SALES PLAYBOOK IT SERVICES

Transcription

1 SALES PLAYBOOK IT SERVICES SALES PLAYBOOK

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Services Overview... 3 IT Services Subsegments... 5 Equinix Value Props... 7 Personas... 8 Competitors... 9 Case Studies Objection Handling Qualifying Questions Sales Tools TABLE OF CONTENTS 2

3 IT SERVICES OVERVIEW Managed IT Services fall into two general categories: Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and System Integrators (SIs). MSPs and SIs are third-party contractors that deliver bundled solutions consisting of application management, hardware and operating system management (infrastructure), and network-attached services to organizations in all industries. The business value MSPs and SIs deliver to their clients include access to a broad and deep range of technical expertise, capital to fund infrastructure investments, and distribution of time-based projects to different locations around the world. The business decision to contract with a MSP or SI varies by company and even by project within the same company. Distinguishing between the services portfolios of MSP s and SI s is more difficult as both types of providers now deploy expanded offerings. While the blending of their services continues to evolve, there are still a few key areas that separate their service models. SI s have big investments in consulting talent and typically use a bodies profitability percent utilization business model. For this reason, SI s are attracted to larger one-off application projects. These bigger projects drive billable headcount and also allow them to specify new infrastructure requirements. While MSPs also offer consulting skills, they are typically focused on the specific infrastructure platform solutions necessary to build and scale a repeatable system - a much more intensive CapEx investment model. Both MSPs and SIs offer services such as fully managed hosting, storage, security and network management. This portfolio of services has evolved into managed private cloud and hybrid cloud solutions. Additional services may include IP telephony, messaging and call center management. Most of these services can be delivered outside their customer s internal network with a special emphasis placed on integration, certification, and compliance mandates needed for applications and content. MSP s rarely deliver their solutions at customer locations preferring to manage platform solutions at key data center locations. Conversely, SIs provide most of their services at customer locations (e.g. data centers, offices). MSPs generally host their services inside multi-tenant data centers (MTDCs) on behalf of their customers. Their services are either single-tenant/private or multi-tenant/shared service models. Equinix currently has over 600 Managed IT Service customers worldwide. Assess, Design, Implement, Operate: The following framework summarizes the distinct lifecycle phases organizations may follow to evaluate and execute projects. MSPs and SI s map their business models to different aspects of this framework. Each phase can be an independent consulting engagement depending on the client s needs or the accuracy of their current operating IT architecture and inventory. Assess the evaluation of the existing or as is set of infrastructure, applications, security policies and contracts that run in the current state of operation. This phase is approached with a consulting engagement, for a fee, to baseline the inventory and produce an as is state of the architecture. IT Services OVERVIEW 3

4 IT SERVICES OVERVIEW (CONT.) Design after capturing the as is state, this phase provides a plan to reach a to be design. These designs can include many of the managed solutions mentioned above, whether on site or at hosted facilities such as MTDCs. This phase delivers the roadmap for implementation. This could be a simple project plan for a single application platform or a multi-year consolidation and technology refresh strategy touching all aspects of a company s IT infrastructure. Implement this heavy lifting phase provides transition to the to be design. This phase includes standing up new infrastructure, migrating data, installing new applications, integrating with or porting from old systems. Considering most projects fail to implement on time or within budget, this phase is the most critical. Operate this phase covers the ongoing operational support of the new architecture following implementation. This phase can be customized to individual customer environments using a variety of monitoring tools (dedicated support) or it can be standardized on a uniform set of management tools (shared support). IT Services OVERVIEW (COnt.) 4

5 IT SERVICES SUBSEGMENTS Managed Service Providers Managed service providers and web hosting companies deliver managed infrastructure services while also providing capex to fund the hardware and software that comprise their technology stacks. They help their clients by off-loading the design, implementation and support of IT infrastructure. MSPs typically host infrastructure (e.g. database + application servers + web servers) up to the Operating System for internal (employee) and/or external (customer) use. Many MSPs have added application hosting such as , CRM-ERP web applications, and database management. MSPs may also manage their customer s online presence by hosting their domains along with static and dynamic web content for a monthly fee. MSPs target a set of features in the assess phase to help customers understand their fixed range of technology platform migration options. Their design phase is usually focused on the strengths of their technology stacks. This allows MSP s to leverage the operational and cost efficiencies of a repeat and scale model. In short, MSPs are experts at the simplified, repeatable, implement and operate phases. MSP categories and examples: Hosting: Carpathia, Unitas Global, Logicworks, Peer1, Security: Blue Coat Systems, Symantec - Message Lab, Cisco Iron Port, Kapersky Lab Network: Virtela (NTT), Aryaka, Glowpoint Tip: The primary difference between managed service providers and software (SaaS) services is that MSP s tend to deliver customer specific solutions whereas SaaS providers build multi-tenant platform based solutions designed for the entire market (e.g. Salesforce). Systems Integrators SIs provide consulting and advisory services ranging from strategy through technical design, implementation and operation. SIs are heavy on the assess and design phases. Implement and operate phases are often delivered through sub contractors. SIs are typically designed with horizontal centers of excellence and expertise across functional areas such as Infrastructure Services. They then focus their go-to-market approach on industry verticals. As experts in the core business that they consult, SI s are the lead customer interface IT Services Subsegments 5

