Cloudnexa, a Philadelphia-based company that provides cloud management strategies and services for their clients, learned just shy of their first birthday they had been selected as a premier consulting partner with AWS. They share this distinction with only 22 other companies globally. It’s safe to say the “Cloud War” is well underway.

So when Cloudnexa CEO Joel Davne stopped by SiliconANGLE’s theCUBE at this week’s Amazon Web Services Summit in San Francisco, co-host John Furrier started the interview by pointing out that Cloudnexa came on the scene and immediately began working as a disruptor in the industry. Davne leaned right in, explaining a business model that only a couple of years ago would have been anathema to anyone in the storage and compute markets.

“We tell our customers that the first time they engage with us, I promise you this will be the most expensive time you will spend with us.” He credits that assertion to the fact Amazon is committed to continually cutting their prices. “With the Cloudnexa business model, we’ve taken a utility approach to delivering services.”

Watch the interview in its entirety here:

Cloud On The Horizon

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Tech firms everywhere could potentially fear the change of price cuts, but Davne explains how and why Cloudnexa is embracing the new paradigm brought about by the dominance of AWS in the market.

“I don’t think it’s competing with the price cuts. It’s enabling the customers to get the full value of those price cuts,” he said. “This is why all of our customers are driving to cloud computing. We’ve developed cloud management as a service and what we tell our customers is that we are in it with them.” Cloudnexa achieves this by creating the architecture and controlling migration while providing advisory services like traditional integrators do. “But we don’t charge them one penny until they are spending money on Amazon and are able to realize the value of the commitment they have made to the technology.”

As noted by Furrier, Cloudnexa has basically shifted where customers will find value. Davne believes presenting value to a client all while presenting no charge and no tie-in contract is a big leap of faith on the part of Cloudnexa. But that commitment to a clients success can also foster an incredible amount of trust. “Even though we are dedicated towards Amazon,” Davne stated, “customers can leave our tutelage at any time.” If at any time a client no longer finds value in the service or cost provided by Cloudnexa, they are free to take their operation in-house or to transfer to another provider altogether.

Jeff Frick, General Manager and co-host of this week’s theCube broadcast, inquired whether the wider adoption of cloud strategies was being affected more by a growing trust in the security of the platform or outside pressure by company leaders to affect immediate adoption. Davne pointed out the difficulty of truly knowing the motivations behind the trend because there are so many commercial and public sector entities, each with unique requirements and strategies. Cloudnexa embraces that diversity of need by working with each client to tailor specific architecture and service based solely on the needs of that organization. “It’s not a ‘one size fits all’. I know people would like it to be, but you have to look at the company and look at the solution and tailor it for the individual client.”

Migration v. New

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Companies moving to the cloud through AWS, Davne mentions, are perfectly aware that just under the service is a level of complexity and innovation not necessarily apparent at first glance. In response to a question by Frick about the migration of existing apps as opposed to opting for new apps available in the AWS marketplace, Davne explained, “An existing app requires re-engineering. New apps are more advantageous because they are being built for speed with all the latest solution sets.” While he finds it preferential to use the newly developed and continually updated apps, Davne concedes it really is based on how close or far the organization is from their original starting point. “Not everyone is lucky enough to start from the beginning.”

In Davne’s opinion, providers out there who aren’t recognizing and embracing the advent of cloud computing are really only deluding themselves. “Those who believe this won’t move forward, they can put their heads in the sand but we’re going to eat their lunch. [Cloudnexa] is going to be out there. We are going to find those opportunities and work with those customers that want to take advantage of the technology and the cost reductions and make it happen for them.”

Where Do We Go From Here

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Wrapping up the conversation, Furrier asked Davne to provide his perspective on the industry and where it is headed in the short-term. Davne stated the impetus of this movement to the cloud is to provide innovation to organizations that were unable or unwilling to make that happen internally. “If you’re a little gun shy about your own particular internal team resources, reach out to a partner,” Davne said. “Amazon has a phenomenal partner network, something like 8,000 Amazon partners in the ecosystem.” He continued, “We are the ones that are going to help these customers get over these hurdles and help them to adopt.”

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