Comments on: IDC’s 10 SaaS predictions

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 05:55:52 +0000

That bottle of wine is getting more fulfilling with each passing month. Considering that Congress is going to be in session only 90 days this year, I’m beginning to think that our bet is hopelessly stacked in my favor!

By: vinnie mirchandani

vinnie mirchandani — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 05:21:30 +0000

you will remember one prediction of mine we have bet on!

By: Brian Cabezud

Brian Cabezud — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 01:57:03 +0000

I view these analysts in the same way that I view sell-side research analysts. Ask any smart fund manager how much value he gets from Wall St research reports and he’ll shrug. Ask him how valuable he considers the analysts he talks to on a regular basis in certain sectors, and he’ll say it’s a huge part of how he gathers information. Gartner et al are the same way. If you are lucky enough to work for an enterprise that pays the $3,500 on a regular basis, you have access to the Gartner analysts phone numbers. They are MUCH more valuable as people then they are as authors.

Incidentally, I agree with your evaluation of the SaaS predictions. “SMEs will remain a tough nut to crack”?? That makes no sense. SFDC can’t get themselves out of that market!

By: Dennis Howlett

Dennis Howlett — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 11:52:37 +0000

Geve’s point is interesting. Where are the APIs for this class of application? (other than SF.com), where are the portal frameworks that scale up and down and which can be costed appropriately? Enterprise mashup?

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 05:16:54 +0000

I haven’t looked at the other predictions, but the one you call out about the linkage of SaaS and Subscription Revenue really seems to identify more of a structural reality of SaaS, not a prediction. I think that the interesting predictions lie at the crossroads of the big trends (SOA, SaaS, Open Source), not with any individual trends themselves. Of course, this is dangerous ground to look at with lots of variables, but I think provides intel someone could actually incorporate into their strategic planning.

By: Geva Perry

Geva Perry — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 04:43:11 +0000

The analyst reports are not justused by vendors, Jeff. It’s a great CYA “tool” in large companies when buying products: “What do you want from me, boss, Gartner said they are both visionary AND have the ability to execute. How should I know their product doesn’t scale over 100 concurrent users…”

As far SaaS goes most of the discussion in the blogosphere, media, etc. is pretty uninteresting and myopic. It focuses on the Salesforce.com model, which is a “take it or leave it” model — either you use the entire SFdC stack or you don’t use it at all. That’s good for a certain set of apps.

There will be much more interesting things happening with what you might call iSaaS (Infrastructure Software as a Service) or Middleware as a Service. The idea being that in many industries (e.g., fin serv) the business process is still very unique to individual companies, but there is opennes to an on-demand model for the infrastructure — not just the hardware, but the OS and middleware too.

Here’s a brief (technical) glimpse of what we’re working on with the Sun Grid. http://blogs.sun.com/roller/trackback/dhushon/Weblog/runningjobsonsungrid

Geva Perry, GigaSpaces

By: tnjitsu » IDC Issues Thought Provoking (NOT) SaaS ‘Study’

tnjitsu » IDC Issues Thought Provoking (NOT) SaaS ‘Study’ — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 04:25:39 +0000

[...] Jeff Nolan noted how self promoting IDC and other analyst studies tend to be.Â My challenge to the web 2.0 world : Expose the pedantic nature of this type of work; create alternatives that make it difficult for ‘ham and egg’ analyst work to be served as steak. [...]

By: Dennis Howlett

Dennis Howlett — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 02:55:41 +0000

There are a few out there that piss on Gartner – Armageddon is one that springs ot mind.

When you say you ‘think you know’ is that a euphemism for ‘I’ve seen multiple copies floating about and I’m not sure if we’ve got an enterprise licence for this stuff?’

I think they’re fundamentally wrong about SMBs – I’m seeing some interesting examples of how, taking the portal metpahor as the starting point, vendors can add all sorts of value that just makes sense.