With the new year, THINKstrategies is pleased to launch a new era for our Showplace directories and industry best practice resource centers.

In the same way that the marketplace has moved beyond Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Managed Services to now embrace the broader opportunities surrounding Cloud Computing, we are doing the same with our recent launch of newly expanded Cloud Computing Showplace.

Our new site merges the best elements of our highly ranked and very successful SaaS and Managed Services Showplaces into a single, unified, and we hope even more useful source of timely information and insight for corporate decision-makers, solution providers, investors, press and others interested in capitalizing on this exciting new business computing trend.

The immediate response to the new Showplace has been very gratifying. In barely a week, we've already added over twenty (20) new companies to the online directory, bringing the total company listings to over 1625 Cloud vendors across over 90 SaaS, Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions, including Managed Services.

We've also made it easier for visitors to keep track of the latest Cloud vendors to add their company information to the Showplace by providing a clearly marked box, below the sponsor logo-roll, with a list of the ten most recent companies added to the online directory, along with a real-time tally of the total number of companies in the Showplace.

We also welcome our latest Showplace sponsor, Actuate, which co-leads the Eclipse BIRT open source project. BIRT is the premier development environment for presenting compelling data visualizations to users and an integral part of Actuate products which maximize end user productivity and help organizations drive greater revenue through higher customer satisfaction and improved operational performance.

We are also pleased to continue to highlight and promote specific Cloud Computing companies that are delivering measurable business benefits to their users through our ongoing Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) and Cloud Computing Business Value (CCBV) Award programs.

Another indication of the growing interest in the business implications of today's widening array of SaaS, PaaS and IaaS solutions is the rapid growth of the subscriber base of this newsletter which added over 500 new readers in the past month alone and now exceeds 13,500 IT and business decision-makers, solution providers, investors and press.  

I hope you like the new Cloud Showplace and find this newsletter useful. Please let me know if you have any suggestions regarding ways we can continue to improve the Showplace or if you'd like to learn more about how your organization can leverage the Showplace and THINKstrategies' other services to capitalize on the Cloud.

Thanks for your continued support.

Best regards,

Jeff Kaplan

Managing Director

THINKstrategies, Inc.

Cloud Computing Showplace 

Twitter:@thinkstrategies

Now that the Cloud Computing movement has demonstrated that it can deliver tangible business benefits to organizations of all sizes, CIOs and IT decision-makers must adopt a proactive approach to capitalize on the rapidly expanding array of Cloud alternatives.

THINKstrategies believes that 2011 will mark a new stage in the adoption of Cloud services. Rather than the ad hoc acquisition of these services driving by end-users and individual business users, there will be an increasingly centralized procurement and management processes put in place. Click here to read our views about how Cloud Control Will Be an IT Priority in 2011.

Click here to read THINKstrategies' recommendations in Datamation regarding how CIOs and IT decision-makers should act to successfully respond to these trends and effectively management today's cloud resources. 

Contact us if you'd like to explore how THINKstrategies' services can help your organization effectively management today's rapidly evolving cloud alternatives.

THINKstrategies continues to recognize SaaS, PaaS and IaaS providers that are delivering measurable business benefits to their customers through our Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) and Cloud Computing Business Value (CCBV) Award programs.

Click here to read about our most recent BoSS Award winner, myGengo.

Click here to read more about how award programs, winners and rules for applying and winning a BoSS or CCBV Award. 

THINKstrategies is participating in and supporting a broad series of industry and corporate events focused on the business implications of the SaaS, Cloud Computing, and Managed Services markets.

Here are some of the upcoming industry events:

• SoftLetter's SaaS University, April 26-28, Denver, CO. (Friends of the Cloud Showplace and THINKstrategies can save $150 on the registration fee by using the discount code, THINKstrategies 150.)
• Telecom Cloud Services Summit, May 9-11, Scandic Hotel Potsdamer Platz, Berlin.
• "All About the Cloud", SIIA Conference, May 24-26, 2011, San Francisco, CA

Contact us if you'd like to learn how your organization can include THINKstrategies' perspective or gain the benefit of our promotional support for your upcoming event.