IT Strategic Consulting Services

Just like the "dog days" of Summer, the on-demand services market, including Cloud Computing, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Managed Services, continues to be hot as interest and adoption rates rise.

As a result of these trends, demand for THINKstrategies' perspective on these trends also continues to grow. For instance, in the last three weeks alone I've been asked to moderate a panel of CEOs; speak at a sales training program; and conduct a full-day strategy session regarding the business implications of the cloud computing and on-demand services market.

In addition, TechWeb's rapidly growing Internet Evolution website has invited me to provide THINKstrategies' views regarding the future direction of Web-services.

This is just the latest example of the widening array of activities which I've undertaken to fulfill THINKstrategies' mission of helping organizations capitalize on the business opportunities created by the shift in the technology industry from a product-centric to services-driven model.

Since 2001, I have consulted with and spoken to hundreds of companies of all sizes about how they can leverage today's on-demand, cloud-based services to achieve their corporate objectives.

THINKstrategies also continues to be an active supporter of many industry events and associations aimed at educating users, vendors and investors about business benefits of these services.

You can click here to listen and watch many of my recent presentations, or view the online industry overview presentations I'm producing regarding important industry trends via Brainshark, an easy-to-use, online authoring and distribution tool.

THINKstrategies' SaaS Showplace and Managed Services Showplace sites also continue to grow and remain the top-ranked, online directories and best practice resource centers in their respective markets according to Google.

I'm pleased to welcome CDNetworks and Neustar Webmetrics Services as the newest sponsors of the SaaS Showplace.

We are also continuing to promote the business benefits of cloud computing and SaaS with its Cloud Computing Business Value (CCBV) Award and Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) Award programs. You can read more about the awards programs below.

Since our last Update, we have continued to add new subscribers to this newsletter with the total now nearly 13,000, including IT/business decision-makers, IT solution providers, technology investors, and business and industry press!

Please contact me if you'd like to learn more about THINKstrategies' consulting, strategic marketing and education services. Or, you can watch my overview of THINKstrategies' services to hear about the ways we help our clients achieve their business objectives.

Finally, I want thank everyone who supported my annual cycling ride to combat cancer -- the Pan Mass Challenge. This was my fourth year participating in this extraordinary event which was a tremendous success.

Thanks for your continued support!

Jeff Kaplan

Managing Director

THINKstrategies

Debating the State of the Cloud

In May, I was asked by InformationWeek to contribute an article which provides THINKstrategies' perspective regarding the state of the cloud computing in the publications Global CIO forum section. I used this opportunity to suggest that the cloud computing industry is quickly entering a new stage in its evolution which I called, "Cloud 2.0".

Click here to watch a panel session which I moderated on this topic at last month's AlwaysOn Summit at Stanford conference.

You can also read my additional thoughts about the implications of Cloud 2.0 in Datamation and Internet Evolution, and hear me discuss them on a eBizQ podcast.

Contact me if you'd like to discuss how these trends might impact your business, or if you would like to have me present THINKstrategies' perspectives to your management team, staff, customers or partners.

Industry Views and Educational Primers

One of THINKstrategies' primary missions is educating corporate executives about the business implications of the migration of the technology industry from a product-centric to a services-driven model.

As a part of this ongoing effort, I've been privileged to be asked by a variety of media outlets to provide THINKstrategies' perspectives on various aspects of these trends. In the past two months, I've published the commentaries regarding the following important topics:

In addition, I've produced a series of online presentations which define and describe the key trends driving the growth of SaaS, managed services and cloud computing, as well as the opportunities and challenges which these 'on-demand' services create. Click here to access our latest online presentations.

THINKstrategies has also published two primers to help CIOs and independent software vendor (ISV) executives better understand the real benefits and challenges associated with SaaS.

The SaaS primer for CIOs helps them better understand these on-demand service alterantives to on-premise applications.
The SaaS Primer for ISVs help these companies better understand these operational requirements. The Primer includes THINKstrategies' fifteen point scorecard which have been developed as a part of our SaaS Readiness Assessment Services program.

Contact me if you'd like to learn more about benefits and pitfalls of SaaS, or would like more information about how you can leverage our consulting and educational services to achieve your business objectives.

Latest Showplace Sponsors

I'm pleased to welcome CDNetworks and Neustar Webmetrics Services as the latest SaaS Showplace sponsors.

CDNetworks is the world's third largest and Asia's top full-service content delivery network (CDN), serving o

ver 1,100 companies in multiple industries, including Gaming, Media and Entertainment, Social Networking, Software and Technology, eCommerce, and e-Learning.

Neustar Webmetrics Services is a SaaS provider which monitors site and application performance from an external perspective across over 100 major cities worldwide to identify and resolve issues before customers are impacted. Webmetrics also provides third-party validation of service performance to enable SaaS vendors to differentiate their services by sharing this information with customers and partners. Friends of THINKstrategies can take advantage of a free trial today.

The Managed Services and SaaS Showplace have become the top ranked sites on the web focused on the Managed Services and SaaS markets. These sites are attracting a growing number of IT/network and business decision-makers along with xSPs, enabling technology vendors, investors and the press who are discovering the value of the online directory and resource center.

Contact us at info@thinkstrategies.com if you'd like to gain greater industry visibility via our unparalleled online directories or our increasingly popular e-newsletter.

THINKstrategies' SaaS and Cloud Computing Award Programs

THINKstrategies continues to recognize SaaS and Cloud Computing companies which are delivering measurable business benefits to their customers.

The Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) Awards program has issued over fifty (50) BoSS Awards worldwide, across a wide array of SaaS areas. Click here to find the most recent BoSS Award announcements.

The success of the BoSS Awards led THINKstrategies to launch a new award program in January to promote the business benefits of the Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) segments of the cloud computing market -- the Cloud Computing Business Value (CCBV) Awards.