Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Pradeep Rathinam, CEO of Aditi Technologies (Part 3)

SM: Yes and no. How much of this what we call bootstrapping, using platform-as-a-service, a SaaS platform, I guess, do you see happening in small startups?

PR: We’re seeing a lot of them. What’s happening is the new companies that are coming right now, the companies that are starting up are starting with such low overhead costs and infrastructure. The difference between the startup costs in the past versus what you see now is fundamentally the cost of infrastructure and platforms that were very heavy in the past. Tools, all of the things that you required to build an application at scale, the need for billing systems, metering systems, integration with credit cards, a whole bunch of things that were very complicated and required large teams of people, large infrastructure, have fundamentally been disrupted with the platform-as-a-service. So, we can … we’re seeing a lot of that in the Microsoft eco-system right now. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Pradeep Rathinam, CEO of Aditi Technologies (Part 2)

SM: Let’s double click down on each of the areas that you discussed. How much are you familiar with what’s happening in the world of small software companies – software companies, in general – using software-as-a-service to get out into the market with new solutions? One of the case studies that I have looked at quite closely is a company called Apptio that launched quite some time ago. It was one of the earliest adopters of Force.com, and the company released a contract management software product on Force.com and rapidly bootstrapped to $5 million plus in revenue. It’s a very nice case study in that a small company could bring a product to market without putting into it too much [money]. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Pradeep Rathinam, CEO of Aditi Technologies (Part 1)

As more and more companies transition to cloud computing, the demand for platform-as-a-service (PaaS) will continue to grow. That will pose no problem for Aditi Technologies, which is already among the top three PaaS solution providers in the world and among the top five Microsoft technology partners in the United States. Aditi offers solutions to its clients in four domains:  digital marketing, cloud solutions, enterprise social and product engineering.

Sramana Mitra: Hi Pradeep. Please give us some context about Aditi as well as you personally. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Matthew J. Schitz, CEO of Symform (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: I got what you’re doing. The question I’m asking is for other entrepreneurs, who are starting out now, what opportunities or gaps would you point them toward?

Matthew J. Schitz: In cloud storage and backup, or in cloud computing in general?

SM: Start with cloud storage and backup, and then we can look at cloud computing. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Matthew J. Schitz, CEO of Symform (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What’s the revenue level of your company?

Matthew J. Schitz: Revenues we don’t release, I’m sorry. We’re a privately held company. But our revenues are significant. And they’re growing quickly. We’re growing at 50% quarter over quarter right now.

SM: Just give us a range. Is it a $50 million company, a $100 million company, a $200 million company? >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Matthew J. Schitz, CEO of Symform (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: I guess the obvious question, one you must get all the time, is, is it safe?

Matthew J. Schitz: Yes. It’s interesting, because when I was CEO at DocuSign, at the same stage of the company, we were pioneering electronic signatures. The market at that time was signing things on paper. The first question we would get, which was an emotional reaction, was, “Is it safe? You’re putting my signature on the Internet. Is that safe?” And then we said, “Think this through logically.” We went through the entire security [process] and how we validate identities, and so on, and people would come to the conclusion that it’s actually safer than signing on paper. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Matthew J. Schitz, CEO of Symform (Part 1)

Cloud storage is a cost-effective way for businesses to secure data or quickly recover  them when they’ve been lost. And there are plenty of cloud storage companies out there serving businesses of all sizes in every possible industry. Though one of many, Symform offers its clients something a little different, as my talk with CEO Matthew J. Schitz will show.

Sramana Mitra: Hi, Matt. Would you give us a bit of context about Symform and your background?
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Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Ken Stephens, Senior Vice-President of Cloud Services, Xerox (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: What other areas do you have interesting perspectives on?

Ken Stephens: One of the things that the cloud positions us to do is to move into regions where we haven’t played before. ACS, as an example, before being purchased by Xerox, was largely a U.S. company. We did some Europe and some Asia and Latin America, and so on, but certainly 85% of our revenues were in the U.S. In the cloud space, we’ve already gone to Asia, and we’ve already gone to Europe. I’ll be in Latin America [soon]. Cloud services position people to go global much faster than traditional services ever dreamed of. The question turns into, which regions can you make money in? How do you deal with the challenges of different legal entities? >>>