There's A Downside To A Booming Cloud Market

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"The best of times, and the worst of times." That's how THINKstrategies consulting firm Founder Jeff Kaplan described the current market for cloud computing and SaaS to Oracle cloud partners gathered in Boston.

Kaplan, who spoke at an Oracle cloud road show, said the good news is ISVs and software developers have greater opportunities than ever before. The bad news, however, is that customers and end users also have higher expectations.

Kaplan said "the market has never been better," pointing to a greater assortment of people interested in buying, developing, and selling cloud and SaaS solutions.

"On the other hand, the benefits that we're gaining from this market are also helping others find opportunities themselves, so the barriers to entry continue to go down, and, therefore, the competition continues to go up," he said.

With that competition and plethora of solution sources, customer loyalty has also decreased, according to Kaplan. It's more important than ever that ISVs and developers keep pace with customer expectations. Kaplan highlighted the much-touted Internet of Things market as the future of cloud computing and SaaS applications.

Ironically, Kaplan said, IT departments were the first to resist applications of SaaS and cloud in the SMB space. Now, however, Kaplan said these solutions are directed at the same IT departments, who, in turn, convert business executives and teams.

"So you're seeing a surge in these kinds of offerings aimed at IT," Kaplan said.

PUBLISHED FEB. 23, 2015