Cloud Computing Business Plan Business Plan Sample

The company will be known as 100GB Cloud

Objectives:
100GB cloud has set its three-year goals as follows:
Establish ten-year contracts with at least five small and medium enterprises
Achieve a customer satisfaction rate of at least 95%
Ensure that our service uptime is 99.9%
Mission Statement
100GB Cloud aims to provide its clients with high-quality cloud computing services. 100GB Cloud mission is to help its clients improve their usage of cloud computing and increase their return on investment (ROI) by letting them concentrate on their core business.

Keys to Success

100GB Cloud keys to continuous survival and profitability are:
Obtaining long-term contracts for the provision of cloud computing services.
Establishing a mutually beneficial relationship with clients to improve the reputation of 100GB Cloud and gain repeat business.
Providing top-notch service experience for 100GB cloud customers
Providing reliable cloud computing services with an uptime of 99.9%
Providing our customers with unrivaled support services that exceed their expectations
Business Overview:
100GB Cloud primary business is to provide cloud computing services to small and medium sized enterprises. Revenue for 100GB Cloud will be obtained from providing server space and cloud computing software to our clients. Initially, 100GB Cloud intends to have more than 1,000 different cloud computing systems. For medium size enterprises, 100GB Cloud will provide them with dedicated servers based on their bandwidth needs. From this business sector, 100GB Cloud will gain regular monthly income from the cloud computing services. 100GB cloud will provide three main services namely: platform, infrastructure and software services.

Company Ownership:

100GB Cloud is a company owned by three founding directors, who will contribute 75% of the required capital, each person contributing 25%, and the balance coming from a loan.

Products and Services:

100GB Cloud will offer the following services:
Cloud Computing Services
The main source of income for 100GB cloud will be obtained from providing cloud computing services to small and medium enterprises within 100GB Cloud’s target market. Cloud computing will allow these enterprises to concentrate on their core business. Using the cloud services will help the enterprises reduce their costs of operation and investment in information technology. Cloud computing allows the enterprises to have access to the various software at a cheaper rate than buying them. The cloud computing services provided by 100GB Cloud can be broadly classified as follows:

100GB PAAS Service

It will be a Platform as a Service (PaaS) business. Under this service enterprises will have the opportunity to rent operating software, bandwidth, data storage and virtual servers. 100GB Cloud will provide virtualized servers and other associated services.

100GB IAAS Service

It will be an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) business. Under this service enterprises will no longer need to have high-cost IT hardware, such as servers and networking components. Instead, they can hire the required IT infrastructure from 100GB Cloud. Enterprises will provide an outsourcing service, where storage, maintenance and running of systems will be done on their behalf for a monthly fee.

1000GB SAAS Service

It will be a Software as a Service (SaaS) business. Under this service, 100GB Cloud will provide enterprises with cloud hosted software at a monthly or pay-per-use charge. Enterprises will no longer need to purchase costly software that they only use a few times.

Ancillary Services

Additionally, 100GB Cloud will offer our clients with other related services such as web hosting, registering domain names and obtaining security certificates on their behalf. These ancillary services will compliment 100GB Cloud main business, and they are expected to raise an additional 7% of revenues.
100GB Cloud will have an office for management and marketing but will also have multiple offshore sites for its servers. The proposed management office will be located in downtown Oregon. The company will rent space for servers and data centers in several offshore locations including HongKong, Adelaide, and Helsinki. With servers in different locations, the company will be able to do server replication to avoid data losses and service downtime. In case of failure in one location, customers will automatically be rerouted to other servers without experiencing downtimes.

Risk Factors:

There are several risks that 100GB Cloud will be faced with including, server failure, data loss, and security breaches. The company will ensure that all data is backed up and stored in remote locations to mitigate these risks. Server replication will be utilized to ensure that if one server fails the services are not affected. Security of the servers and network infrastructure is very important, and 100GB Cloud will ensure that the best practices and security measures are adopted. In case of a security breach, isolation of the affected system will be done to ensure the problem is contained. 100GB Cloud will invest heavily in security to ensure there are no malicious attacks.

