How InishTech’s Software Potential Service Helps Windows Azure Application Developers Monetize the Cloud

By Aidan Gallagher

Cloud computing is having a transformative effect on the IT landscape. This wave of change has not been seen since the transition to client / server computing that heralded the arrival of the PC in the 1980s. Although this presents software companies (ISVs) with considerable technical challenges, the cloud overwhelmingly provides even more business opportunities – as long as any transformation leverages the full potential of new business models.

The business of software is a central feature in the technology landscape, and, unsurprisingly, is utterly transformed in the march to the cloud. Very little remains the same when you compare what has become known as the traditional “on-premise” software world with the pure cloud software as a service business.

As with any dramatic industry shift, there will be winners and losers: A hegemony rarely lasts and an environment as fluid as IT can hardly hope to be an exception. Consider that nine of the 11 largest computing companies from the pre-client server era are no longer with us; there is no reason to expect that the cloud will be any less efficient in upsetting the current order. This change is being played out in every nook and niche of the software industry today, as agile new entrants offer cloud-based software as a service that can deliver a comparable solution for a fraction of the price and in a fraction of the time of their old-world counterparts.

The cloud presents what is possibly the greatest challenge for established software vendors yet. How do they reinvent their business for the new age? They have mature existing technology and an established presence in the market with paying customers, ongoing projects, legal obligations, and support and maintenance contracts. On the face of it, a shift to the cloud will cannibalize their business, erode their market share, and destroy their pipeline. And if the customer doesn’t ask for it, why would they invest in such a major distraction?

However, adopting a “wait and see” attitude will not win this particular battle. The most important consideration for the indecisive ISV is cloud computing’s undeniable appeal to customers. Simply put, it’s a better way of doing things. With the move to the cloud the customer is the ultimate winner, and because the customer is always right, the ascension of cloud computing is guaranteed to be the next logical step in the evolution of computing.

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