As global public cloud providers (primarily Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft’s Azure and Rackspace for limited extent) enhance their focus on the growing vibrant Israeli market, adoption rates amongst startups appears to be jumping through the roof. Unlike the large enterprises where acceptance and implementation of ‘all cloud’ or hybrid solutions have been progressing slower due to various unclear reasons (security?), SMB’s, but especially Startups, must be agile, “throw caution to the wind” (Wow, I never thought I’d use this phrase…but there you go) , and just do it!

So how can you reach this untapped resource?

This article comes to suggest some directions cloud providers and third party cloud servicing companies can take in order to increase their penetration rates in the Israeli startup market in an easier fashion and earlier on in the process.

Academia

The Academic realm is without a doubt, the most valuable untapped resource which, if approached right, will best benefit both the end user and the cloud provider. The logic behind this big and not trivial assumption is that by establishing a presence in the academic realm you create awareness, knowledge and trust between the cloud and the young entrepreneurs.

This talented and resourceful group of students is composed by ‘Startup wannabes’ and individuals that have already gained some experience with startups but require additional knowledge and mentoring. Clouds need to alter the state-of-mind regarding these individuals so that when they graduate and build or join their startups the question transforms from cloud yes/no, to ‘which public cloud is best suited for my purposes‘? Remember, it is a ‘when’ question, not an ‘if’ one.

There are several Undergraduate and MBA tracks in Israel focusing on Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Startups. Some examples:

1. Technion
2. Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya
3. Tel Aviv University
4. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

My belief is that most people are just looking to be inspired and eventually become influencers and a source of inspiration themselves. The academic centers including their innovation hubs, IDC’s milab for example, provide the right tools and mental state of mind required for this evolutionary process (yes, Evolution and not Revolution taking into account the revolution has been over for some time now with the public clouds taking the gold).

There are several potential benefits from targeting this market segment:

1. Joint collaboration with the BA/MBA labs and tracks.
2. Cloud providers will get full exposure to existing and future entrepreneurs at the early stages whilst positioning itself in a very positive place amongst students, scholars and academics.
3. Students working and building their projects will do so on the public cloud platform.
   Clouds can go further and think about incentives to build a segregated cloud zones specifically for academic-based startups and research platforms. This may be very similar to the general concept behind AWS’s GovCloud.
   How about: ‘UniZone’, ‘AWS-Scholar’ (I know it rings a bell), ‘CloudResearch’, etc.
4. Market trends – this will provide important and significant insights to future market directions (are the projects more social? Mobile? Etc.)

To date and as far as I know, no public cloud provider in Israel has tapped the academic arena.

Accelerators, Incubators and Launch-pads

Accelerators, Incubators and Launch pads (AI&LPs) are basically another locality which serves as a birth place of many startups. Places like Techloft, The Junction, Elevator, The Library, 8200 EISP, The Hub Tel Aviv and the IDC Elevator are just few examples of the supporting infrastructures laid down in Israel in recent years in order to assist the startup phenomenon.

Microsoft already begun operating in this space and launched the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator, getting startups hooked on their operating systems and development solutions whilst utilizing their Azure cloud platform. Google have also joined the arena with the Campus located in the heart of Tel-Aviv.
AWS launched their startup kit called AWS Activate and is giving the startups a nice free usage tier which is worth thousands of $$$ (not trivial for when you are a startup). This demonstrates a very positive direction and understanding of the unique needs of this community.

On the one hand both Google and Microsoft opened their own ‘AI&LP’ space, but on the other hand, they are waiting for the market to come to them. They somewhat neglected their presence outside the AI&LPs (or maybe it is a wise business decision, I couldn’t tell). Public cloud vendors need to position themselves as an integral part of the seed and even pre-seed process and join forces with it in its infancy stages of development and deployment. What if every AI&LP had a solutions architect situated on site or on-call to help the startup?
The cloud providers need to be more proactive; go and educate, present, discuss and ultimately sell their solutions and offerings on premise.

Meetup’s

The Meetup space has grown significantly in recent years serving a network of knowledge, support and professional links. There are several sub-groups (IGT Cloud, Israel AWS User Group, Startup Grind Tel-Aviv, etc.) that operate almost on a weekly basis in the realm of cloud computing, innovation & entrepreneurship, startups, etc.

By accessing this resource, which basically means going to these Meetups and speaking directly with the startup community and presenting, several interesting outcomes are expected:

1. Creating leads and channels.
2. Listening to the entrepreneurs and understanding their needs, challenges and concerns.
3. Analyze how public clouds can help resolve their issues and make recommendations.
4. I believe in presence and direct interaction is a key factor in such events. If your cloud or solutions are not represented then the chances for success are reduced significantly.

Summary

This article is too short to summarize, nevertheless, I would like to end with the following note: Public clouds are the next ‘old’ thing. Whether you are a cloud provider, a service offerings company planning, building and improving on top of the clouds, or a solution provider, I hope you found this article helpful.
Why would a startup not launch its solution on a public cloud is beyond me, but then again, I fail to understand why the large enterprises are not there either, and I did use “throw caution to the wind” earlier... Just think about NASA’s Mars Curiosity Mission. If these guys can be on the cloud, why cant you?

We all know everyone will end up there eventually; it just takes a bit longer…