SaaS Revolution's Most Recent Posts

Greg Olsen, the CTO of Coghead, has posted a fantastic piece, entitled, "How not to end up as an anachronism."

Without going through the nuts and bolts of the entire thing, let me just say that this is a MUST read.

And here's a juicy quote:

Phil Wainewright updates us on the latest Salesforce.com outage. (Sidenote: Phil is an advisor to SaaScon, and will be presenting at the conference.) Phil's blog is a reminder of just how crucial one of the ongoing SaaScon conversations is: the infrastructure conversation.

Jeff Kaplan has another great post up, wherein he expounds on how SaaS providers are helping to equip the channel as "managed service providers." Reading it brought to relief the confusion that often reigns around "SaaS" and "MSPs."

Any technologist that has been around the block remembers the "ASPs" (application service providers) of the late 90s. ASPs were supposed to be all the rage, and were some of the mostly hotly traded stocks during the dot-com bubble. When the bubble burst, ASPs withered on the vine (for the most part). 

"Software as a Service" has, obviously, crossed over into mainstream usage among techies. But that doesn't mean that we really have a clear idea what we mean when we use the term, does it?

Traditionally, most people think of Salesforce.com when they think of "SaaS." Namely, delivering an enterprise software application as a service. That beginning definition has given rise to literally *hundreds* of SaaS application providers -- from the general to the niche. I've even seen SaaS providers built specifically for compliance in the oil and natural gas industry.

As SaaScon heads toward its third instance, I find myself reflecting on the current state of the marketplace. Or, rather, on how each SaaScon has reflected the state of the marketplace. 

The first SaaScon occurred when the SaaS market was obsessed with evangelizing "the next big thing" in software - namely, SaaS. We (the conference) gathered together a bunch of important folks (like Jeff Kaplan, Amy Wohl and Phil Wainewright) and about 35 vendors, and talked an awful lot about "the SaaS model."

Jeff Kaplan, SaaS guru and advisor to the SaaScon conference, shares some of his "reasons why SaaS will soar" in 2008.

• DM Review has a short article by Richard Roach of SAS OnDemand called 10 Things to Consider when Selecting an On-Demand Solution.” There are a few items here I haven’t seen before, such as “Is there a single point of contact who has the authority to deploy any skill set needed to solve any issue?” 
• SDA Asia carries a Gartner report predicting robust growth for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. New license sales could grow 140% this year, says Gartner, but that’s on a tiny base. However, the report cautions customers about going with Microsoft’s hosted CRM model. The company is still building out the infrastructure for delivery through partners and a full multi-tenant version of Dynamics CRM isn’t due till mid-2007.
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Markets are really ecosystems when you think about it. There are predators, prey, hosts, scavengers, symbiosis and food chains. When you think of software markets this way, it casts some of the choices that you have to make in a different light. In this podcast, Chris Hoffman, an 18-year technology industry veteran, describes his vision for what he calls an evolving SaaS ecosystem and tells why it's important to make some wise choices about leading vendors at the front end. Read more.

As media coverage of SaaS has ramped up, outlets have begun to poke around issues concerning security and ROI. Clearly, SaaS is no panacea, but experts all seem to come to the conclusion that this is a much more convenient way to adopt new software. 

This week we speak with Gianpaolo Carraro and Fred Chong, two Microsoft employees who have done some seminal work in definining the importance of SaaS architecture. SaaS providers have to think differently about how they build a technology platform to support multiple users and applications. In this podcast interview, Chong and Carraro give practical advice on what IT managers should look for in selecting and contracting with SaaS providers.

Listen to the interview.

The SaaS Revolution blog is brought to you by SaaScon and Computerworld.

The big story of the week has been Google's launch of Google Apps for Your Domain, a suite of productivity applications that it plans to market to small and medium businesses as an alternative to the expensive Microsoft Office. There'll be a free, ad-supported version and another paid edition oriented toward use behind the firewall.

Or at least the crisis in online identity management :-). This week we talk to Dick Hardt, who's trying to solve the problem of how to make sure people are who they say they are online. That's kind of important when they're accessing your critical applications, don't you think? Dick previews his SaaScon presentation, "Identity Management In An Outsourced World." Read more...

The SaaS Revolution blog is brought to you by SaaScon and Computerworld.

Goodness, did the media suddenly wake up and discover SaaS? The news wires are just loaded with stories on the topic today. It looks like Salesforce.com's great quarterly results may have set some scribes to scribing. Here's a sampling:

PublicCIO.com has a very long (3,000 words) article on the merits of SaaS in government applications. The title -- The Best Resource Government Isn't Using -- is deceptive because this excellent article actually presents a balanced view of the pros and cons of SaaS. It's a great introduction to the concept, even if you aren't in government.

How good is life for Salesforce.com? Well, the CFO rescinded his retirement plans last week, the company blew out Wall Street projections and experts say the market is coming its way. Who wouldn’t want to be part of that momentum right now?

Salesforce’s importance to the software-as-a-service (SaaS) market is all out of proportion to its size right now. The company is a poster child of SaaS success. If it wins, the whole market benefits. If it loses, then SaaS is just yesterday’s idea.

In this sixth installment in our series of podcast interviews with SaaScon speakers, veteran software industry watcher Amy Wohl talks about the disruptions that SaaS will create in the software market and how users can protect themselves against an uncertain future.

Read more about the podcast.

The SaaS Revolution blog is brought to you by SaaScon and Computerworld.