THINK IT Services

I’m pleased to announce that Jane Griffin, a principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP responsible for leading the firm’s Analytics practice, will speak at the Cloud Analytics Summit on Wednesday, April 25 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.

The goal of the Cloud Analytics Summit is to provide a meeting place for corporate decision-makers to learn about the latest Cloud solutions aimed at addressing their BI and analytics needs, so they can harness their ‘Big Data’ sources, and integrate their systems and applications into a more productive enterprise-wide resource to satisfy their corporate requirements.

Jane’s keynote will discuss, “Capitalizing on Cloud Analytics to Harness Big Data, Social Media and Mobility”. Her perspective on this important topic is based on more than 30 years of information technology experience focused on information management, business intelligence, data warehousing and master data management.

As Americas Leader of Deloitte Analytics, Jane brings her vast experience to help client use business analytics to drive smarter decisions and better results. She assists and advises her multi-industry clients in designing, developing and implementing technology and processes to efficiently leverage their information. Griffin’s articles have been featured in more than 150 trade journals. She speaks to groups worldwide regarding various topics related to analytics, including master data management, data warehousing, data quality and enterprise information strategy. 

Jane will join Ju-kay Kwek, the product manager of Google’s Big Data initiative, and Doug Harr, the CIO of Splunk, and other executives who are generating innovative Cloud solutions and employing innovative strategies to make the most of these solutions to achieve their business objectives. They are examples of the innovative thinkers coming together for this executive forum aimed at providing an intimate environment to discuss key trends, showcase innovative solutions, and trade best practices.

The Cloud Analytics Summit is a part of the 2012 Cloud Innovators Summit executive forum series aimed at helping corporate decision-makers better understand how they can leverage the latest Cloud innovations to satisfy their business requirements and achieve their business objectives. The other forums include the Cloud Management Summit on June 19 and second annual Cloud Channel Summit on November 5. All of the events will be held at the Computer History Museum. 

Michael Crandell, the Founder and CEO of RightScale, is another innovative thinker who will present the opening keynote presentation at our Cloud Management Summit on Tuesday, June 19 at the Computer History Museum.

Stacy Nethercoat, Tech Data’s Vice President of Software Product Marketing and leader of its TDCloud offering and new StreamOne Solutions Store, will be the opening keynote speaker at the Cloud Channel Summit on Monday, November 5, at the Computer History Museum.

Contact me if you’d like to learn how your company can participate in the Cloud Analytics Summit or our other Cloud Innovator Summits as a speaker or partner, and talk to Marc Sternberg if you’d like more information about sponsorship opportunities associated with these events.

Stay tuned for more details regarding our upcoming conferences via Twitter @CloudSummits

I’m very pleased to announce that THINKstrategies’ Cloud Computing Showplace now includes over 1900 Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) companies, including Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Technology Enablement Vendors, divided into over 90 Application, Industry, Service and Enabling Technology categories. 

THINKstrategies has been helping clients capitalize ‘on-demand’ services since 2001, and created the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Managed Services Showplace directories and resource centers in 2006, which we merged together in 2011 to form the Cloud Computing Showplace.

Today, the Cloud Computing Showplace provides a clearinghouse of company information and industry insights regarding the rapidly expanding array of SaaS, PaaS and IaaS solutions. Visitors can find a list of the latest Cloud vendors which have added their company information to the Showplace right on the homepage, along with a real-time tally of the total number of companies listed in the directory. We also have plenty of statistics regarding the number of companies listed by application, industry, region and other key demographics. Over 100 Cloud companies have added their information to the Showplace in the last six months, and more are doing the same every day. 

THINKstrategies also continues to recognize Cloud Computing companies that are delivering measurable business benefits to their users through our ongoing Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) and Cloud Computing Business Value (CCBV) Award programs. 

