Deliver Your Apps in the Cloud

Vendors can leapfrog their SaaS competitors by delivering applications via virtual appliances in the cloud.

By Billy Marshall, rPath

When describing the advantages of EC2, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos likes to describe the cloud as taking care of the hardware “muck.” I like to think of virtual appliances as a way for software companies to take care of the software “muck” – the systems, integration, testing and maintenance issues that consume so much of R&D budgets.

While many vendors have adopted the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model in hopes of reducing this “muck”, a switch to using virtual appliances also enables software companies to deliver applications with the same benefits to customers without restructuring their entire businesses.

Software companies that have stayed on the SaaS sidelines can use virtual appliances to leapfrog their competitors and position their companies for success in the up-and-coming generation of cloud computing vendors.

One-Stop for SaaS Insight

The SandHill.com SaaS/On-demand topic page compiles all of the opinions, analysis and news you need on one page. And by clicking “Topics” on the top navigation bar on www.SandHill.com, you’ll receive a drop-down menu of all our other Topics Pages: Open Source, Offshoring, and M&A. Need more focused insight? Email us with ideas for more Topic Pages.

The Formula for Web Success

Making money on the Web has proved elusive for even the most promising players. Bruce LaFetra of Rubicon Consulting takes a closer look at which companies have won, which have lost and what separates the two in this post to the SandHill.com Blog on New Era, New Thinking.

Pulling Prospects Out of the Black Hole

In a down economy, sales prospects can seem to drop into a “black hole.” Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies, delivers sound advice to software salespeople trying to assess the situation with tough-to-reach prospects and rescue them from the black hole in this post to the SandHill.com Blog on sales best practices.

Publish Your Perspective!

SandHill.com wants your opinions. Send your thoughts on the enterprise software industry to SandHill.com editor, Maryann Jones Thompson (maryann@sandhill.com) and have your opinions published on our site.

DON'T MISS: The Next Step in Open Innovation

The creation of knowledge, products, and services by online communities of companies and consumers is still in its earliest stages. Who knows where it will lead? Read the possibilities in this article from The McKinsey Quarterly.

News Update: Up, Up, and Away

Microsoft’s cloud use goes up, SaaS moves up to open source, SAP is up at the #1 spot, and VMware’s business goes away. Read these stories and more software news of the week in the latest SandHill.com Software News Summary.

Poll: Virtual or On-Demand?

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More at SandHill.com:

New Microsoft president Stephen Elop confronts the services era.
Read the most important enterprise software industry news of the week >>

Corefino secured $13.6 million.
Monitor the latest software venture capital deals >>

CafePress.com acquired Imagekind.
Size up last week's software M&A deals >>

Paul Maritz named president and CEO of VMware.
See who's made it to the top in our list of recent software executive appointments.

Send us your feedback on this newsletter and the SandHill.com site.

Parting Thought

“Predicting the future is easy. It's trying to figure out what's going on now that's hard.”
— Fritz R. S. Dressler

Courtesy of Malcolm Kusher, The Kushner Group

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