Phil Wainwright has posted a terrific blog entry regarding the ‘green crystals’ that power Salesforce.com’s multi-tenant platform.

The concept of multi-tenancy has been a cornerstone of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) movement and a key element of the rapidly evolving cloud computing environment as well.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with the term ‘multi-tenancy’, it is borrowed from the housing market and aims to compare today’s leading SaaS/cloud computing vendors to condominium owners who can obtain more luxurious living quarters without the hassles of owning a single-family home by sharing a common infrastructure and operational services.

While this arrangement offers plenty of conveniences, it also requires some sacrifices when it comes to how far you can customize your particular unit, or version of software in the case of SaaS.

While the value proposition of multi-tenancy is easy to understand, it is hard to get a lot of details … Read More »

Ever since my early days as an industry analyst at IDC in the 1980s, I’ve been convinced that one of the most potent, yet under-utilized resources in the IT market are the major trade associations.

When I first looked at these associations, I thought of them as targets for research purposes. Now, I view them as a terrific channel to market.

Intacct is putting my ideas to the test by entering into a new alliance with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and its CPA2Biz subsidiary to encourage the association’s 45,000 member CPA firms and their 350,000 small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) to adopt Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and “cloud computing” alternatives to traditional financial applications.

Under this agreement, Intacct and CPA2Biz will co-develop a new version of Intacct’s on-demand financial management and accounting applications to specifically address the needs of CPA firms and their clients. Intacct will … Read More »

The proliferation of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and cloud computing platform players continues to accelerate despite the failure of some early entrants and likelihood of more Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) casualties to come.

This past week, three more companies announced new platform strategies and solutions — Jaspersoft, ExpenseWatch.com, LongJump.

Open-source business intelligence (BI) vendor Jaspersoft unveiled its v3.5 integrated analysis capabilities as part of what it calls the industry’s first SaaS-enabled BI platform. The new platform promises easy-to-use integrated analysis that doesn’t require a data warehouse or OLAP server. It also includes new in-memory analysis capabilities that enables the delivery of customizable SaaS and Cloud-based BI applications which can be integrated into reports and dashboards.

ExpenseWatch.com announced an open expense control platform which will permit small and midsized businesses (SMBs) to integrate their expense management data with a variety of business application. The new “non-proprietary approach” promises to allow SMBs … Read More »

HP unveiled a new Cloud Assure program this week, in conjunction with SaaScon, which responds to the growing concerns among enterprise decision-makers about the availability, security and performance of today’s rapidly evolving cloud computing services.

I think HP’s announcement is timely because enterprise IT/business decision-makers are interested in taking advantage of the burgeoning cloud computing opportunities, but apprehensive re: the reliability, accessibility and security (RAS) of these services. As a result, they’re looking for cloud computing services which give them a greater level of manageability, visibility and control.

HP is betting that it can capitalize on its the web monitoring services and skills it acquired in its Mercury Interactive deal, and its corporate brand equity as a network/system management (NSM) vendor to establish a strong position in the cloud computing management market.

HP’s biggest obstacle to success is that it isn’t considered a leading cloud computing … Read More »

There have been a series of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)/cloud computing research reports and industry rumors which have emerged over the past few days and weeks which I haven’t had a chance to comment on because of my hectic travel and work schedule.

I’d ordinarily try to dedicate a standalone blog post to each of them, but don’t have the time and don’t want to give them more attention than they deserve. But, I have had a number of clients and friends ask me for my opinion on these developments, so here’s a quick round-up of my thoughts.

Will Oracle Buy Salesforce.com?  This rumor popped up again this week in a Wedge Partners research report summarized on Barron’s Tech Daily website. I suggested this scenario two years ago, and still think there is a chance that Larry Ellison will make a hostile bid for … Read More »

Debating the meaning of ‘cloud computing’ has become a popular pastime among analysts, journalists, vendors and even customers.

The latest entrant into the discussion is the Wall Street Journal which published an article today entitled, “The Internet Industry Is on a Cloud — Whatever That May Mean.” (Registration may be required.)

In addition to raising the fundamental question about how to properly define cloud computing, the WSJ article also mentions Oracle CEO/Chairman’s Larry Ellison’s comments over the past few years downplaying the market opportunity for cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions.

Although I’ve offered my own views on this topic before in this space, here are some additional thoughts in response to the WSJ article:

1. What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing is a set of web-based enabling tools and services which permit users to acquire computing capabilities to build or support applications, or perform … Read More »

NTRglobal has been named the latest winner of the Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) Awards program, which is aimed at promoting the measurable business benefits being delivered by today’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions.

The BoSS Awards program was announced in January 2009 as the latest initiative by THINKstrategies to bring attention to SaaS and cloud computing companies which are producing tangible business benefits for specific user organizations. These benefits include increased sales, lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, faster operations, and greater profitability.

NTRglobal is a leading provider of remote support and management of enduser devices for IT service desks and managed service providers (MSPs). NTRadmin is a SaaS services solution for automating IT tasks with NTRadmin customizable BOTs and remote network management which enables IT system administrators to control, monitor and secure hardware and software assets regardless of geographical location.

A case study example … Read More »

One of my predictions for 2009 was that this would be the year of the channel in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market.

While the direct sales and delivery model associate with SaaS fundamentally disrupts the traditional role of the channel, the SaaS industry still needs to establish an successful channel strategy to cost-effectively extend its footprint across various market segments and win greater mainstream adoption.

In addition to relying on various resellers as channels to market, legacy software vendors also viewed other independent software vendors (ISVs) as potential channel partners because they extended their software functionality into new market segments. The same holds true in the SaaS industry.

The latest example of this strategy is NetSuite’s announcement that it is putting greater emphasis on its ISV partnering efforts via a new SuiteCloud Developer Network (SDN) and SuiteApp.com single-source online marketplace.

These new offerings are not … Read More »

THINKstrategies, Inc. announced today that Daptiv has been named the latest winner of the Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) Awards program, which is aimed at promoting the measurable business benefits being delivered by today’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions.

The BoSS Awards program was announced in January 2009 as the latest initiative by THINKstrategies to bring attention to SaaS and cloud computing companies which are producing tangible business benefits for specific user organizations. These benefits include increased sales, lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, faster operations, and greater profitability.

Daptiv is a leading provider on-demand, collaborative business solutions, including Project Portfolio Management (PPM) capabilities. A case example of the measurable business benefits of Daptiv’s on-demand PPM capabilities is Chase Paymentech Solutions, LLC.

Click here to read more.

I moderated a panel at OpSource’s SaaS Summit this week entitled “Selling SaaS to the Enterprise” which included representatives from Cast Iron Systems, Oracle and the Business Objects unit of SAP, as well as the Manager of Global Operations Business Technology at Pfizer.

They all agreed that SaaS and cloud computing are making serious inroads into the enterprise but still face significant challenges, including scalability, security and flexibility issues.

In response to the flexibility topic, there was general consensus among the panelists that customers want a choice of on-premise and on-demand alternatives to serve various corporate requirements.

Although I’m very proud to have correctly predicted many of the major trends which have shaped the SaaS market evolution, I’ve never believed that the world would move entirely to an all on-demand environment for a variety of customer and vendor-driven reasons. Therefore, I’ve always expected … Read More »