SaaS and Cloud Tsunami in France - My 6 plus 6 predictions for 2011 - Loic Simon, Club Alliances

As a Business Developer, a Bucaneer and a Curator for Club Alliances' existing and potential members, I am in quite a good position to sense where the SaaS and Cloud Ecosystem is heading to, at least here in France:

I think that 2011 will NOT YET be the year when:

1. The majority of infrastructure integrators, VARs, resellers, distributors and their vendors' Channel Account Managers will be fully Cloud enabled!
2. Cloud related security, confidentiality and compliance issues will no more be an objection for the Channel and - as a consequence - for their Customers!
3. SaaS "Canada Dry" and "Cloud Washing" will be replaced by true shared multi-tenant, elastic, self-service, usage based, internet accessed, API enabled Cloud Services!
4. Marketing Departments will fully grasp and share [through Social Networks, of course !] the true Business value of SaaS and Cloud!
5. "Cloud Computing for Dummies" or "SaaS Business Model for Dummies" types of workshops will no more be at the agenda of the IBM SaaS and Cloud Forums! 
6. Club Alliances' mission as a Cloud Incubator will become obsolete!

But I also believe that, in the 2011 SaaS and Cloud Tsunami :

1. The two words SaaS and ERP will be associated in many, many more press releases, presentations, articles and blogs. Watch out this space for SAP [of course], Sage, Infor, Lawson, Cegid, Microsoft  and a myriad of other ERP Vendors...
2. PaaS [Platform as a Service] will be THE battleground for a growing number of Vendors !
3. BPaaS [Business Process as a Service], Information as a Service, Content as a Service, Data as a Service and other "Cloud Business Services" will be HOT, too. We will see a host of Vertical Channels emerge and compete with more traditional ones, with a radically new value proposition.
4. Pushed by Vendors, Consultants and CEOs, CIOs will really start embracing the Cloud in all its flavors and begin experimenting the real disruptive nature of Cloud Computing for IT: IT [Services] Industrialization!
5. IBM will make a real Cloud "Coming Out" in the Mid Market and in the Channel, with "Channel Ready" Cloud services and components as well as with more and more Cloud oriented communication and co-marketing initiatives. 
6. Club Alliances' value proposition will continue to evolve and to appeal to new members, addressing the needs of ISVs, consultants and Business services providers, but also of more and more integrators, resellers and VARs in pursuit of a profitable Cloud related business model.

What are YOUR predictions for 2011 in the Cloud ?

Oh, by the way, would you like to join us on the 9th of February, for our [french !] 6ème Forum SaaS et Cloud IBM ? 


And here is a french version of this article


Loic Simon
Business Development - Club Alliances IBM
www.cluballiances.com
loic_simon@fr.ibm.com 
+33 6 76 75 40 71