On Thursday’s IDC Predictions 2010 webcast, our line to the On24 service dropped just a few questions into the Q&A session. We captured all the questions, and – as promised – we are posting answers to them here on IDC eXchange. Many thanks to my IDC colleagues who contributed to these Q&A responses.
One of the most common questions I’ve been asked in the past several months has been “How will the global recession impact the pace of adoption of Cloud Computing?”.
My gut reaction has been that the economic crunch would certainly amplify the economic benefits of the cloud services model, and therefore accelerate IT cloud services adoption. Some data from a user survey my colleague Stephen Minton published earlier this year substantiates that view. [...read more...]
In Houston yesterday, I spoke about cloud computing at an IDC/Energy Insights gathering of IT executives from the Oil and Gas industry. It was a high-powered group, with 5 of the top 10 global energy companies represented (it’s been a big month for me with the Energy sector – a few weeks ago, in Milan, I met with the CIO of another of the top 10 global energy players, Eni S.p.A.).
The interest in cloud computing by these Energy industry IT leaders was strong – we had a lively 1-1/2 hour discussion, which could have easily gone on for twice the time. Here are some of the comments/questions that these execs had about cloud computing – they offer some interesting insights to the IT industry about how users are thinking about cloud computing right now, and what vendors should be focusing on to position for success in this industry transition: [...read more...]
Yesterday, as we had predicted, Microsoft finally announced its intent to become a major player in the rapidly-expanding cloud services market. Here’s a clip from IDC Directions last March, predicting the “big boots” (including Microsoft’s) that would be jumping into the Cloud Computing world this year.
We’ve written for several years about the unique opportunity Microsoft has to play a market-maker role in industry’s shift to the Cloud, particularly by helping its thousands of application solution and channel partners migrate to the Software-as-a-Service delivery model. [...read more...]
As IT suppliers ponder opportunity #1 – that is, which of their own current and future offerings they should deliver as cloud services – it is important to understand the relationship between cloud services and the traditional IT product and service offerings from which many cloud offerings are descended. There is an intriguing interplay between these worlds – with cloud services borrowing the best of both service and product models to open up new opportunity spaces, as well as catalyzing major changes in what the next generation of “non-cloud”/on-premise offerings will look like. [...read more...]
At IDC Directions 2008, David Tapper spoke about how Web 2.0 and globalization are profoundly transforming the way companies source (and deliver) IT and other services. Within this broad theme, David explored which technologies companies see as most critical to transform themselves for this emerging world of flexible service delivery and consumption, citing a recent IDC survey of 236 line-of-business (LOB) executives and 268 CIOs and other IT executives. Here’s what he showed:
[CLICK on IMAGE to ENLARGE]
This list of technologies is not an exhaustive one, but it does include some of the major ones I see organizations increasing their investments in today. Here are three of my takeaways from this survey: [...read more...]
We’ve talked repeatedly about the growing importance of the SMB market (especially in emerging markets) for IT market growth. And we’ve asserted that it will take a new, “hyperdisrupted” solution development and delivery model – one that leverages online delivery (e.g., SaaS), web services and mashup application models, appliance-like systems, and very large, global solution communities – to really capture that SMB potential. We’ve also noted that IBM has been conspicuous in its absence, as other suppliers have experimented with these new models and brought them to market.
Now, as we’ve predicted, IBM is making its move. Last month, at its annual gathering of business partners, IBM finally revealed the core pieces of a new, Internet-infused service delivery model it’s been developing for the SMB market, labeled the “Blue Business Platform”. Here are a couple of clips of IBM’s Sam Palmisano (with Google CEO Eric Schmidt) talking about the new Platform at the event:
Earlier this month, IBM’s Systems & Technology Group (STG) hosted its annual briefing for IT industry analysts in Stamford, CT. The briefing covered a lot of ground in 1-1/2 days. But, in my view, the two biggest stories were STG’s plans to: 1) get more proactive with partners around solutions development and delivery, and 2) dramatically increase its SMB market share through new product designs and new delivery models. Here are my key takeaways: [...read more...]
OK, I’m a little behind in pointing this out… But in case you didn’t notice, last month Google and salesforce.com announced a global alliance that made me think immediately about my February post, “Why Salesforce.com Will Be Acquired in 2007″.
Yes, this modest alliance is nowhere close to the predicted acquisition; initially it’s just about making Google’s AdWords program more simply available to salesforce.com customers (and, conversely, making salesforce.com customers more readly available as customers to Google) – and is far short of the marriage between these two companies I suggested in February (as well as in December’s IDC Predictions 2007).
But, as small an agreement as this is, it leaves me more convinced that a marriage could well be ahead for these two. Why? [...read more...]
Two years ago, SAP’s CEO Henning Kagermann told me that he did not foresee any major shift in the company’s large business vs. SMB revenue mix: “We have today a 70%/30% revenue mix. Next year, it might be 68%/32% – that is not a revolution.”
His rationale was that the large enterprise business was such a big focus for SAP – and would continue to account for so much of the business – that any SMB progress would seem marginal, relative to SAP’s overall growth. As it turns out, he was right: in the subsequent two years, the mix didn’t change that much; at this year’s SAPPHIRE, Hans-Peter Klaey, the president of SAP’s new SMB line-of-business, said that today’s SMB share of SAP business is around 30%.
But, as we anticipated last year, things have clearly changed at SAP – in the priority that management is putting on the SMB market, and in terms of what SAP is prepared to do to compete successfully. [...read more...]
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