THINKstrategies also continues to be called on for its consulting services with and presentation capabilities by corporate decision-makers, solution providers, investors and others about the business implications of the unprecedented opportunities created by the Cloud Computing movement and how they can capitalize on them.

Over 14,500 people subscribe to THINKstrategies’ Cloud Computing Showplace newsletter, and its updates are followed by over 2200 people via Twitter. Even more people are reading THINKstrategies’ industry perspectives published in a variety of publications.

The Cloud Computing Showplace would not be possible without the help of the Showplace sponsors who have  provided financial support to the sites since their inception. The Showplace sponsors’ corporate logos are displayed on the Showplace homepage and throughout the online directory. Click here to learn how your company can benefit from Showplace sponsorships.

Please contact me if you have any suggestions about how we can continue to improve and grow the Cloud Computing Showplace, or if would like to learn more about how your organization can take advantage of the Cloud Showplace sponsorship benefits or THINKstrategies’ other services to capitalize on today’s unprecedented Cloud Computing market opportunities.

THINKstrategies and the Cloud Showplace have also teamed with Rising Tide Media to host three Cloud Innovators Summit conferences in 2012, focused on Cloud Analytics April 25, Cloud Management on June 19, and Cloud Channels November 5, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. Click here to learn more about the Cloud Innovators Summits. 

Thanks for your continued support.

For years, I’ve been pointing to ADP payroll services as a model for successfully delivering data-sensitive, shared services that should give corporate decision-makers in small- and mid-size businesses (SMBs) greater confidence in the new generation of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions emerging in the market.

For a while, ADP was hesitant to assume the mantle of major SaaS vendor. But, it has recently embraced the concept of the Cloud and is actively promoting its Cloud-based services. In fact, ADP is now happy to use the growth of its Cloud-based services as an important indicator of the growing acceptance and adoption of a widening array of ‘on-demand’, business service alternatives.

Last week, ADP announced that over 3,600 organizations are now using ADP’s Workforce Now® Express Payroll service which was introduced only 12 months ago. The company said it has seen nearly 50 percent sales growth since July 2011 alone.

ADP Workforce Now Express Payroll is specifically designed for organizations with 50 to 150 employees. The Cloud-based service can be implemented in 10 days or less, unlike many traditional payroll services that used to take far longer to deploy and manage.

ADP’s Research Institute found that adoption of the company’s Workforce Now Express Payroll service reflects broader market migration toward third-party services. According to its research, 48 percent of companies with 50 to 150 employees processed payroll in-house in 2011, a substantial drop from 59 percent who performed payroll functions inhouse in 2007. The proportion of companies ‘out-task’ their payroll rose from 41 percent to 52 percent during the same four-year period.

To be honest, I would have thought that an even greater percentage of businesses rely on ADP or another third-party payroll service to perform this function. It seems to me that there is little to gain doing this work inhouse, and a lot of economics as well as added expertise that can be exploited by using a proven payroll provider.

Of course, not all of today’s payroll companies are delivering their services via the Cloud. But, ADP’s success will compel more to consider this go-to-market option. And, the more payroll companies that boast about the virtues of Cloud services, the more receptive corporate decision-makers will be toward Cloud-based alternatives to satisfy a broader set of their business needs.

It is for these reasons that we’ve seen a flurry of acquisitions by behemoths, like Oracle and SAP, of key Cloud players, RightNow, Taleo and SuccessFactors. You can bet that companies like ADP and other business service providers will also attempt to accelerate their move to the Cloud and expand their portfolios with additional Cloud services via acquisitions.

The escalating competitive pressures will create a buyer’s market for SMBs seeking Cloud services. And, the success of established vendors, such as ADP, should give decision-makers in these organizations more confidence that adopting Cloud alternatives is a good move.

Disclosure: This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

I’m  pleased to announce that Google’s Cloud Big Data initiative product management leader, Ju-kay Kwek, will present his views about how the Cloud is helping organizations capture and capitalize on ‘Big Data’ to attain better business intelligence (BI) and analytics at the Cloud Analytics Summit on Wednesday, April 25, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.  

