Peter Laird from BEA has accomplished a fantastic job by referencing and mapping the major players in the “cloud” industry. It is highly recommended for anyone interested in this field to take a look at this visual map and his blog post.

And looking forward to your succeeding posts on the cloud IDEs.

Best.
alain
Mor.ph

I discuss this very topics here:

http://sumanchaudhuri.wordpress.com/2008/05/20/the-3-horsemen-for-isvs/

where i discuss the need for loud computing and virtualization and why they are important to ISVs thinking of SaaS solution.

http://sumanchaudhuri.wordpress.com/2008/05/29/saas-ecosystem/

and who the players are and how ISVs and hosting providers need to strike solid partnerships and how hosting providers need to really think through the kinds of “reusable services” that they need to bake in to their platform to be able to service multiple ISVs (things like logging, security in the cloud, etc).

ISVs need to partner with such hosting providers who have now transcended the usual level of services (mere hosting and bandwidth) to a higher level of services that the ISV can offload to these hosting providers and instead, focus on their product. Let’s face it, data centres and general infrastructure and the management of that infrastructure is not going to be a competitive differentiator moving forward for ISVs with the advent of cloud computing, virtualization and SaaS.

Just my 0.02 Cent
Roland

Please allow me to clarify one thing – “We know that Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Sun, 3Tera, Mosso, Joyent, Nirvanix and other providers have a lot of hardware, but it is not infinite.”

You are right. 3tera does not have an infinite amount of hardware. In fact, we have zero – nada – zilch – NO hardware. We provide a comprehensive platform for Cloud and Utility Computing, AppLogic. We have a network of partner providers who own the hardware and offer Cloud and Utility services using AppLogic as the platform. Currently, this network consists of 18 data centres in North America, Europe and Asia, and is rapidly expanding (soon to be in Australia and Latin America as well – are there data centres in Antarctica?! :-) ).

Our recently announced Cloudware Architecture, aka Cloud Without Compromise, enables a global Cloud service where apps can run in and be moved to and fro any data centres. Apps can contain elements in multiple clouds, 3tera enabled clouds or not. The 3tera Clouds are fully vendor, OS, middleware, database, etc. agnostic.

So, while, as you point out, 3tera does not have an infinite amount of physical hardware (and of course, infinite physical hardware is an impossibility), by having none, we, in effect, do have a – pardon the pun – VIRTUALLY infinite amount of hardware!

BXL
CEO, 3tera

I agree that start-up ISVs can and should build their SaaS solutions using PaaS from day one. I think it is also interesting to sell PaaS to existing ISVs that have on-premise products and customers. These ISVs have proven domain knowledge and that is the key skill ISVs must show.

As you say, PaaS is a big leap for existing ISVs (as we see with SAP and Business ByDesign). Even so, I am convinced ISVs have no choice if they want to survive. They can milk the maintenance stream for some years, but not for ever.

Helping existing ISVs adopt PaaS to build SaaS solutions is my focus here on PaaS Talk. It will be difficult, but challenging and I hope rewarding.

Regards,

Andrew.

Thanks for responding, and I have to say I’m a bit surprised, but then again I don’t know the European market that well. In the US where you have an established ISV with an established application that is sold in a traditional manner, the decision to shift strategy to a PaaS offering to re-build their solution is a pretty big deal, and not one I would think many would jump to right away, but that’s the US market. I see the market in the US being for PaaS being the startup ISV, as well as the enterprise. It’s still a young market though, and lots of time to change.

Thanks again for your perspective.

Regards,
Bob

Thanks for your comment and welcome to PaaS Talk.

There are many ISVs in Europe that focus on specific vertical niches. Many of these started in their home country and have expanded over the years into other countries, often using resellers.

These ISVs face big challenges with SaaS, as it means changing much of what they have been doing in the past, both business and technology. SaaS also lowers the barriers to entry for new competitors to storm into these vertical niches.

To survive in the SaaS market ISVs must change in many ways. Instead of building platforms and supporting technology, they will buy external services. This will be difficult for ISVs who have in the past resisted third party components.

ISVs must focus on using their domain skills to build exciting and convincing SaaS solutions. This will be a challenge for many ISVs who like to think that have been adding value with their technology. Many customers see it differently, however, and will seriously consider simpler and cheaper SaaS solutions.

So to get back to your question, I think the main market for PaaS in Europe is with ISVs.

Over the last 15 years or so I have seen the number of large organisations with in-house developers drop dramatically. Those with in-house IT must maintain legacy systems and have little to spend on new ideas like SaaS.

I do not see such in-house developer being big adopters of PaaS. They will buy in services to meet specific needs. Whether those services come from Salesforce.com, niche ISVs or large SIs will not matter so much.

PaaS is a great opportunity for ISVs that can leave developing in-house platforms and technology behind. Those ISVs that can make the leap will have a good future in front of them. They can (finally) concentrate on their domain and buy everything else they need as a service. They can get new SaaS solutions to market more quickly and quickly improve to meet customer needs.

Those ISVs that try to take a wait-and-see approach are at a much greater risk. They will see their old market quickly dry-up as unexpected (to them) competitors steal their customers away…

Andrew.

I’m curious to hear how you think this will evolve in Europe.

Thank you again, and I’ve enjoyed your blog.