirroring, replication,
CDP, snapshots?
• What compliance support does the provider offer? Is the provider compliant with
FISMA, PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOX, GLBA, NERC CIP, or other regulations that are relevant to
my industry?
• What reporting options and audit support are available? Who has access to the
audit trail?
• What does the provider offer in terms of physical and systems security? What are the
provider’s logical access control mechanisms? What security controls are in place from a
facility perspective?
• What disaster recovery and business continuity plans does the provider have in place?
How will our stuff be protected in the event of a power outage, facility disaster, local
disaster and regional disaster? How quickly can operations be restored if the main system
goes down?
• What’s the problem management process? Who do I call when I have a problem? How
are problems logged, communicated, prioritized and escalated?
60% of IT pros surveyed ranked these considerations as either #1 or #2 in
importance when selecting a cloud provider.
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5. The “Hot-Rod” Buyer
This buyer is all about ensuring high performance to support demanding
applications and even more demanding users. Questions this buyer
might ask:
• What uptime and performance SLAs does the provider offer? Are there penalties
in place when SLAs are missed?
• What’s the provisioning time for new servers?
• What are the scalability options? Can computing resources be expanded and
contracted automatically?
• Does the provider offer 24-hour customer service?
• What incident response time SLAs does the provider offer? Are there penalties
in place when SLAs are missed?
27% of IT pros surveyed ranked performance factors as either #1
or #2 in importance when selecting a cloud provider.
The “Cloud Control” Buyer
This buyer wants a lot of visibility into – and control over – the cloud
environment, from technical elements to contracts and billing. Questions
this buyer might ask:
• What options do we have for monitoring / visibility? Does the provider
give us access to real-time performance monitoring and statistics?
• What’s the management dashboard/control panel like? Is the interface
easy to use? What capabilities does it provide?
• What are the options regarding contract length and terms of service? Does
the provider offer the flexibility of a short-term agreement?
• What are the multitenancy options? Can each department be billed per
cloud instance per hour? Can we impose billing limits?
• What are our exit options? Will the provider help us move our applications
and data to another location when the time comes?
15% of IT pros surveyed these factors as either #1 or #2 in
importance when selecting a cloud provider.
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6. The “Warm and Fuzzy” Buyer
This buyer draws confidence from “softer” proof points and from the
opinions of third parties. Questions this buyer might ask:
• Does the provider have experience in my specific industry? Does the provider
have experience with companies of my size?
• How long has the provider been in the market?
• What customer references can the provider give me?
• Does the provider have a well-known name? Are they recognized in the market?
• What does the industry have to say about the provider?
• Is the provider local? Do we have a choice as to where our stuff is going to
reside geographically?
• What’s it like to work with the provider? Do I like them? Do I trust them? Are
these people that I can see myself working with long-term?
13% of IT pros surveyed ranked “warm and fuzzy” considerations
as either #1 or #2 in importance when selecting a cloud provider.
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7. What matters most when buying cloud servers?
We asked IT pros to rank the factors they take into account when selecting a vendor for
cloud servers, with 1 being most important. Here are the results:
1 Cost, pricing model, and billing options
2 Data protection and security
3 Disaster recovery and business continuity
4 Performance and scalability
5 Monitoring and management options
6 Architecture support and integration
7 Vendor support
8 The vendor’s industry experience and time in the market
9 Audit and compliance support
10 The vendor’s location
But wait, there’s more…
There are many other factors that IT pros may look at when evaluating a cloud server
vendor. Some buyers will bring unique considerations to the buying process, asking
questions such as:
• Does the provider have global reach / experience? Can the provider
handle international accounting and regulatory issues? Can they provide
international support?
• Does the provider use green power? What environmentally responsible
policies and practices does the provider have in place?
• Does the provider offer ancillary support services? For example, will
the provider help us port data and applications to the cloud? Will the
provider help us optimize or tweak applications to take full advantage of
the cloud platform?
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8. Cloud buyers are on the hunt.
