Greg O'Connor

Software as a Service (SaaS) is the darling of today's real world, enterprise-impacting cloud computing use cases. Industry analysts and research firms are tripping over each other extolling mega-CAGR for SaaS, with the 451 Group going so far as attributing 75% of PaaS spending for use cases that are attached to SaaS deployments. In its 2011 research report "Cloud Computing Takes Off," Morgan Stanley is bullish on the future of PaaS stating, "The low capex requirements, robust cloud enablement and rapidly improving developer toolsets are significantly lowering the barriers to entry for new application development [emphasis mine] - both in terms of cost and time to market. Great.  So the future is bright for new application development heading to the cloud. What about ISVs who have existing applications? Driven to the margin-eroding SaaS model, ISVs frequently find t... (more)

The Risk Problem: 'If It Ain’t Broke . . . It Will Be'

The battle cry of IT brinksmanship, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," means that risk has triumphed over cost. This fate is commonplace for legacy applications which can be found sitting on an outdated/unsupported box, running on ancient OS sporting a "Do Not Touch" sign. Not important enough to fix; too important to fail. These applications are at risk of failure.  And everyone knows it. AppZero offers an alternative that changes the risk/cost math by eliminating the risk at a slashed cost/effort - with no re-engineering or coding required. Over the last few years, we have hel... (more)

The Elastic Enterprise Extends IT Operations to the Cloud ….. Today

We were all there at the beginning when, "The Internet changed everything," morphed into the paradigm buster we now call "The Cloud." As an industry, we watched Amazon (AWS) break the $100M revenue mark in 2008; scanned Gartner's first cloud computing vendor list in 2009; and heard Microsoft declare itself "all in" in 2010. The cloud-as-infrastructure journey from promise to powerhouse has been at once exciting and disappointing. Exciting for obvious reasons and disappointing because the reality of cloud usage has largely remained the purview of development. To date, the predomi... (more)

Cloud Market Crosses the Chasm: Wins, Sign Posts, and Deals

Nothing says fun like a hurricane party, a bottle of "Jack," and a little game theory debate as lights begin to flicker across New England. And speaking of "Jack," what can possibly explain the handlers at HP letting Leo Apotheker get off the reservation long enough to proclaim the obvious market shift brought on by the iPad? Note to Leo: Never tell the world your business problems right before you put up the "for sale" sign. Never. Note to Larry: Please put Leo, the board and shareholders out of their misery.  Can you imagine? Ahhhhh.  I feel better.  Now .... turning to the ch... (more)

AppZero Names Jim Noschese Global VP of Sales

Server application virtualization pioneer AppZero has announced the appointment of Jim Noschese as Global VP of Sales. As Vice President of Global Sales, Jim Noschese will combine strategy, staffing, and customer satisfaction levels to drive AppZero revenue growth and customer loyalty. Jim comes to AppZero with more than 25 years of experience in technology-based solution sales management experience spanning companies such as CIMTEK, Inc, Open Ratings, Emptoris, and Parametric Technology (PTC).  His record of success is marked by consistent and frequently explosive growth in key... (more)