6 IT SERVICES SUBSEGMENTS (CONT.) providing particularly strong application domain expertise in those industries. Linked to this application domain expertise are other experts in infrastructure design and management - specifically selected to support those applications in the industry vertical. Applications drive the revenue and fulfillment engines of all companies. They ve become the life-blood of all organizations. SIs install and operate applications and IT systems on behalf of their clients wherever their clients want them on site, third party data centers or in the cloud. This structure presents a target-rich selling environment. Because data center costs are approximately 10% of their total deals and most revenues are generated from the application layer, SI s are more concerned with time to market and quality of service. The challenge is that they usually buy managed hosting and colocation from a single provider. This habit makes partnerships with MSPs a key factor in getting deals done. As a larger trend, SIs are evolving away from complex, multi-year, your mess for less, oneoff deals, where they take over existing assets, staff, and 3rd party contracts to optimize cost and improve efficiencies. Instead, they are moving towards a repeatable platform services model that scales more effectively, conserves capital, and delivers better return profiles. This shift is leading SIs to develop partner solutions that assemble a range of services but erodes the application outsourcing work that drives their largest revenue streams. The impact of this shift has direct consequences on Equinix supporting SIs. As customerdeal specific deployments in dedicated cages is shifting towards more partner-platform agreements with MSPs to deploy services such big data and analytics, SIs are working with these managed hosting providers, cloud providers and their customer IT teams to assemble multi-platform (hybrid) architectures. In order to pursue platform services deployments, we then need to be talking with them early in the evaluation stages and pitching Platform Equinix and our ecosystem value. Equinix and our ecosystem of MSPs give SIs choices of hosting (private cloud) deployment partners while also providing them adjacency to key cloud service providers with low latency routes to end users. Our interconnected hybrid model improves application performance, scalability, security and application availability, while reducing their capital investments. The impact is a margin-rich, capex-lite, flexible IT architecture allowing SIs to invest in software and orchestration functions while still taking advantage of their application domain expertise into the cloud. SI Categories and Examples: IT Outsourcing: HP, IBM, CSC, Dell, T-Systems, Wipro, Tata Business Process Outsourcing: Accenture, Cap Gemini, Deloitte, PWC, HP, IBM, CSC, Wipro, Tata, Atos IT Services Subsegments (Cont.) 6

7 EQUINIX VALUE PROPS Platform Equinix enables Managed Service Providers to connect into an ecosystem of other providers that include: Public and hybrid cloud capacity suppliers delivering raw capacity for complex integrations. Companies already deployed with core IT infrastructure within data centers. Unmatched network diversity for solution delivery. Cloud services can be delivered via three routes: DirectConnect links enterprise IT infrastructure to cloud solution providers within the same data centers leveraging a secure, scalable Layer 1 network connection. Ethernet Exchange provides unmatched choice for Layer 2 connectivity to Enterprise HQ and branch office locations. Internet Exchange allows high-performance solution delivery via ISPs and mobile broadband to mobile and remote users. Finally, the Equinix Marketplace increases visibility of IT Service companies among their enterprise target audience customers all within the data center. Equinix Marketplace can accelerate revenue growth opportunities. EQUINIX VALUE PROPS 7

8 PERSONAS Technical Leadership Most people you ll meet at cloud providers have technical backgrounds. They ll want to understand specifics of our proposed solution(s) and the implications for their business. Be ready with hard data such as latency modeling to support our claims. Also engage internal solution architects and/or subject matter experts to help support the development and even the presentation of a pitch. Business Leadership Business leaders are more likely to have marketing, sales & business development focus. They re going to be easier to deal with directly and alone by generally focusing on the non-technical aspects of our value proposition. For example, our ability to scale up and out as necessary reduces their capital expenditure and the risk of unused or unavailable capacity. Another selling point is the value of the Equinix brand which gives businesses access to our nearly 5,000 customers via the Equinix Marketplace. Procurement No need to fear procurement. It s a great sign if you re in contact with them. For procurement, price is pretty much all that matters to them. These folks are usually incentivized to reduce cost and they can be quite aggressive. However, if their peers are sold on our unique value proposition, they are typically easier to deal with. personas 8

