Salesforce.com’s definitive agreement to acquire MuleSoft for approximately $6.5 billion represents the company’s biggest acquisition yet and a calculated move to consolidate it’s position as the leading enterprise software company in the Cloud.

The move also illustrates that the real power in the market is quickly shifting to those vendors that can facilitate the most cost-effective flow of data across applications in an increasingly connected and complex world.

Click here to read THINKstrategies’ analysis in Datamation of the key market drivers that have led Salesforce to make this strategic move and what it means for the rest of the enterprise software industry.

After a decade of debate regarding the viability of cloud services as a strategic alternative to traditional, on-premise legacy systems and software, the war of words is over. Now nearly every SMB and enterprise is looking at how to incorporate cloud alternatives into their business operations.

However, in many cases these organizations are also discovering that today’s cloud services are adding a new layer of complexity to their existing IT environment rather than simplifying their situations.

Click here to read our latest commentary in Datamation about the escalating challenges associated with migrating corporate workloads to today’s widening array of cloud service alternatives and moving to a multi-cloud sourcing model.

Although a growing number of organizations have been adopting a ‘cloud first’ approach to their business application and computing needs for a while, it has taken a long time for CFOs to feel comfortable migrating their own financial management systems to the cloud. However, a confluence of forces is finally driving them to make the move that could create additional momentum for cloud adoption across their operations.

It isn’t surprising that CFOs have been slow to adopt cloud-based applications to support their own departments. They’re paid to be conservative and risk-adverse.

Click here to read THINKstrategies’ latest commentary in Datamation regarding the organizational and market forces that are convincing CFOs that it is time to put their concerns aside and move to the cloud.

On numerous occasions over the past 30 years, business end-users and executives have become aware of new technological innovations as a result of their personal experiences acquiring various consumer products and services. In each of these cases, their consumer experiences have led them to pursue similar technologies in their corporate environments. The same adoption pattern is about to repeat itself in the rapidly expanding world of the Internet of Things (IoT). Click here to read THINKstrategies’ perspective in Datamation about the business implications of this consumer to commercial crossover effect in the IoT marketplace.

Although I’ve been a big advocate of the business benefits of moving corporate data centers, software development and enterprise applications to the Cloud, I’m also a realist about the significant challenges that this migration process entails. The many obstacles to adopting a Cloud-first strategy worldwide were brought home to me again by a good friend who happens to be a CIO of a multinational company.

My friend, “Joe,” called me unexpectedly the other day after we hadn’t talked for a few months. He’s a very successful CIO who has taken on numerous executive IT jobs in major corporations to help them achieve various milestones or recover from a significant setback. I hadn’t spoken to him since he had accepted a new position in a global company with numerous operations in emerging countries. When I saw his name on my cellphone I … Read More »