When the Levee Breaks

SaaS customers and vendors need to work harder to ensure business continuity in order to avoid a business disaster.

By Joe Ruck, BoardVantage

“Now, cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good, When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move.”
– Memphis Minnie, inspired by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927

Saas is a great way to deliver software efficiently and effectively, but all too often it can be used as a way to do a run around IT. In doing so, critical IT functions such as ensuring security and system reliability can be short-circuited. Companies must apply sufficient consideration to questions of business continuity rather than relying on the brand name of their SaaS vendor to ‘always be there’.

The Cloud Summit is Tomorrow!
Learn the secrets to success for the next wave of computing.

CEOs, investors, analysts and customers will gather on Tues. Oct. 14 in the Silicon Valley for Cloud Summit Executive, a one-day gathering of the executive ecosystem that will bring the future of cloud computing into focus (Click here to hear host M.R. Rangaswami’s video invitation.)

The conference will explore the answers to critical questions such as, what cloud business models are showing early signs of success, what best practices are driving cloud marketing, and, importantly, what early-adopter customers are doing in the cloud today. Register now and help set the agenda for the next wave of computing.

America’s Education Crisis

The U.S. has maintained its leadership position in the worldwide economy despite a lowering of educational standards. Jon Fisher argues that America must reinvest in education to maintain the lead in the next era of science- and technology-driven industries. Read Jon’s perspective in his SandHill.com Blog, “Strategic Entrepreneurism.”

SaaS in a Scary Economy

The agile development process coupled with a savvy SaaS approach can help software companies survive challenging times. Paul Giurata of Catalyst Resources explains why in this post to the SandHill.com Blog on SaaS.

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.

Creating Organizational Transformations

If organizational transformations are to succeed, change can’t be thought of as a single, standardized process. Read the results of this new McKinsey Global Survey in this article from The McKinsey Quarterly.

News Update: Tech's "Nuclear Winter"?

Experts weigh in on how software companies will survive the financial crisis; plus IBM bets big on the cloud, Pentagon issues open-source guidelines, SAP users balk, Facebook co-founder exits and Oracle and Symantec keep buying. Read these stories and more software news of the week in the latest SandHill.com Software News Summary.

Poll: SaaS in a Recession?

Will SaaS vendors ride out the financial crisis better than other software companies?
Take our Pulse Poll >>

Last week, readers gave us their opinion on whether SMBs can thrive in a down economy.
Give us your opinion and see the results >>

More at SandHill.com:

Survey says bad economy is good for SOA.
Read the most important enterprise software industry news of the week >>

Browser technology maker Adaptive Blue receives $4.5 million.
Monitor the latest software venture capital deals >>

HCL beat out Infosys to acquire SAP-consultancy Axon.
Size up last week’s software M&A deals >>

Sudip Nandy named CEO of Aricent.
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

“Yesterday's home runs don't win today's games.”
— Babe Ruth

Courtesy of Malcolm Kusher, The Kushner Group

THIS WEEK’S SPONSOR

Cognizant is a global provider of IT, consulting and business process outsourcing services. Cognizant delivers a better Return on Outsourcing via our single-minded passion to making our customers' businesses stronger.
Find out more >>

SOFTWARE PULSE

Software Pulse is a publication of SandHill.com, the online resource for software business strategy.

To subscribe,
click here.

To unsubscribe, see the bottom of this email.

Send us your feedback,
click here.

SandHill.com is published by Sand Hill Group, which provides investment and management advice to emerging leaders in the $600 billion enterprise software, services and solutions market. Sand Hill Group produces the Software and the Enterprise series of conferences for industry executives, and authors research reports on cutting-edge technology topics.