Regardless of their profile, cloud buyers are always on the lookout for solutions and
providers that meet their needs. So, where do IT pros go for information on cloud server
solutions and providers? Our research shows that IT pros in Spiceworks consult a wide
range of resources before making a buying decision. Most of them rely on a combination
of vendor and partner content, IT industry content, and candid social/peer feedback from
IT forums such as Spiceworks.
How IT pros research IT purchases
Vendor % of IT pros who use these
content 74% sources when researching
IT purchases
IT publisher
content
68%
Social/peer
content 65%
Vendor partner
content
44%
Analyst
Research 36%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
Vendor and partner content
Brand credibility is critical in the IT arena. Why? IT pros often rely on vendor and partner
websites, webinars, white papers, spec sheets, etc. to research features and specifications,
pricing, support information, and other details. “Nuts and Bolts” buyers in particular value
this type of research as they comparison shop based on discrete and knowable facts.
74% of IT pros in Spiceworks turn to the vendors they trust to help them make informed
purchasing decisions. 44% seek out content from vendor partners.
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9. IT publisher content
Industry publications are another highly used source of information. IT pros look to these
websites and magazines for ratings, reviews and comparisons. These sources are often
perceived by IT pros as being more objective than vendor content. And because of its
high visibility, industry content is typically well researched and well vetted, resulting in
info that’s generally very reliable. 68% of IT pros in Spiceworks refer to IT publications
when making a buying decision.
Social/peer content
IT pros trust their colleagues and peers, so it makes sense that they seek out social IT
sites, vendor support forums, and other sources of user-generated content to research
the opinions and real-life experiences of others. Social IT sites like Spiceworks are an ideal
place to find this type of content, such as company information and product ratings and
reviews. In Spiceworks alone, IT pros can find information on approximately 100 different
cloud server companies. 65% of IT pros in Spiceworks get information from social sites as
part of the research process.
Analyst research
Industry analysts provide a wealth of comparisons, detailed information on products and
services, and financial metrics such as ROI, TCO and TCA. IT pros often use this content
to help generate a business case, but our research shows that Spiceworks IT pros (who
are primarily in SMB) rely less on this kind of info when making their purchase decisions.
Only 36% of IT pros in Spiceworks refer to industry analyst content as part of the research
process.
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10. Opportunity is in the air…
With clouds in the forecast, today’s cloud server providers have a unique opportunity to
expand market share. Take another look at the cloud buyer profiles we showed you. Which
buyers are you hoping to attract? Which buyers best match your strengths? And which
buyers aren’t fully covered by your strategies and tactics? When a “Hot-Rod” or a “Warm
and Fuzzy” comes knocking on your virtual door, what answers will you have for them?
What about other buyers? Are there areas of your solution – or your pitch – that need to
be fine-tuned?
Finally, it might help to look beyond the four walls of your company and consider your
presence in the places IT pros trust for their research. Can these cloud buyers find you in
their favorite IT forums? Will they read about you in industry articles? Do you have options
for connecting with the buyers you want to reach? Finding ways to say Yes to these
questions can give you a winning edge over other vendors – and help you truly shine in a
cloudy marketplace!
About Spiceworks
As a software provider with a dynamic community of over two million IT professionals,
Spiceworks captures unique insights into the IT needs and buying patterns of
organizations across all industries, and provides a direct path to reaching more than 25%
of the world’s SMB companies. Thousands of companies have marketed their products
and services within Spiceworks.
The contents in this report are a result of primary research performed by Spiceworks. Unless otherwise noted, the entire contents distributed as part of this
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This report contains information of fact relating to parties other than Spiceworks. Although the information have been obtained from, and are based on
sources that Spiceworks believes to be reliable, Spiceworks does not guarantee the accuracy, and any such information might be incomplete or condensed.
Any estimates included in this report constitute Spiceworks’ judgment as of the date of compilation, and are subject to change without notice. This report is
for information purposes only. All responsibility for any interpretations or actions based on the information or commentary contained within this report lie
solely with the recipient.
All rights reserved. 2012.
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