Last year, four out of every ten CRM systems sold were SaaS-based, and the trend is accelerating.

In the recent Gartner report  Market Share Analysis: Customer Relationship Management Software, Worldwide, 2012 published April 18, 2013 the authors provide insights into why the worldwide CRM market experienced 12% growth in 2012, three times the average of all enterprise software categories. 

Gartner cites demand they are seeing from their enterprise clients for CRM systems that can help acquire customers, analyze and act on customer behaviours, and increase all-channel management performance.  Big data inquiries are also increasing in CRM, driven by the interest enterprise clients have in getting more value from social network data and interactions.

Key take-aways from the report include the following:

• The CRM worldwide market grew from $16B to $18B attaining a 12.5% growth rate from 2011 to 2012.

• 80% of all CRM software in 2012 was sold in …

Multi-tenant environments bring a new set of challenges when it comes to security.
In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Omar Khawaja, Global Principal, Security Solutions, at Verizon Terremark, will provide a structured and sequenced data-centric security approach to identify and align users, systems and access to data. Cloud Expo attendees will learn the key considerations to be had when outsourcing IT environments to the cloud as well as the importance of a model-driven template.
Omar Khawaja is Global Principal, Security Solutions, at Verizon Terremark.

read more

In the last 12 months annual revenues for Azure have topped a billion dollars according to Curt Anderson, CFO of Microsoft’s Server and Tools unit where Azure is housed.
It’s the first time the Microsoft cloud has hit this storied height and suddenly people are talking about it being in the running against Amazon Web Services, which is believed to have done $1.8 billion last year on its eventual way to $20 billion sometime before the decade ends.
Microsoft needs Azure to click in case the bottom continues to fall out of the Windows OS market.
Forrester told Bloomberg that Azure has roughly 20% of the cloud market to Amazon’s 71%. And it thinks Azure may have 35% in the next year, doubling annually from here on out.
It said, “Microsoft probably has more net new growth opportunity sitting in front of them than probably anyone in the market.”

read more

“As a company, we are serious about Cloud,” said Neil Sutton, Vice President, Global Portfolio, at BT Global Services today as BT launched BT Cloud Compute, an enhanced service that the company claims allows CIOs increased control in terms of designing, building, buying and operating a cloud solution that is tailored to their specific needs.

read more

BusinessSuccessWith cloud computing becoming the center of almost every new enterprise IT project, more and more startups decide to compete in the area. This raises the question: “Are they ready to fulfill the enterprise needs?” Forget the need to have one big customer. This can open few doors but if your startup’s business strategy is wrong those will be shut down soon. It is true that one prominent customer can boost your sales but in my opinion there are two more important things that can help your startup get customers fast.
First question you need to ask yourself is: “Do I target the right audience?” If you want to play in the cloud space you need to look at two different points of view – the developer one and the IT one, and make sure that you understand both. And trust me, John Engates, CTO of Rackspace, is right by saying “the traditional datacenter admin, even the CIO, don’t necessary understand a developer’s standpoint” (see Cloud Operability and the Battle for the Open Cloud at forbes.com).

read more

The Growth of Cloud Block Storage: Building Blocks in the Cloud

By Sue Poremba

Sue Poremba is a freelance writer focusing primarily on security and technology issues and occasionally blogs for Rackspace Hosting.

Cloud block storage is a new way of thinking about how you store files and organise content. It allows you to abstract your infrastructure away from the implementation details specifying what hardware and operating system you need to manage to host the files your applications and organisation use.

“Cloud block storage allows organizations to focus on their content and trust the details of delivering that content to an established SaaS provider. It functions like a hard drive accessible via the Internet,” explained Troy Carl, vice president and lead tech engineer with Faith Comes by Hearing, an audio Bible organisation that utilises cloud block storage for its recordings.

“Storing files and assets in the cloud is important because …

Companies around the world are moving into on-premise private cloud environments. Many connect their private cloud to their public cloud service providers. In his session at 12th Cloud Expo | Cloud Expo New York [June 10-13], Brian Patrick Donaghy will talk about examples of what worked, what failed and why we should think about this evolution.

read more

License and compliance management was difficult when most everything you needed was terrestrial – on the ground, tangible, countable. But as assets float toward and into the cloud, license and compliance management are becoming more complex, more challenging, and even more important.
In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Erik Iversen, Leader, Software Asset Management Team at SHI International, to discuss how to use a simple three-step model to help get ready.
Erik Iversen leads the Software Asset Management team at SHI International. He started the SAM Services team in 2008 with just one customer; now the team supports a variety of software governance and compliance programs for hundreds of customers of all shapes and sizes.

read more

It’s now possible to create isolated networks in the cloud using OpenStack Networking. Cloud Networks can help enhance network security, increase application agility and improve scalability and availability of your servers.
In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Hart Hoover, Cloud Strategist at Rackspace Hosting, will discuss:
What are cloud networks?
History and progress of OpenStack Networking
Where do we go from here?
Use cases for an isolated network in a cloud infrastructure
Live demo of creating an isolated network and deploying servers within it

read more