The Cloud Analytics Summit is a part of the 2012 Cloud Innovators Summit executive forum series aimed at helping corporate decision-makers better understand how they can leverage the latest Cloud innovations to satisfy their business requirements and achieve their business objectives. The other forums include the Cloud Management Summit on June 19 and second annual Cloud Channel Summit on November 5. All of the events will be held at the Computer History Museum. 

The Cloud Analytics Summit will provide a meeting place for corporate decision-makers to learn about the latest Cloud solutions aimed at addressing their BI and analytics needs, so they can harness their ‘Big Data’ sources, and integrate their systems and applications into a more productive enterprise-wide resource to satisfy their corporate requirements. 

Ju-kay’s opening keynote will discuss, “Fulfilling the Promise of Big Data Analysis in the Cloud”.

Ju-kay is the product management lead for Google’s Cloud Big Data initiative. He focuses on creating enterprise-class services that enable businesses to harness Google’s unparalleled data processing infrastructure and algorithms to tackle their growing Big Data needs. Prior to Google, Ju-kay led product management for SOA and Application Performance Management at Wily Technology and CA Technologies. Ju-kay holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University. He also holds patents in the areas of data-centric interfaces and multi-modal sales applications.  

Ju-kay will join Doug Harr, the CIO of Splunk, and other executives who are generating innovative Cloud solutions and employing innovative strategies to make the most of these solutions to achieve their business objectives.  

Doug’s participation in the Cloud Analytics Summitis an example of the innovative thinkers coming together for this executive forum aimed at providing an intimate environment to discuss key trends, showcase innovative solutions, and trade best practices. 

Michael Crandell, the Founder and CEO of RightScale, is another innovative thinker who will present the opening keynote presentation at our Cloud Management Summit on Tuesday, June 19 at the Computer History Museum. 

Stacy Nethercoat, Tech Data’s Vice President of Software Product Marketing and leader of its TDCloud offering and new StreamOne Solutions Store, will be the opening keynote speaker at the Cloud Channel Summit on Monday, November 5, at the Computer History Museum. 

Contact me if you’d like to learn how your company can participate in the Cloud Analytics Summit or our other Cloud Innovator Summits as a speaker or partner, and talk to Marc Sternberg if you’d like more information about sponsorship opportunities associated with these events. 

Stay tuned for more details regarding our upcoming conferences via Twitter @CloudSummits.

I’m pleased to announce that Stacy Nethercoat, Tech Data’s Vice President of Software Product Marketing and leader of its TDCloud offering and new StreamOne Solutions Store, will be the opening keynote speaker at the 2012 Cloud Channel Summit on Monday, November 5, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.

Launched last November 2011, the Cloud Channel Summit is an executive forum designed to bring together senior business development and channel management executives from leading Cloud, channel companies and others interested in sharing industry best practices for building successful partner relationships in the Cloud. Last year’s inaugural conference attracted 190 attendees, thirty-one speakers, nineteen association and media partners, and seventeen sponsors who participated in eleven interactive sessions during the Summit.

Based on the overwhelmingly positive response to the 2011 Cloud Channel Summit, the second annual event will again target senior executives seeking to learn from their peers the keys to success for partnering in the Cloud, and will showcase innovative new programs aimed at creating new channel opportunities in the Cloud.

Tech Data launched the StreamOne Solutions Store in January to provide a marketing, selling, provisioning and billing platform for Cloud providers and independent software vendors (ISVs) that want access to thousands of Tech Data reseller partners. StreamOne is also a mechanism which permits value-added resellers (VARs) to offer niche products and cloud services to their customers. (Click here to read the public announcement.)

