IT support companies that don’t embrace cloud computing and include it in their portfolio of products and services are putting their businesses at risk, according to a client study done by Giacom, market leader in providing Hosted Exchange via the cloud.

Giacom has the largest Hosted Exchange reseller network in the UK of more than 1,200 IT support companies, and provides a white label platform to allow IT professionals to deliver Microsoft’s popular Exchange e-mail server and Share Point storage and collaboration server under their own brand. The service is operated by Giacom under its Message Stream brand.

The study identified that those support companies that fail to engage with their clients and offer cloud computing will fare worse than those that do. “Failure to embrace cloud-based services will lead to IT support companies beingleft behind,” asserts Simon Street, engineering manager at SRS Support in Bridgend.

“Servers are expensive to buy, costly to support, difficult to backup and are generally cumbersome for the client and support provider. Smart businesses and smart IT support companies are switching to cloud solutions at a rate that has to be embraced.”

Indeed many who took part in the study believe the practice of installing infrastructure on site for small to medium-sized businesses could become obsolete in just a few years.

Steve Carr from IT support company Your IT Director in St Helens, Merseyside, says: “The day-to-day running cost and manageability have to be big factors for clients. Not having to worry about ageing kit and people remembering to change the backups consistently is reason enough. Customers like being able to work from anywhere and, most importantly, like the low investment costs over traditionalofferings.”

Peter Stevens of System Assure, based in Bishops Waltham, Hampshire, who’s also a reseller of the Message Stream service adds: “IT support companies need to embrace Cloud technology. It gives a different revenue mix into the business. The requirement for on-site only IT is going to dwindle, so the sooner that IT companies get cloud subscription revenue into their business the better. they are placed for the future.”