Today’s official launch of Microsoft Office 365 squarely positions the company as the latest major contender seeking to win a share of the rapidly growing Cloud Computing marketplace.

Although Microsoft has been saying that it is “All In” and funding a TV ad campaign which has made the catchphrase “To the Cloud” popular, Microsoft 365 represents the company’s boldest offering to date. The company has been watching its Office suite suffer attacks from Google Apps for years. In fact, Google Apps are quickly becoming the basic productivity suite of choice for most new college graduates entering the workforce.

Many of these new entrants to the workforce are forgoing email altogether by relying more on Facebook, Twitter and text to communicate. In response to these trends, Salesforce.com is pushing its Facebook-like Chatter communications platform as a dramatic switch from traditional email.

IBM is also attacking the … Read More »

NetworkWorld’s latest list of 10 SaaS companies to watch which was published yesterday, not only highlighted my perspectives regarding how Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is penetrating the IT organization, as well as the broader enterprise, it also highlighted three of  THINKstrategies’ Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) Award winners and a couple of our consulting clients.

The BoSS winners on NetworkWorld’s ‘companies to watch’ list are Cloud9 Analytics, Host Analytics and LiveOps.

Our clients who made the list are CVMsolutions and Exoprise.

The list also includes Taleo, a leading SaaS-based human capital management (HCM) solutions company which THINKstrategies first profiled in 2005.

NetworkWorld’s list reflects the expanding footprint of the SaaS and broader array of Cloud Computing solutions into the IT management world. The list and a series of related articles also include numerous customer testimonials highlighting the tangible business benefits being derived from these solutions. The growing number of satisfied customers willing to … Read More »