Software InduStry 2.0
osoft From the application ...to the Vietnamese
hosted at Microsoft’s farmer in his fields
uynhsanity
Redmond Campus in via SMS.
tesy of Micr
the USA...
.com/H
e cour
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Pictur
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a rainmaker for The potential program, for example, has used transport timetables to 25,000 small farmers.
developing World cloud computing at a vietnamese sugar mill The sms gateway itself is hosted in a cloud
cloud computing services are being used to create an automated sms alert service environment by microsoft at its headquarters
to provide computing services in the to communicate information regarding the in redmond, Washington state, and is linked
developing world. microsoft’s unlimited harvesting timetable, accounts receivable, and via a vietnamese sms message provider.
But much of the growth of the software from day one on the web – never going through Africa, in addition to expected markets such as
industry over the next decade will take place the on-premise software stage. Removing all Western Europe and the US.
a long way from Europe. According to Oxford that IT overhead leaves entrepreneurs free to “Places like Nigeria and Tanzania have had
Intelligence, in terms of the up-and-coming innovate and invent.” a lot of Western money poured into them from
locations for software companies globally, India While the majority of cloud computing oil and minerals companies, and as they have
is the clear leader, followed by China. So far, so services are originating from North America and grown there have been a few spinoffs,” says
predictable; but the next tier has some surprises, Western Europe, the model itself means there SmartPath’s technology director, Owen Batt.
including Russia, Poland, Hungary and Vietnam, are no restrictions on similar services emerging “The main contacts we have had dealings with
followed by Romania and Chile. The most from other markets. have been serving these industries, as well as the
common reasons for choosing these markets are For example, the Japanese giant NEC has telecommunications industry, and for us these
their low cost, skills base, mastery of English and created an integrated cloud computing service are key targets and typical customers.”
capacity as emerging markets in their own right. in Australia called Applications Net which Batt believes that companies in emerging
However, the industry is set for further integrates software products from different markets are well suited to adopting the SaaS
reshaping thanks to cloud computing [see developers. NEC Australia’s strategic channel model: “The growing pains that these markets
previous page], which is leveling the playing field are experiencing as they expand flow into our
for competitors globally. IT services businesses Cloud computing is also niche, to the point where the government in
from Brazil or Australia can host their software
giving companies in emerging
Malaysia, for example, has pushed policy that
anywhere and compete in markets such as affects us directly in a good way. The interest
North America or Western Europe without
markets access to software
we have recently received out of Africa was
needing to physically ship products or create
and services that are the best
unexpected but not unwelcome, particularly
local sales channels. Cloud computing is also
available anywhere
as we have a solid solution for the types of
giving companies in emerging markets access industries [found] in remote parts of Africa, such
across the internet to software and services that sales manager, Simon Olive, believes that apart as oil and minerals.”
are the best available anywhere. from sales and services expertise, connectivity is According to Salesforce.com’s director of
According to Gartner the market for cloud the key element in a cloud-based service. platform research, Peter Coffee, his company has
computing services will be worth $56.3bn this “Application Net is available to the world, recently noted that its growth rate in the Asia-
year, a 20 % increase on last year, and is expected and I’m happy to take a call from anyone globally Pacific markets has lately been around four times
to grow to $150bn by 2013. who wants to get involved,” Olive says. “One of faster than the average growth rate worldwide.
Cloud computing is giving rise to a new breed the beauties is that being a cloud-based solution, “Salesforce.com research has also noted
of service providers, led by Google and Amazon. businesses can access it from across the globe that some emerging economies, such as India
com with its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), as wherever they have an internet connection. It and Brazil, are being largely driven by domestic
well as a plethora of specialised companies. makes no difference where you are, businesses demand growth rather than being tightly tied to
Google’s head of enterprise for Southeast no longer need to be bound by geography.” exports,” Coffee says.
Asia, Richard Suhr, says demand for cloud One of the companies to sell its software “These countries aren’t entirely isolated from
computing services is coming from all parts of on the NEC platform, the helpdesk and asset the stress on global markets, but they’re seeing
the world: “It’s exciting to hear about emerging management software maker SmartPath, reports real opportunities for success, and their small and
markets in which businesses are being founded that it has been fielding significant interest from medium business owners are discovering that the
28 pathfInder buSIneSS l JUNE/JULY 2009
PBS12 pp26-29 Software.indd 26 5/6/09 15:28:57
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