Study: SaaS Most Important Enterprise Software Trend

According to a recent survey of 850 "enterprise software customers," software-as-a-service (SaaS) continues to be the most important enterprise software trend, followed closely by Web services/service-oriented architecture (SOA), then offshoring/globalization, open source software and software industry consolidation.

The survey, conducted by research firms McKinsey & Company and the Sand Hill Group, asked participants to select "the most important [software] trend impacting your business." 31 percent selected SaaS, up one percent from the last time the firms asked the question in 2006. Web services/SOA also rose 1 percent, from 24 percent to 25 percent.

Offshoring/globalization remained in third place, but dropped two percentage points, from 15 percent to 13 percent. Open source also dropped, from 10 percent to eight percent, as did software industry consolidation, with only seven percent choosing it as their top trend this year, as opposed to 17 percent in 2006.

Participants saw other trends ahead than those listed above, with 16 percent selecting "other" in this year's survey, up from four percent saying so in 2006 IT budgets are more focused toward

subscription/on-demand licenses, the research found, with 19 percent of the average respondent's budget going toward "Subscription/On-Demand" services in 2008.

The amount of money enterprises are expected to spend on software overall is also on the rise, the study stated. The average percentage budget allocated to software rose from 30 percent in 2006 to 32 percent in 2008, according to respondents, and it was expected increase to 35 percent in 2010.

"Despite the economic downturn in the U.S., there is slow but steady growth in software's share of the overall IT budget," the researchers commented in the report. "Survey respondents projected that this growth pace will continue for the next two years, indicating that software plays an ongoing role in delivering business productivity gains."

Respondents were also asked to choose where they think the industry is in its current innovation wave। Sixty-two percent said that it is "on the upswing," while 17 percent said it's "at the peak," five percent said it's "past the peak" and 17 percent picked "What innovation wave?" as their answer.

source=http://www.adtmag.com/

Local authorities carry out anti-piracy raids against two IT resellers in Ajman in coordination with Microsoft Gulf

Microsoft Gulf in collaboration with Ajman authorities has announced that it has recently conducted two raids against IT resellers who were selling products with unlicensed Microsoft software in the emirate of Ajman।

Microsoft, initiating the raids in its capacity as a member of the Business Software Alliance (BSA), has been closely monitoring the resellers following reports that they were installing illegal versions of MS Office 2007 and Windows XP on computers sold to customers। The raids resulted in the confiscation of two PCs loaded with pirated versions of Windows XP and Microsoft Office, along with several CDs containing illegally copied Microsoft programs.

The ongoing campaign involving Microsoft, BSA, the international association established by the software industry to promote a safe and legal digital world, and local authorities in the UAE, is part of a drive towards removing unlicensed installations of Microsoft programs in the UAE, where a Madar Research report reveals that PC sales are growing at a compound average growth rate of around 12%, one of the highest in the Middle East। At this rate, PC penetration in the country will be 27% higher than the world average by 2008.

'Our nationwide anti-piracy campaigns are in line with the UAE's strong commitment to create a piracy-free environment। To effectively tackle the menace of piracy, we require the sincere efforts of the business sector and end users, who need to take a conscious decision to not use pirated software and report any violation of intellectual property rights,' said Jawad Al Redha, IPR Manager, Microsoft Gulf.

The UAE leads the Middle East in intellectual property rights and copyright protection, currently placing 29th in the world rankings of IPR protection. According to global research firm IDC, the country enjoys a software piracy rate of 35 per cent, far below the 57 per cent average of the Middle East and North Aftrica region. UAE law strictly requires software users to keep evidence of the originality of the software they buy and use.

source=http://www.ameinfo.com/

IT gurus launch software cleanup of Estonia

TALLINN (AFP) — Skype guru Ahti Heinla and Microlink and Delfi founder Rainer Nolvak put cutting-edge IT technology and 40,000 volunteers to work Saturday to clean-up the tiny Baltic Sea state of Estonia।

Heinla and Nolvak used special software based on Google Earth, positioning software for mobile phones and mobile phones with GPS to map and take images of illegal garbage dumps across the country।

"The aim is not just to clean the fields and forest from the enormous amount of garbage but we also wish to kind of clean the brains of those people who have left that garbage in nature," Tiina Urm, a spokeswoman for the cleanup campaign told AFP।

The innovative software also brings the massive garbage collection campaign virtually into living rooms where Estonians can follow its real-time progress, organisers said।

Dubbed "Teeme Ara 2008", the campaign covers all 45,227 square kilometers of Estonia that won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and has since developed a major IT industry।

source=http://afp.google.com/

Philippines to Emerge as a Major SaaS Hub

“By 2010, over 30 percent of global software revenue will be driven by SaaS (software as a service) enterprise applications,” according to Winston Damarillo, executive chairman of Morph Labs, Inc।, “and the Philippines will emerge as a major SaaS innovation hub for the industry,” with many developers using tools and services provided by Morph Labs for rapid, cost-effect development of SaaS applications.