Stacy Nethercoat oversees all product marketing programs and initiatives developed to support Tech Data’s software vendor partners. She also heads Tech Data’s extensive software support resources, including the Company’s TDCloud offering and StreamOne platform. In 2009, she was recognized by CRN magazine as one of the “Top 100 Women in the Channel.” Prior to joining Tech Data, Stacy served in various finance and operations leadership roles with companies such as American Bankers Insurance Group and Lucky Stores, Inc. 

Stacy’s participation in the Cloud Channel Summit is the latest example of the innovative thinkers coming together for our 2012 Cloud Innovators Summit conference series aimed at providing an intimate environment for senior executives to discuss key trends, showcase innovative solutions, and trade best practices. Doug Harr, the CIO of Splunk, will provide his perspectives regarding today’s rapidly evolving Cloud-based business intelligence (BI), Big Data and data integration opportunities at the Cloud Analytics Summit on April 25. Michael Crandell, the Founder and CEO of RightScale, is another innovative thinker who will present his views about how to manage hybrid Cloud environments in his opening keynote presentation at our Cloud Management Summit on June 19.

All of the Cloud Innovator Summits will take place at the Computer History Museum, conveniently located in Mountain View, CA.

Contact me if you’d like to learn how your company can participate in the Cloud Channel Summit or our other Cloud Innovator Summits as a speaker or partner, and talk to Marc Sternberg if you’d like more information about sponsorship opportunities associated with these events.

Stay tuned for more details regarding our upcoming conferences via Twitter @CloudSummits.

I had the privilege of attending my third annual Parallels Summit last week and came away even more impressed than ever with the growing ecosystem of partners Parallels is attracting with its technology ’stack’, and its tireless efforts to educate and enable hosters, telcos, software vendors, systems integrators, value-added resellers and others to become key competitors in the Cloud.

I was invited to attend Parallels’ full-day analyst briefing which preceded the Summit and to moderate a keynote panel session during the conference. (Disclosure: Parallels paid me an honorarium to moderate their panel and covered my travel expenses to the Summit.)

As in years past, the Summit clearly demonstrated that Parallels has become a major force in the rapidly evolving Cloud marketplace by not only offering a strong portfolio of enabling technologies, but also attracting a broadbased ecosystem of partners.

I spent much of the event, talking to a cross-section of attendees, including current and prospective customers who were nearly unanimous in their praise of Parallels’ vision and ability to execute from both a technological and business enablement perspective.

During the Summit, Parallels gave an update of its 2011 results which included the following highlights:

• Twelve of the top thirty global service providers are now using Parallels software.
• Over 100 Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) completed Parallels’ Application Packaging Standard (APS) certification. This is a relatively new area of focus for the company and represents a major growth opportunity.
• Over 150 service providers launched new services using Parallels Virtuozzo Containers.
• Parallels established or expanded over 300 hosting company partnerships, including:  KDDI, KT, LuxCloud, Outsourcery, PacHosting, ReadySpace, Reg.ru, SKB Kontur, TDC Hosting, Telekom Malaysia, Tsukaeru.net, UberGlobal, UPC, and Virtual IT.

The Summit represented a perfect barometer for Parallels’ corporate growth and expanded global reach. The event attracted over 1600 attendees from 752 companies and 62 countries.

My panel session represented a clear indication of the growing diversity of Parallels’ partner/customer ecosystem. The session was titled, “Change is Coming: The Impact of Non-Traditional Hosters Entering the Market.”  The panelists included:

• William McCarthy, SVP, Insight Managed and Cloud Services, Insight North America
• Steve Robinson, Director, SaaS & Application Services, CenturyLink
• Elliot Noss, President and CEO, Tucows
• Glen Swanson, SVP, Business Customer Group, Best Buy
• Jerome Lecat, CEO, Scality
• Sean Charnock, SVP, Business Development & Alliances, Softlayer Technologies

We had a great discussion during the session about the forces attracting an widening array of new players to the Cloud marketplace, creating a ”Cloud Rush” effect, as I like to call it. The panelists described how their companies are trying to respond to the changing competitive landscape and offered advice to the conference attendees about how they should focus their efforts to succeed in the Cloud services business.