9 COMPETITORS Multi-Tenant Data Center Competitors Global Digital Realty Trust (DRT) While DRT is a REIT who traditionally only served customers above a certain size (1/4-1/2MW), they re now moving down market into retail colocation. Thus, we are seeing them compete on more deals today. In an effort to further penetrate the retail market, they are very active in the Open-IX initiative and have been aggressively trying to bolster their peering/interconnection capabilities. What complicates the relationship is that we are both competitors and customers. We lease certain IBX sites from DRT where it makes more sense than to build our own. Americas Switch SuperNAP Switch s main drawback is that they currently only have a single site in Las Vegas. It s a large site they acquired in a liquidation sale. They are well aware of this limitation and are building facilities on the East coast and abroad. NTT/RagingWire RagingWire is a relative newcomer to the Ashburn colocation market situated within minutes of our DC campus. With only one other location in Sacramento CA, they are aggressive on price allowing them to win deals with customers like Twitter. Recently, NTT acquired an 80% stake in RagingWire, bolstering NTT s North America presence. With NTT s financial backing, RagingWire has potential to become a potent competitor. Telx Telx is a private company providing premium network-neutral colocation space with a dense interconnection ecosystem. They have a strategic agreement with DLR to maintain and operate key Meet-Me-Rooms within Digital Realty s most interconnected buildings. Telx competes with Equinix in many of the Tier I/II markets except for Ashburn. And, they are expanding with recent data center openings in NY/ NJ, Seattle, and Portland. They are very active marketing to cloud and enterprise customers calling their data centers Cloud Connections Centers. Internationally, Telx does not have a footprint outside of North America, but they ve partnered with Interxion to provide international presence. CoreSite CoreSite is a public REIT primarily focused in North America with presence in key interconnection buildings such as One Wilshire in Los Angeles and 32 Avenue of the COMPETITORS 9

10 COMPETITORS (CONT.) Americas in New York. CoreSite sells both retail and wholesale product. This allows them to cater to a wide variety of clients. They offer attractive pricing especially for marquee customers. Internally, there s been executive turnover at the top levels of the company. CoreSite s COO who led the company s cloud strategy and efforts with the CoreSite Open Cloud Exchange recently left the company. DuPont Fabros DuPont Fabros is a wholesale provider that builds and operates massive scale data centers. Key customers include Microsoft, Yahoo!, Facebook, and Google. They are active in 4 North American markets (CH, DC, NY/NJ, SV) and have plans to build a new facility in Ashburn next to our campus. They offer low-cost lease terms to large enterprises that need lots of space quickly. They are also trying to attract network carriers by offering free interconnection and waiving access fees. They have joined the Open-IX as a way to break into the interconnection market. Europe, Middle East and Africa Interxion Interxion is a regional data center provider competing in all of Equinix s European metros (as well as a number of others). They lack footprint in Italy (where we have access to a partner facility) and the UAE. Outside of our footprint they are also present in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Spain and Sweden. While most of these are tier 2 markets, a number of larger cloud providers have made Ireland their home to take advantage of favorable tax rates and over a decade of significant IT experience. Interxion is competitive on price but lacks global footprint requiring them to leverage partnerships with the likes of Telx to reach other markets. TelecityGroup Telecity is a regional provider present in all of our European countries except Switzerland and the UAE. While they lack our global footprint, they are competitive on price and maintain significant European presence: Asia Pacific Nippon Telegraph & Telephone (NTT) NTT is both a very large customer and a competitor who also maintains a global footprint. They offer colocation, managed and cloud services, and have recently been acquiring companies like DimensionData (also a customer) and RagingWire to build their portfolio. COMPETITORS (CONT.) 10

11 COMPETITORS (CONT.) Other Competitors Carriers, Cloud Service Providers and System Integrators will compete more with each other. Most are key customers of Equinix because we enable their business. Their focus is providing end-to-end IT solutions. Colocation is only a means to an end for these providers. For the latest competitive research data, please visit The Competitive Intelligence page on Sales Intelligence: If you are interested in receiving the daily bulletin Global Market Watch containing competitive and industry information, please send a note to [email protected] and ask to be added to the globalmarketwatch alias. COMPETITORS (CONT.) 11

