• Cast Iron Cloud2, a multi-tenant Integration-as-a-Service cloud offering
• Cast Iron Physical Appliance
• Cast Iron Virtual Appliance

Cast Iron has positioned itself as the “The #1 SaaS and Cloud Integration Company,” with more than 450 mid-market customers and an unspecified number of large enterprise accounts. Traditionally, Cast Iron has competed against rivals such as Boomi, Informatica and Pervasive in the integration market.

IBM will make Cast Iron’s solutions available worldwide as part of the WebSphere integration portfolio. .

Quick Take:
IBM’s acquisition of Cast Iron was driven by a few fundamental market trends. First, cloud computing growth is exploding. IBM is forecasting global market CAGR for cloud computing is expanding by 28%, from $47BB in 2008 to $126B in 2012. In addition, data volumes are rising exponentially. IDC forecasts that data stores are growing an average of 60% annually, fueled by factors including the social media explosion, and the increasing trend to aggregate, mine and monetize data. More and more of this data will be stored in the cloud.

These forces ratchet up the need for simpler, cheaper integration alternatives. In the cloud, data and data control are widely distributed. And most companies will continue to operate in a blended or hybrid computing approach for the foreseeable future. Connectivity scenarios between cloud applications and data sources, cloud to on-premise, and between public and provide clouds are spiraling the number of possible integration scenarios. And developers, integrators and customers must deal with a staggering number APIs and technologies to accomplish these integrations.

While IBM’s WebSphere already includes a wealth of integration capabilities, Cast Iron enables it to provide more turnkey integration, helping to reduce cost and complexity, and in doing so, removing significant barriers to cloud computing adoption. By leveraging this streamlined approach, IBM can strengthen its role as a integration hub for its existing enterprise customers, and more readily extend its integration footprint into the mid-market.

Of course, IBM had other acquisition options, most notably Pervasive, which is a significantly bigger company than Cast Iron, boasting more than 1,000 SaaS integration customers and dozens of integrations; and Boomi, which focuses exclusively on a cloud-based integration platform, and offers dozens of integrations. (Interestingly, Boomi, Cast Iron and Pervasive–all provide integrations for several of the leading SaaS vendors.)

So why Cast Iron? My take is that IBM took this route for a couple of reasons. First, I think IBM likes the fact that Cast Iron’s line-up features software, cloud and appliance options. IBM has been putting a lot of focus on appliances, in particular, as bridge between on-premise and cloud solutions. Cast Iron provides an appliance option, and also provides integration in a uniform way across all three delivery models. In addition, IBM likely viewed Pervasive’s PSQL database business, which still accounts for a majority of Pervasive’s revenues, as an asset it didn’t want or need.

For these and other reasons, the Cast Iron acquisition makes sense for IBM. But will IBM be able to successfully surface and leverage Cast Iron’s automated, simplified approach within the context of an increasingly complex and crowded WebSphere and Software Group portfolio –which, I’m told, is now comprised of more than 30,000 different offerings? IBM already has two disparate integration stacks, WebSphere for application integration, and InfoSphere for data integration. And, smaller acquisitions have tended to get lost in the IBM shuffle in the past, and IBM Software has made additional, bigger acquisitions (such as Sterling Commerce and Coremetrics) since it acquired Cast Iron.

Meanwhile, what moves will Pervasive, Boomi and Informatica make to meet the challenges of a new integration gorilla in the mist? As important, what plays will IBM’s traditional competitors, such as Oracle and SAP, as well as cloud leaders such as Google, Amazon, Salesforce, etc. come up with as they pursue similar goals? Are other integration acquisitions in the works?

I don’t have a crystal ball–or inside information–to know how the details of how new developments will unfold. But as the drivers for more streamlined cloud integration continue to intensify, this promises to be a very interesting space and one I’ll be watching closely.

Last week I attended  2010 Sage Insights, Sage Software’s annual partner conference, and had the opportunity to present Perspectives on the Business Model of the Future: What Does Cloud Computing Mean for the Channel? twice at the event.