To Parallels’ credit, it isn’t sitting back on its laurels as just a technology supplier or ecosystem facilitator. Instead, the company has launched a new market research program to provide additional small- and mid-size business (SMB) trend data to its partners and gain greater thought-leadership in the industry. It is also building a business consulting arm to address the corporate strategy and program development needs of its partners. And, it announced a new ISV accelerator program, in conjunction with Runa Capital, a venture capital firm with over $10 billion in assets.

Parallels’ executives are also putting pieces in place to possibly pursue an IPO in 2012. The company has hired a new CFO and recruited a new CTO from Microsoft.

Many have speculated, including me, that Parallels’ increasingly tight relationship with Microsoft might be a precursor to an acquisition. But, Parallels’ executives deny this is their intent and pointed out during the analyst briefing how they are also building a closer working relationship with Google and other major players. Of course, this doesn’t preclude a move by Microsoft or other potential suitors that would like to take advantage of Parallels’ enabling technologies, partner network and leadership position in the Cloud.

Regardless of the ‘exit’ Parallels’ executives have in mind for 2012, there is no question that the company is in an advantageous position to play an increasingly important role in the rapidly evolving competitive landscape of the Cloud.

THINKstrategies announced today that Appnomic Systems 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.

Appnomic Systems is a global provider of SaaS solutions that provide application performance management and data center operations automation. Appnomic’s solutions permit significant improvements to enterprise IT service delivery and increases in Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) of enterprise and Cloud software applications. The company provides a predictive monitoring solution based on Application Behavior Learning (ABL) analytics that enable IT professionals to capture early warnings to prevent problems which could affect services to end-users.

Click here to read more about the measurable business benefits which Appnomic Systems’ customers are gaining from its solutions which earned the company THINKstrategies’ latest BoSS Award.

For more information about the rules for applying for a BoSS Award or to find a list of previous winners of the BoSS Awards, go to http://www.cloudshowplace.com/awardprograms/boss.html.
 
Based on the success of the BoSS Awards program which focuses on SaaS solutions, THINKstrategies has launched the Cloud Computing Business Value (CCBV) Awards program to recognize companies which are delivering Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions producing measurable business benefits for their customers. For more information regarding the CCBV Awards, see http://www.cloudshowplace.com/awardprograms/ccbv.php.

I’m very pleased to announce that Michael Crandell, the Founder and CEO of RightScale, has agreed to present the opening keynote talk at the Cloud Management Summit on Tuesday, June 19 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.

The Cloud Management Summit will provide an intimate environment for corporate decision-makers to learn about leading Cloud solutions and share industry best practices for managing today’s rapidly evolving Cloud services to achieve their business objectives.

RightScale  has pioneered innovative ways to bring the power of Cloud Computing to organizations of all sizes. Its Cloud management solutions enable users to easily deploy and optimize the performance of business-critical applications across public, private, and hybrid clouds. It provides Cloud configuration, monitoring, automation, and governance capabilities. Millions of servers have been launched using RightScale’s solutions by a wide array of organizations, including the Associated Press, CBS Interactive, Intercontinental Hotels Group, PBS, and Zynga. 

As CEO of RightScale, Michael is responsible for setting the company’s vision and ensuring customer satisfaction. He has played a major role in helping promote openness and transparency in the Cloud marketplace. Prior to RightScale, he served as CEO at several Internet Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies and as executive vice president at eFax.com. He was also a panelist at the 2011 Cloud Channel Summit. 

Contact me if you’d like to learn how your company can participate in the Cloud Management Summit or our other Cloud Innovator Summits as a speaker or partner, and talk to Marc Sternberg if you’d like more information about sponsorship opportunities associated with these events.

Stay tuned for more details regarding our upcoming conferences via Twitter @CloudSummits.