12 CASE STUDIES Cirracore Case Study As one of the most respected high performance cloud hosting companies, Cirracore delivers a superior cloud platform for real-time, data-intensive financial services. They rely on Equinix to create unbeatable user experiences for these demanding industries. Unitas Global Case Study As a leader in the enterprise private cloud industry, Unitas Global s worldwide network provides entire IT infrastructures as a managed service. With Platform Equinix, they ve grown their global business by 400%. FireHost Case Study With data security an increasingly critical business need, Firehost is an industry-leading secure cloud hosting company. Platform Equinix provides multi-site colocation, global reach for their growing business and opportunity for their partners to expand into new markets. Case studies 12

13 OBJECTION HANDLING Equinix is too expensive Our model allows the data center to become a revenue center. No one else presents the same access to providers, partners, and customers as Equinix. When you consider all our advantages, they far outweigh any price premiums. Also, we cost more because we deploy in the most populated urban areas in the world. Others deploy in remote locations where land and energy is cheap. They can t deliver <10ms latency to 90% of users. I m not planning to deploy globally You may not have immediate plans to expand, but you may in the future. Or, your customers may have data sovereignty concerns. Or, you may find partners in other regions. These are all common scenarios and excellent reasons to deploy with Equinix from the start. Will Equinix compete with me? Equinix does not provide managed or integrated services. We don t compete with MSPs on anything but colocation, which is often a means to the end for MSPs and SI. Generally, that s not their core business. If you have a colocation business, it is unlikely you could compete with Equinix in all regions. Look to us to compliment and extend your colocation offering. Is Equinix enabling my competition? Your competitors may be our customers. If they are, they ve acknowledged and are now enjoying the advantages Equinix brings to their business every millisecond. The earlier you are on the inside of Equinix, the more opportunity you have to establish your presence inside our data centers and connect with the partners and customers that matter most to your business. By enabling more than 128,000 connections among over 4500 customers, we are the world s leading interconnection platform. We own and operate our own data centers/ We just completed DC migration/ consolidation. That s always challenging. One way Equinix customers have reduced those challenges is by obtaining a single cabinet and deploying a network access node in Equinix to provide a stable anchor for their WAN and vendor connectivity. Then tether to the data center where their servers are consolidated. This set up makes it easy to adjust data center strategy in the future without disrupting external connections. Even if they ve just moved, perhaps they can look at this scenario now, so they re more agile in the future. Objection Handling 13

14 QUALIFYING QUESTIONS What business challenges and opportunities are you looking to solve or exploit through colocation in our IBX? Will a rich range of network connectivity options provide you with significant economic benefits? Will you benefit by connecting to others who are or might be operating in our IBX? Can we help you identify other members of your ecosystem that you should be connected to? Is your application performance sensitive? Is latency to your end users of significant importance? Does downtime significantly impact your application? Do you need infrastructure that can empirically support near-zero downtime performance? Does your current and/or future architecture require global geographic reach? Do you have any compliance offerings that would be enhanced by being in Equinix? Would working with one global data center provider for all customer designs be beneficial? Qualifying Questions 14

15 TOOLS Equinix Latency Modeler The Latency Modeler is an online tool that simulates user deployments and predicts performance for a given IBX configuration (e.g. Silicon Valley, Ashburn and Amsterdam). Users set the performance requirements of their application (e.g. 100 ms (priority)) along with current and future deployments. A global heat map is generated, along with a table of round trip times by current, future and percentage improvement. Below is a link to the tool. If you do not currently have a login for the Latency Modeler, please open a ticket with the Help Desk. TOOLS 15

16 Corporate HQ EMEA Asia-Pacific Equinix, Inc. One Lagoon Drive 4th Floor Redwood City, CA USA Equinix (EMEA) BV Luttenbergweg EC Amsterdam Zuidoost Netherlands Equinix Hong Kong Limited Suite , 65/F Central Plaza 18 Harbour Road Wanchai, Hong Kong Main: Fax: [email protected] Main: Fax: [email protected] Main: Fax: [email protected] About Equinix Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), connects more than 4,500 companies directly to their customers and partners inside the world s most networked data centers. Today, enterprise, cloud, networking, digital media and financial services companies leverage the Equinix interconnection platform in 32 strategic markets across the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific. By connecting directly to their strategic partners and end users, customers are forming dynamic ecosystems inside Equinix. These interconnected ecosystems enable companies to optimize the performance of their content and applications and protect their vital digital assets Equinix, Inc. XX-EN Cloud-IT-Services-Sales-Playbook 1F1 DD-JM