Client

Merlin, NetApp, Riverbed, and VMware

Situation

As the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the General Services Administration (GSA) continue to push the Federal transition to cloud, many questions remain. The CIO Council Cloud Working Group asked industry to provide recommendations on the path to cloud computing in Federal. Amid this dialogue, Merlin, NetApp, Riverbed, and VMware saw an opportunity to take a leadership role and drive market discussion on the future opportunities for cloud computing in the Federal government.

To provide perspective and collectively cut through the noise, Merlin, NetApp, Riverbed, and VMware worked with MeriTalk and O’Keeffe & Company to develop and execute a disruptive research program on cloud computing in the Federal market. The "Cloud Consensus" study surveyed 605 respondents among both the Federal government and the private sector. Specifically, the report provided:

• Snapshots on both industry and government cloud progress
• Insight on how issues are stalling the Federal cloud transition
• Insight on how issues are stalling the Federal cloud transition

Challenges

The objectives of the "Cloud Consensus" program were to position Merlin to:

• Grow market profile and credibility:
  • Increase baseline Federal market awareness and accelerate market adoption of Merlin in Federal cloud computing solutions
  • Position Merlin's solutions vis-à-vis key Federal market growth drivers and a hot-button issue – cloud computing
  • Raise Merlin's visibility as a Federal cloud computing thought leader via targeted media coverage
• Increase stakeholder intimacy:
  • Demonstrate Federal market commitment, leadership, and relevance
  • Strengthen relationships with Federal government cloud computing leaders – delivering important executive-level partner and customer sales relationships
• Leverage study to generate customer and partner leads, as well as upsell opportunities

Solution

Leveraging the "Cloud Consensus" study results, we created a landing page requiring interested parties to provide full contact information to access the report. Further, MeriTalk and O'Keeffe & Company also referenced the link to the study results during press briefings, as well as included it in a press release announcing the results and in an e-mail blast to a targeted list of contacts.

We amplified the "Cloud Consensus" study's findings to provide thought leadership opportunities for Merlin via targeted media placements, including leveraging the membership of the MeriTalk Cloud Group. Beyond driving immediate, high-level media coverage of the study in publications such as CIO, Cloud Computing Journal, Computerworld, Federal Times, Government Computer News, and Virtualization Journal, we sowed seeds for continued media coverage by elevating awareness of Merlin, NetApp, Riverbed, and VMware as thought leaders in the government IT market.

The study aimed to pave the way for discussions with key government decision makers and will continue to generate potential sales leads as its presence matures in the market and additional news articles publish. Merlin, NetApp, Riverbed, and VMware used the study as a sales tool to validate market trends and position itself firmly in line with customer needs and explicit concerns.

Results

As a result of the "Cloud Consensus" program, Merlin, NetApp, Riverbed, and VMware secured the following outcomes:

• Secured wide-ranging press attention, targeting specific customer audiences:
  • Press clips: 119
  • Estimated page views/impressions: 40,799,099
• Achieved increased market exposure, generating potential sales leads:
  • Study downloads: 306