SAP's first-ever CTO talks about setting the application strategy for the ERP vendor, why Business ByDesign isn't for every company, and how SAP has been in "the cloud" for years.
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SAP CTO Vishal Sikka on Innovation, Cloud Computing and Business ByDesign's Future
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CS Nair Wed, 2009-06-17 08:53
Managing IT has surely become complex. SaaS, Cloud and other new paradigms surely reduces the costs and complexity to the end customer. But it is quite naive to assume that complexity of bsuiness processes in terms of definitions, integrations, anlaytics, compliance etc, has disappeared. They are still complex. And more complex for large organizations. While directionally some of the new solutions on SaaS model can prove a point, you need a fully integrated, workhorse like SAP to handle large oragnizational information processing needs needs.
Can such workhorses emerge on the Cloud/SaaS front. Why not?
Vinnie Mirchandani Wed, 2009-06-17 09:08
Tom, disappointingly SAP is thrashing about trying to define what its cloud strategy is. It don't need 4 types of clouds. Also, there is no discussion around better economics, easier provisioning, SLAs - etc things you expect when you talk cloud.
I wrote some more on my blog
http://dealarchitect.typepad.com/deal_architect/2009/06/can-you-make-it-any-cloudier.html
Nara Wed, 2009-06-17 12:22
Like Vinnie, I'm disappointed by SAP's cloud strategy. To say we have multi-tenant and subscription doesn't really get into why this matters to customers. Customers are asking for elastic, metered services where they no longer have to worry about managing software. What Vishal dismisses as a little SFA application, not a platform, is powering innovative applications at companies like Starbucks, Dell, Cisco and Japan Post. The market has changed and recasting what you already have as cloud services is not the answer.
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