2nd Watch Keeps Innovating With New Cloud Migration Cost Assessment Plan

2nd Watch introduced a service Tuesday aimed at helping customers quickly get a handle on the costs and cost benefits of large-scale cloud migrations to smooth their budgeting processes.

The born-in-the-cloud solution provider's new Cloud Migration Cost Assessment is aimed at accelerating cloud transformation initiatives by providing large and midmarket enterprises accurate and comprehensive financial information on all facets of their migrations, said Jeff Aden, 2nd Watch executive vice president of marketing and strategic business development.

The six-week engagement evaluates on-premises infrastructure, maps existing resources to appropriate cloud solutions, and estimates the fees for the migration and ongoing services after it's completed. The fixed-price plan covers migrations scaling up to 1,000 Amazon Web Services instances, Aden told CRN.

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The cost assessment is the third in a series of innovative services 2nd Watch has launched this year that highlight the evolving role and capabilities of the channel.

The Seattle-based AWS and Microsoft Azure partner in recent months introduced an automated DevOps service, followed by one focused on security.

Over the past five years, Aden said, 2nd Watch has seen migrations ramping in size.

As customers grapple with complex budgetary processes to fund those projects, 2nd Watch saw the benefit of comprehensively laying out the total costs of migrating data centers to Amazon or Microsoft clouds — not only in dollars but also time, effort and resources.

That projection includes costs for all software used in that process in addition to professional consulting services. 2nd Watch leverages software from TSO Logic to right-size environments and determine total cost of ownership, Aden said.

Like the DevOps and security services that came before it, "this is packaging IT that we've used over years," Aden said.

The cost assessment service will enable 2nd Watch to scale the number and scope of its engagements.

"That's the bigger picture," Aden said. "We've made investments in a product management team to continue to grow these products that will help customers migrating to the cloud."

By packaging in-house skills, home-grown IP and trusted tools from vendors, 2nd Watch looks to differentiate itself in a market where customers typically know the platforms they want to adopt, but increasingly need reliable guidance from partners when on-boarding to them, he said.

The service will make it easier for IT teams to win budgetary approval from upper management and accelerate migration projects, he said.

"It really puts a stake in the ground for that customer in terms of locking budgets," Aden said.