A clear indication of the growing importance of the SaaS movement and broader cloud computing phenomenon is the number of industry events focused on these trends.
In the past seven weeks, I've traveled from Boston to the Bay Area six times to speak, host and moderate sessions at SaaScon, Under the Radar, AlwaysOn OnDemand, Pervasive's Metamorphosis and the SIIA/OpSource All About the Cloud conferences, and last week was in in Florida attending SAP's Sapphire user conference and speaking to Tech Data's TechSelect channel partners.
In between these industry events, I've been conducting numerous strategy sessions with a wide range of clients seeking to capitalize on this rapidly evolving market. These clients include:
IT and business decision-makers within large-scale enterprises, as well as small- and mid-size businesses (SMBs), who are trying to better understand how they can capitalize on SaaS and cloud computing to achieve their corporate objectives.
Established vendors who are trying to migrate to SaaS and cloud computing models without dramatically disrupting their existing operations.
And, a widening array of start-ups and other new players who are trying to attack a variety of market opportunities.
The SaaS Showplace and our newsletter mailing list reflect this rapidly evolving marketplace. It includes over 1300 companies offering SaaS and cloud computing solutions across 80 application, industry and enabling technology areas. And, we now have over 12,700 newsletter subscribers following our perspectives.
I believe that today's 'cloud rush' is quickly giving way to a new phase in the market maturation process, in which SaaS and other cloud-based services are becoming a critical component of corporate operations. This increasingly important role is creating even higher customer expectations. You can read my views about this evolutionary process, which I refer to as "Cloud 2.0", below.
The newest SaaS Showplace sponsor is helping the SaaS industry meet the challenges of a Cloud 2.0 world. AppFirst is an innovative, cloud-based, performance management solution provider. We thank them for their support of the SaaS Showplace.
You can also check out our recent Strategic Thinking Profile on Cloud9 Analytics, which is an example of SaaS companies who are redefining traditional approaches to business solutions.
You can find many more profiles, primers, podcasts, webinars and whitepapers regarding today's SaaS and cloud computing trends and best practices on the SaaS Showplace.
I hope you find this newsletter valuable. Please contact me if you'd like to learn more about how you can leverage the SaaS Showplace, as well as THINKstrategies' educational and consulting services to achieve your business objectives.
Thanks for your continued support and interest in our services.
The success of SaaS has spawned the broader market opportunity for Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and other segments of the cloud computing market.
And, the initial success of these broader cloud computing services is now driving a widening array of organizations to take advantage of these 'on-demand' services.
As cloud computing becomes a mainstream movement, a combination of rising customer expectations and escalating competitive pressures are going to force cloud vendors to substantially improve the quality, reliability and accountability of their services to ensure they are delivering meaningful business benefits.
THINKstrategies is calling this new era in the market evolution, "Cloud 2.0".
Click here to read our views about the significance of these changes.
Channel Opportunities & Challenges in the Cloud
I've been spending a lot of time talking to SaaS and cloud computing vendors, as well as traditional value-added resellers (VARs) and systems integrators (SIs) about the new market opportunities and challenges associated with today's 'on-demand' services.
Channel companies are concerned that these services could 'disintermediate' and commoditize their business models. In addition, there is a widening array of new players are also entering the market to offer SaaS solutions to their customers. Click here to read more about the changing competitive landscape.
THINKstrategies has produced an online presentation regarding the rapidly evolving role for channel companies in the SaaS and cloud computing market. This presentation is a part of a series which we are producing to help IT and business decision-makers within enterprise organizations, as well as IT solution providers, better understand how they should respond to the forces driving today's SaaS and Cloud Computing trends. The other two presentations are,
These presentations are powered by Brainshark, an easy-to-use online presentation creation and distribution platform.
Click here to read more perspectives about the SaaS and cloud computing market.
Contact me if you'd like to discuss the implications of these trends, or to learn more about how THINKstrategies' services can help you achieve your business objectives.
Click here to read about past BoSS award winners, and to learn more about the ongoing awards program, the nomination process and selection criteria.
We also announced our latest CCBV Award winner in May, WaveMaker. Click here to learn about its award-winning capabilities. Click here to learn more about this new awards program or to nominate a cloud vendor.
Contact us if you have any questions about these awards programs, or if you would like to obtain a copy of the nomination questionnaires.
Click here to read this profile. Contact us if you know a company which is offering a unique solution or is pursuing an unusaul strategy to meet customers' changing needs.
SaaS Primers for CIOs and IT Solution Providers
Despite growing customer demand for SaaS, THINKstrategies has found many aspiring providers of these on-demand services are still struggling to win a share of the market because of a variety of challenges.
The primer is based on THINKstrategies' extensive experience working with vendors making this transition. We have offered Readiness Assessment Services since 2007, aimed at helping aspiring SaaS vendors develop and execute their go-to-strategies, service delivery capabilities, and sales processes.
Since the launch of these services, we have worked with a wide array of aspiring SaaS companies, ranging from start-ups to major software vendors migrating to SaaS. Click here to see a partial list of our vendor clients.
We also work with IT/business decision-makers within large-scale enterprises, as well as small- and mid-size businesses (SMBs), who need help evaluating their SaaS needs and selecting the SaaS suppliers to satisfy their requirements. Click here to read our primer for CIOs considering SaaS.
Contact us to explore how THINKstrategies' services can help you achieve your business objectives.
AppFirst Performance Management
THINKstrategies is pleased to welcome AppFirst as the latest sponsor of the SaaS Showplace.
AppFirst offers a SaaS-based application performance monitoring solution which provides unique visibility across platforms and operating environments to enable users to proactively manage applications, improve customer satisfaction, and drive down costs.
Click here to learn more about AppFirst's solutions.
Become a SaaS Showplace Sponsor
THINKstrategies'SaaS Showplace has become the largest and highest ranked online directory and best practices resource center in the SaaS market.
The SaaS Showplace is attracting a growing number of IT/network and business decision-makers, IT solution providers, investors and the press who are discovering the value of our SaaS online directory and resource center.
Contact us at info@thinkstrategies.com if you'd like to gain greater industry visibility via our online directories and increasingly popular e-newsletter.
About THINKstrategies, Inc.
THINKstrategies is the leading strategic consulting services company focused specifically on the unprecedented business challenges facing IT managers, solutions providers and investors today as the technology industry shifts from a product-centric to a services-driven orientation.
The company's mission is to educate organizations about the on-demand services market--including SaaS, cloud computing and managed services--and help our clients capitalize on these trends to achieve their business objectives. We help enterprise decision-makers with their sourcing strategies, IT solutions providers with their marketing strategies, and VCs with their investment strategies.
