Software Is Dead, Long Live Big Data
by Nadim Hossain and Dave Feinleib
With several successful IPOs this year, the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) space is enjoying strong momentum. This renewed attention begs the question — who will be in the next wave of cloud application winners?
In our view, a key characteristic to look for in emerging software companies is whether they have the potential to evolve into broader, “Big Data” information businesses. This is because winning software companies of the future will find ways to unlock value from the mountains of data being generated — whether by humans or machines — thereby creating formidable competitive “moats.”
Below, we examine three categories of software where this trend manifests itself, looking at both mature and emerging companies.
Example 1: Data Center Software — Splunk
Our first example is from deep inside the data center. Technically, Splunk isn’t a SaaS company. While its software enables cloud application providers such as Salesforce.com, it is itself a versioned, old-fashioned software company. However, the trend it taps into is very much consistent with the cloud wave.
Splunk is surfing a massive trend — that the volume of “data exhaust” from IT systems is growing at an accelerating pace. IT managers need a way to manage this data, and make sense of what their systems are telling them. Just as brands want to separate the signal
We recommend you visit the following site for more complete information and related topics. Article source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/davefeinleib/2012/10/24/software-is-dead-long-live-big-data-2/