Anyone who has attempted to adopt Salesforce cloud solutions in an enterprise environment knows that it may not be as easy as expected because of the additional effort typically required to integrate various data sources.

This is a common problem that has plagued the enterprise application industry since its inception. In fact, it spawned an entire subsegment of data integration solution vendors and systems integration service providers that have prospered by helping organizations overcome their data integration challenges.

However, by spearheading a new generation of cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) alternatives, Salesforce gained control of the enterprise application marketplace. The SaaS model promised to rectify the age-old data integration issue so that organizations could accelerate the software adoption process.

The lingering data integration challenge has prompted Salesforce to make it’s biggest acquisition to date – the purchase of Mulesoft for approximately $6.5 billion.

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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.

A growing number of successful Cloud industry channel relationship management executives are joining the roster of speakers at the third annual Cloud Channel Summit on Monday, November 4, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. The latest executives who have agreed to speak at the Cloud Channel Summit are:

Sharon Gordon, VP, Alliances & Emerging Market Sales, Birst
Jamie Perlman, Sr. Director of Business Development, Box
Nima Badiey, Business Development, Cloud Foundry/Pivotal
Adam Nelson, Head of Channel Sales and Partnerships, Dropbox
Nikesh Kalra, Global Cloud Services, Equinix
Eric Keosky-Smith, Development Director, InfusionSoft
Ross Mason, Founder and VP of Product Strategy, MuleSoft
Kris Bliesner, CEO and Co-Founder, 2nd Watch, Inc.

Click here to register now and save $150 on the standard conference registration fees!

The executive, peer-to-peer networking forum is bringing together the leading providers of Cloud-based solutions, along with the most important channel organizations in the industry, who will share their perspectives and best practices for building successful partnerships in … Read More »

One of the ongoing challenges that continues to frustrate businesses of all sizes is data integration, and that issue has only become more complicated with the advent of the cloud. And, in the brave new world of the cloud, data integration must morph into a broader set of data management capabilities to satisfy the escalating needs of today’s business. Click here to read THINKstrategies’ perspectives on this escalating requirement in Sandhill.com.

THINKstrategies and MuleSoft have published the results from our 2nd annual SaaS Integration Survey which validate the growing interest among Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers to build and offer integration as a part of their solutions.

According to our survey results, SaaS integration has hit the radar of SaaS executives as customer concerns about integration represent both a threat and an opportunity to their businesses.

Our SaaS Integration Survey highlights also include:

 Connectivity is extremely important to winning new customers.
 Integration is the most time consuming part of implementation.
 Ecosystem strategies are still in their infancy.
 Growing dissatisfaction with existing integration tools.

Click here to find an infographic showing the key survey findings and click here to download the report today!

I hope you find our survey results and analysis valuable. Contact me if you’d like to discuss the implications of our survey findings on your business.