This was a timely topic for Sage partners, particularly in light of Sage’s recently announced Connected Services strategy, and several newly introduced offerings, including Sage Exchange, a cloud-based payments platform, ePhilanthropy service for non-profits, and the SalesLogix Cloud CRM deployment offering built upon Amazon EC2.

From my perspective, evangelism and a direct sales model fueled cloud computing and software-as-a-service (SaaS) growth early on. But most cloud and SaaS vendors that sell business solutions such as financials, ERP, CRM and HR will need to leverage channel/trusted advisor relationships to drive future growth and scale to the broader, mainstream small and medium (SMB) market.

However, cloud computing and SaaS models doesn’t align with the traditional IT channel provider role and the standard division of labor between software vendors and traditional value-added resellers. In the cloud model, the vendor delivers many of the things that IT channel has traditionally provided–software and hardware sourcing, installation and management–blurring the lines between software vendor and channel roles–and potential revenue opportunities for partners.

In my presentation, I discussed what I think cloud computing means for the channel, how vendor channel models are evolving, and my thoughts on how partners can create value in the cloud. The presentation sparked some interesting questions and dialogue among the partners attending–and several requests to share the presentation more broadly, so I’ve posted it here on Slideshare. Please take a look and send me your feedback and any questions you have as I would like to continue this dialogue!

4-23-10

Highlights:

Acumatica is a relatively new player on the SMB ERP scene. It delivers its web-based ERP solution both on premise, and via a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. Targeting companies with 5–1,000 employees (or roughly $5M – $500M in annual revenues), Acumatica provides accounting, CRM and distribution capabilities, and worldwide currency and language customization.

Acumatica offers customers a choice to run its solutions on-premise or via the SaaS model, providing the benefits of cloud technology and social media capabilities in both delivery models. Subscription pricing for the SaaS version of the accounting module starts at $12,000 annually, while on-premise licenses start at $15,000.  On-premise pricing is CPU-based, not per-user based, enabling customers to maximize the ERP user base without incurring added costs. The company has more than 50 customers using its solutions to-date. About 30% use Acumatica via the SaaS modes, and the other 70% have deployed it on-premise.

Acumatica has a 100% indirect sales model, which provides an attractive and neutral compensation model to motivate value-added resellers (VARs) to sell the solution that will work best for the end-user customer. The vendor has signed up more than 40 VARs to date—mostly from the ranks of Microsoft Dynamics and Sage.

Quick Take:

Acumatica intends to capitalize on key trends and requirements in the traditional VAR community and it the SMB market.  First, as I’ve written many times, SaaS vendors have yet to crack the code on creating a VAR-friendly model. Customer demand for SaaS is on the rise, and  many VARs want to add a SaaS offering to their line-up. But, they worry that SaaS vendors (who often sell both direct and through channels) will disintermediate them once the partner has brought in the business. VARs searching for a SaaS option are likely to find Acumatica’s 100% indirect model, combined with a choice of delivery options and a Microsoft-centric approach, quite attractive. The fact that VARs can sell the same solution via either delivery model is also a plus—most VARs don’t want to be evangelists, they want to sell the solution that best fits the customer’s needs.

Acumatica offers customers a distinct value proposition as well. Customers can either self-select what model (SaaS or on-premise) will work best for them, or Acumatica and its partners can help them decide what will work best. In contrast, other major vendors in the mid-market space—including Intacct, NetSuite, Microsoft, Sage, etc.—have a pre-determined agenda.  Acumatica also offers customers that want to switch from one delivery mode to the other discounts that take into account their prior investments.

As a relative newcomer, Acumatica will have to work harder than more established rivals to prove that it has both the product capabilities and corporate viability to be a “safe” choice. However, if Acumatica can keep pulling in VARs, and broadcast its best of both worlds story out to the market, it should be able to cross this chasm.