Manila, Philippines (OPENPRESS) May 5, 2008 -- Morph Labs is a Philippine-based SaaS product and service developer and a leading enabler of SaaS web application development by third-party independent software vendors (ISVs)। Its Morph AppSpace service, the first Platform as a Service (PaaS) for Ruby on Rails — a popular open source programming framework — allows developers to quickly deploy applications into an enterprise quality on-demand environment.

A recent Gartner Research reports supports Damarillo’s projection। According to Gartner, one third of spending on business application software will be through subscriptions by 2010, up from just five percent in 2005. Gartner also projects that 84 percent of small and mid-size companies and 69 percent of large companies are willing to consider, are currently reviewing or are already using SaaS applications.

Damarillo believes the Philippines will become an important supplier of SaaS applications globally, and his company is providing products and services to help ISVs develop their own SaaS applications। “Morph Labs enables ISVs and entrepreneurs to enter the global SaaS marketplace and compete without making huge investments in technology capabilities,” said David Abramowski, chief executive of Morph Labs.

“And with the Internet as the distribution channel, there is plenty of opportunity for grassroots marketing that’s only provided in the Web 2।0 world. Our tools and Internet distribution present great opportunity for Philippine startups,” he said. “Given the Philippines’ capabilities and global reputation for software development, we are confident that this country will be among the major hubs of the global SaaS industry,” Abramowski said.

Damarillo said that cost benefits are the most obvious advantage of SaaS applications over traditional software, but that this end user advantage puts tremendous pressure on SaaS developers. “The challenge for a technology innovator is overcoming the time and cost to establish a reliable technology platform to deploy, deliver and manage new business applications,” said Damarillo. “By reducing the cost of infrastructure and making it more affordable for ISVs, Morph Labs is enabling an increase in global supply of SaaS applications.

“And that increase in supply means more options for clients and end users, which generates increased demand as SaaS applications become mainstream,” he said. “Our vision is to simplify innovation.” Abramowski said. “Morph Labs will continue to introduce applications and services that will help entrepreneurs and ISVs in streamlining development and deployment.”


Morph Labs itself provides a suite of software applications called Morph AppSuite that can be used by ISVs to build applications, or directly by end users। SaaS applications developed or under development at Morph Labs include human resources management, expense management, and customer relationship management solutions. Since launching services in January this year, Morph Labs has signed up nearly 300 Morph AppSpace subscribers.

A service used by third-party developers for the development of help and training sites, Morph helpME, is being leveraged for the development of over 200 sites. An online community for developers and their clients, Morph eXchange — through which subscribers access Morph AppSpace — has nearly 1,000 direct subscribers who regularly access both free and for-fee SaaS subscriptions, he said.


Damarillo is often referred to as a successful serial technology entrepreneur, having founded a number of internationally successful startups. He is also managing director of Global Gateway Venture Capital, which funds global-facing Asian start-ups. His career as a venture capitalist began with Intel Capital, where he was one of the top performing professionals.


About Morph Labs
Morph Labs (http://www।mor.ph) is the leading enabler of Software as a Service (SaaS) that leverages virtual infrastructure and open source technologies to simplify the deployment, delivery, and management of web based applications.

Morph Labs uses virtual infrastructures including Amazon Web Services to provide a truly elastic environment for web applications that can be instantly provisioned and seamlessly scaled।

Morph Labs is a global company with headquarters in Cebu City, Philippines with additional in-country operations in Manila along with Los Angeles, California and Austin, Texas in the U।S.A.

source=http://www.theopenpress.com/

MS looks to increase installed base of licensed

Kolkata: Microsoft Corporation is contemplating the rollout of a “subscription-based software model” with a view to facilitating an increase in the installed base of licensed software, according to Deepak Maheshwari, Director, Legal and Corporate Affairs, Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt Ltd.

Speaking on the sidelines of a seminar on ‘Information Security’ organised here on Friday by the Confederation of Indian Industry (Eastern Region), Maheshwari said the number of people who pay for the software they use was very low.

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The unit cost of software can come down only if the number of people paying for it goes up. To facilitate an increase in the installed base of software that is paid for, Microsoft was toying with the idea of unveiling a subscription-based software model।

Maheshwari, however, could not throw any light on when the initiative would be rolled out and if it would be launched on a global basis।

Speakers at the seminar said information security and its management were critical issues not only to business and the industry but also to the society at large. Cyber crimes, it is also believed, threaten the core infrastructure that supports critical business activities।

Dr। Debesh Das, West Bengal’s Minister for Information Technology, stressed upon the importance of information security and its varied implications. He said the day was not far when there would be security agencies to protect our IT infrastructure just as we have security agencies to guard our homes, offices and vital installations. Academic institutions should incorporate courses on IT security in their curriculum, he said.

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Vikram Tiwathia, Chief Information Officer of CII, said, as hardware costs go down, the industry needs to address the issue of software costs appropriately।

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