Cloud-based world looks different, promising for ISVs

If you're an independent software vendor, chances are this is a transitional time. The cloud has arrived on the scene, carrying a mix of promise and uncertainty. How will the technology affect the way you reach out to clients? How will you convince the customer base to come along? How will the new status quo affect your branding? Moving forward in this space will take vendors into unfamiliar territory, but if you keep best practices in mind, the rewards could be great.

Embracing the cloud Distributing software through the cloud has evolved from an option to a standard practice in a very short time. As such, you may feel slightly overwhelmed by the demands of changing your product line. Fortunately, there are already some best practices that can help. As explained in a Progress whitepaper with research by Saugatuck Technology Inc., these strategies can help you avoid losing clients when adapting a product line to accommodate the cloud.

For instance, while you may be considering how your existing offerings will work in the cloud, it may be better to create solutions that could only ever function in a hosted environment, playing to the cloud's strengths and ignoring what has come before. As the research pointed out, cloud applications are more applicable to mobile workers and those who have to communicate with coworkers around the world. Designing features that could help this new user base might be a strong approach.

But how should the new technology be branded? Is it more important to tie the new product line into what has come before or to make it a distinct entity? The Saugatuck insights revealed that the latter approach might be better. With the right Platform-as-a-Service deployment underlying your application development processes, you'll have perfect control over the branding of your Web store and the products contained therein. This is an opportunity to think up something that will set your new offerings apart and appeal to a new market.

The market exists Building software with the cloud in mind and distributing it on a Software-as-a-Service model may become a prominent business plan in the years ahead. Studies have found that the demand is there. According to a survey by TechNavio, the total market for SaaS business applications will rise at a rate of 17.17 percent through 2018.

Becoming a cloud-first developer now could be an extremely rewarding decision in the long-term, especially if you hew to a few best practices and commit fully to the new model.