In keeping with the un-conference and un-computer meme, time for another un-modest "I told you so" about software market consolidation.
Bill Gates, according to this InfoWorld article, has sent out another urgent once-a-decade internal email - this time about software as a service.
While Bill may be particularly thinking of Google, it is staggering how many "services" have been spawned in the last year or so, as these 2 posts by Bob Stumpel here and here show. I quit counting at 400. I had previously written about growing SaaS ecosystems being formed around salesforce.com, Netsuite and others.
Next, The Economist talks about Open Source. Also, Tom Berquist who recently left Wall Street to join Ingres, writes about the Open Source opportunity in this sandhill column.
In his recent earnings press release Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is quoted as saying "Over the last several weeks we announced our internally developed Secure Enterprise Search technology, and the completion of the Siebel acquisition. As a result, Oracle now has strong product offerings in both Search and Software as a Service. These two markets are red hot and will be engines for growth for Oracle and the entire software industry for years to come."
Larry acknowledging " the entire software industry" and not just writing it off as "features"? Sure sign of industry un-consolidation...
