Struck by Lightning from Salesforce.com

Once again, I didn’t go to Dreamforce. It is just too hard. They had over 150,000 registered attendees this year which means getting a hotel room is either expensive or impossible. Everything is difficult when you have a convention that size in any city. While not...

Software is Moving to a Consumption Model

When I bought my first mobile phone – a giant brick of a phone from Motorola – I had to pay for my service by the minute. On the one hand it seemed fair to pay for only the minutes I used; On the other hand it led to some surprises when the bill arrived. This was...

Microsoft Channel Partners Feel the Pain and Ecstasy of the Cloud

Microsoft is changing itself from the tried and true model of selling software product licenses, to a cloud company. While, this is a significant change in delivery for Microsoft, it is very clear that the company is committed to the existing channel strategy including single and two tier distribution. It is doubling down on this commitment with a new Cloud Service Provider (CSP) program that includes clear definitions and requirements for each segment and, additional channel categories. Microsoft hopes to attract new partners while helping existing partners make the business transformation to cloud.
Microsoft is joining a relatively crowded community of software companies also moving to a cloud model. As the market changes and evolves, many partners in Microsoft’s ecosystem are caught in the middle as the market and customers switch to cloud. By ripping off the band-aid rather than prolonging the transformation to cloud services, Microsoft and its partners will ultimately become more competitive and better positioned to meet customers’ emerging needs.

Is there Open Source without Open Governance?

There are so many misconceptions about open source software. For example one fallacy is that open source means free software. A bigger misconception is that all open source is, in fact, really open. These misconceptions can drive poor decisions and expose companies to...