Welcome!

Cloud Expo Authors: Sue Poremba, Pat Romanski, Elizabeth White, Patrick Burke, Jeremy Geelan

Related Topics: SOA & WOA, .NET

SOA & WOA: Article

CEO Benioff Accuses Gates of Stealing a Page Out of SalesForce.com's Play Book

Marc Benioff Reminds Microsoft That "The End of Software" Has Been His Company's Mantra Since 1999

"What has Microsoft done for business on the web besides cloning a slow browser?" asked SalesForce.com CEO and Chairman Marc Benioff (pictured) this week. He then replied to his own question: "The answer: nothing."

Benioff's rant came in response to this week's "leaked" news from Microsoft that it is embracing what it calls SaaS (Software as a Service).

This transformation in the software industry goes by other names too such as On-Demand and Web 2.0, but in Benioff's view they all point to the same conclusion: "The era of the traditional software 'load, update, and upgrade' business and technology model is over."

It is time, Benioff said, for what he calls "The Business Web."

He continued:

"New Internet-based companies are showing how services will replace software for both consumers and corporations. Sand Hill Road venture capitalists are no longer funding software companies; they are only funding service providers. Exciting new companies have emerged like salesforce.com and Google who have real businesses that can challenge and win against the old guard companies, and are. Customers love these new services, and are finding tremendous success as never before."
New widely-accepted technology standards, like AJAX and others, make such new businesses possible, Benioff said. "Consumers and businesses impatient with the current pace of change at Microsoft make them necessary," he added.

"New technologies like AppExchange, Mirrorforce, and our Winter 06 release further demonstrate the next generation of the business web," Benioff continued, "and we will all continue to lead this important movement." "The internet is disintermediating the status quo," Benioff thundered, "and old models of software cost and complexity are being replaced with new models of affordability and ease of use."

His remarks came in a memo to all SalesForce.com staff dated November 9 and entitled "The Business Web."

More Stories By Jeremy Geelan

Jeremy Geelan is President & COO of Cloud Expo, Inc. and Conference Chair of the worldwide Cloud Expo series. He appears regularly at conferences and trade shows, speaking to technology audiences both in North America and overseas. He is executive producer and presenter of Cloud Expo's "Power Panels" on SYS-CON.TV.

Comments (0)

Share your thoughts on this story.

Add your comment
You must be signed in to add a comment. Sign-in | Register

In accordance with our Comment Policy, we encourage comments that are on topic, relevant and to-the-point. We will remove comments that include profanity, personal attacks, racial slurs, threats of violence, or other inappropriate material that violates our Terms and Conditions, and will block users who make repeated violations. We ask all readers to expect diversity of opinion and to treat one another with dignity and respect.


Cloud Expo Breaking News
Nearly every enterprise is evaluating cloud computing solutions either today or in the near term. Many have already made the leap, and many more are getting close to putting that first toe in the water. But there are key considerations that should be made, questions to be asked, and designs to consider before you can feel secure with your provider. In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, David Gulick, Product Manager, Hosting Product Management at Savvis, will help give you food f...
With Cloud Expo 2012 New York (10th Cloud Expo) now under four weeks away, what better time to introduce you in greater detail to the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference... We have technical and strategy sessions for you dealing with every nook and cranny of Cloud Computing, but what of those who are presenting? Who are they, where do they work, what else have they written and/or said about the Cloud that is t...
SYS-CON Events announced today that Super Micro Computer, Inc., a global leader in high-performance, high-efficiency server technology and green computing, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 10th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 11–14, 2012, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York. Supermicro (NASDAQ: SMCI), the leading innovator in high-performance, high-efficiency server technology, is a premier provider of advanced server Building Block Solutions for Embedded Systems, E...
SYS-CON Events announced today that ScaleMP, a leading provider of virtualization solutions for high-end computing, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 10th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 11–14, 2012, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York. ScaleMP is the leader in virtualization for high-end computing, providing maximum performance and lower total cost of ownership (TCO). The innovative Versatile SMP (vSMP) architecture aggregates multiple independent systems into a sin...
Come learn real-world examples where cloud and mobile are changing the way business works and the impact they're having on efficiency and productivity. In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Rodrigo Coutinho Senior Product Marketing Manager at OutSystems, will look at how mobile and the cloud are interwoven and the wave of change these two 2012 megatrends will bring to your organization. He will also provide a roadmap to assure you can navigate this sea change for business succes...
Enterprise IT organizations want to deploy a virtualized data center fabric that will provide the foundation for agile private cloud computing. Getting there does not have to be difficult, but it does require a new approach to data center infrastructure design – an approach that is non-disruptive, vendor-agnostic, and very adaptable to changing business requirements. In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Bruce Fingles, Chief Information Officer and VP of Product Quality at Xsigo...
With Cloud Expo 2012 New York (10th Cloud Expo) now under four weeks away, what better time to introduce you in greater detail to the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference...
How can businesses harness the power of APIs to reach new customers and markets? In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Alistair Farquharson, CTO at SOA Software, will walk the audience through the growth and evolution of the API, why effective API management is important, and how the game changes when companies expose business applications to the outside world. He will also discuss: A brief history of the API How to use APIs to make money, save money, build brand "Appificatio...
With Cloud Expo 2012 New York (10th Cloud Expo) now under four weeks away, what better time to introduce you in greater detail to the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference...
With Cloud Expo 2012 New York (10th Cloud Expo) now under four weeks away, what better time to introduce you in greater detail to the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference... We have technical and strategy sessions for you every day from June 11 through June 14 dealing with every nook and cranny of Cloud Computing and Big Data, but what of those who are presenting? Who are they, where do they work, what else have ...