Market Analysis

100GB Cloud will be operating in the cloud computing industry that is currently experiencing exponential and acceptance worldwide. The impetus for cloud computing services is still becoming potent, because of the cost and flexibility benefits the cloud structure presents to companies of all sizes. Consumer knowledge, approval, and expenditure are all on the increase, and 100GB Cloud has a great chance to exploit these trends. Cloud computing has become a mainstream service that is used by many companies in recent years. According to research, revenues from cloud computing services, are expected to reach $106 Billion in 2016, a 21% from 2015 expenditure.

Market Trends and Needs

Recent studies by Goldman Sachs indicate that cloud computing infrastructure expenditure will grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 30% from 2013 to 2018. Enterprise-level contracts for the provision of computing hardware and software are on the increase. The adoption of cloud computing is growing worldwide. More companies are in need of cloud computing services to cut on costs and realize the flexibility benefits offered by cloud computing. Small enterprises are in need of Software-as-Service services, with the total workload for the segment expected to reach 59% of the total cloud computing traffic. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service will (PaaS) will account for 28% and 13% of the workload respectively.

Market Segmentation:

Almost every company is need of cloud computing services, but 100GB Cloud will specifically address the needs of small enterprises. Small enterprises are defined as any business that has a workforce of less than 500. These businesses will be the initial target market for 100GB Cloud because they are main consumers of cloud computing.

Competition:

The cloud computing market if highly fragmented with players in the industry varying in company size, services provided, and market share. Competition against 100GB Cloud will come from many companies both directly and indirectly. The most notable competitors that 100GB Cloud will face are Hubspot, SAP, NetSuite, RackSpace, and Cisco. These companies have several advantages over 100GB Cloud, including existing customer base, financial and human resources. However, these companies have a disadvantage in their pricing and market targeting. Their prices are not very friendly to small businesses, and they target medium and large enterprises. The main advantage that 100GB Cloud has is its pricing strategy that will be affordable for most small business. Another advantage is that being a new company 100GB Cloud is more nimble and will, therefore, respond to clients needs faster.

Sales and Marketing Plan

Pricing
100GB Cloud will offer a free three months subscription for its new clients who purchase a six month plan. Additionally, to attract more customers the company will offer a free one month trial for small businesses that need access to the software. Small businesses that require 10 or fewer logins will be charged $150 per month. Enterprises that have between 10 to 25 users will be charged $400 and those with more than 25 users will be charged $750 monthly.

Advertising:

100GB Cloud will conduct most of its advertising online, through its website and paid advertisements. Proper search engine marketing and optimization will be adopted. In addition to paid as, 100GB Cloud will use social media, blogs, and newsletters to market its services.

Suppliers:

100GB Cloud will purchase its servers from HP, and leading companies will provide data warehousing solutions in the respective regions where the company’s servers will be located.

Human Resources Plan

The company shall be headed by a chief executive officer who will be responsible for the day to day running of the company. A Chief Technology Officer will be in charge of the cloud computing business, a marketing manager will be the head of the marketing department and the HR manager will be responsible for the management of human resources. Below the senior management, the company shall be broadly segmented into two, operations staff and administrative staff. The operations staff will consist of IT and customer service employees. Administrative staff will be made up of the accounting, sales and marketing and human resource employees.

Training:

100GB Cloud will recruit highly qualified staff and will provide for regular in-house training and mentorship. All new employees will undergo training to ensure that they have the soft skills required for the company.

Vacation program:

In the initial stages, the company will not be offering vacation programs. However, this policy will be reviewed once the company reaches its breakeven point.

Benefits:

Standard Industry employee benefits will be provided to the employees of 100GB Cloud. Performance based incentives will be given as and when the human resources department conducts appraisals.