With the immense success of cloud platforms and Software–as-a-Service (SaaS)
models on one hand and the increase of
subscription services on the other, it’s clear that software offered as a
subscription is becoming the new standard. In fact, Gartner forecasts that the Asia Pacific public cloud services market will grow 17.7 percent in
2017 to total $10 billion. By 2019, the total public cloud services spending in
Asia Pacific will rise to $13 billion, highlighting how well-received subscription-based
services are in the Asian business landscape.

This change in the way companies use software
has frequently been said to reflect users’ demand for flexibility. Indeed,
companies are no longer willing to lay out a major investment to get equipped.
They are looking to prioritize variability in their spending based on usage and
to ensure they benefit from the value of the software before making a long-term
commitment.

As business models rotate toward subscription
services, if technical developments don’t keep pace, a crucial piece of the
puzzle will be missing.

Subscription
Services: Bringing Innovation as Close to the Market as Possible

Let’s forget for a moment how software is billed
and take a look at another essential aspect: the value software offers both IT
and business users. This is where the
real challenge is: The ability to provide IT managers with frequent releases that
encapsulate current technology innovation and customer demands, as well as an
easy to manage and scale solution. For business users, cloud solutions provide
the ability to have quick access to the compute resources and apps you need when you need them to help
deliver qualitative results faster, cheaper and with higher quality in order to create a competitive advantage.

A perpetual license model also allows for periodic
software updates. However, the rhythm of these updates and the frequency at
which they are available to users cannot be
compared with the ongoing agility and innovation offered by providers of
subscription services. This is not
related to how their software is marketed,
but rather to the vendor’s ability to establish a continuous cycle of
innovation for its products, the rewards of which are transfer to their
customers.

Big
Data and Cloud: Continuous Innovation is the Model

The continued growth in the use of big data and
cloud technologies is in and of itself, a compelling proposition for continuous
innovation. The speed at which these technologies become obsolete requires
users to adapt at an unprecedented rate. Consider how the platforms adopted by
customers today can become obsolete in as little as 12-18 months—Spark replaced
MapReduce in record time and Spark 2.0 is
a revolution compared to Spark 1.6. It is essential for integration, processing
and operating software vendors responsible for these massive volumes of data to
get as close to the market as possible, which means complying with key
standards such as Hadoop, Spark and Apache
BEAM. Not to
mention they need to align themselves with the open source communities defining
them. In practical terms, a company needs to anticipate the product roadmap needed
to align with these innovative technologies and keep pace with customer demands.

To
Support the Emergence of New Data Uses

Modern solutions for big data and cloud
integration must be at the front lines of technology innovation. Not only to
address customers various and rapidly evolving challenges—including customer
intimacy, business sustainability, agility and economies of scale—but also
encourage the emergence of new data uses like streaming, real-time insights and
self-service in order to gain a competitive advantage.

In the past, a technology feature could last for
years without risk of becoming obsolete (e.g. SQL). Today, the speed at which
big data and cloud platforms become obsolete is mind blowing. Competition is
fierce between companies using digital transformation as a strategic lever for
performance and competitiveness. The result: Users of these technologies need
the ability to easily adapt from one standard to another practically overnight.
That’s why it’s so vital to select a vendor that is in line with the times, on
the cutting edge of market innovations so your business can continuously move at the speed of ‘what’s next.’