Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Mark Egan, CIO Of VMware (Part 1)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Siddharth Garg

About VMware
VMware (NYSE:VMW), the virtualization and cloud infrastructure company, delivers solutions designed to accelerate IT by reducing complexity and enabling more flexible, agile service delivery. VMware enables enterprises to adopt a cloud model that addresses their unique business challenges. The company’s approach accelerates the transition to cloud computing while preserving existing investments and improving security and control. With more than 250,000 customers and 25,000 partners, VMware has solutions to help organizations of all sizes lower costs, become more agile, and preserve freedom of choice. >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Klaus-Michael Vogelberg, CTO Of Sage Group Plc, Newcastle (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: Yes, I understand that the business partners play a part there. I guess my question was going deeper into that scenario and asking if Google App engine is playing a role in that integration scenario.

Klaus-Michael Vogelberg: Yes. There are not many alternatives out there at the moment, are there?

SM: That is exactly what I wanted to reinforce. That was my instinct, and I am trying to get your perspective. So, you are saying that Google App Engine is the fabric that is going to tie all these together in the SME marketplaces, and you are trying to provide as much of that work integration framework to your business partners to do that integration within SMEs. >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Klaus-Michael Vogelberg, CTO Of Sage Group Plc, Newcastle (Part 6)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Siddharth Garg

Sramana Mitra: Very interesting! This gives me a lot of insight into how a major ISV that caters to millions of SME customers is thinking about cloud computing deployment and managing all the integration elements and so forth. Now, how are the Sage partners ramping up in terms of cloud computing? Are they, as you just discussed is the case for Google Apps, becoming an increasingly relevant player in the SME marketplace, whether it is e-mail systems or office systems and so forth? What is the status of Sage partners in understanding that movement and catering to its needs? >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Klaus-Michael Vogelberg, CTO Of Sage Group Plc, Newcastle (Part 5)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Siddharth Garg

Sramana Mitra: Now, Klaus, what is going to be the usage model for all these businesses? There are millions of SME customers, and yes, there is a distinctive move [toward cloud computing and SaaS right now]. I am hearing it from many parts of the ecosystem that they, SMEs in particular and even enterprises in some cases, are moving to Google Apps. Of course, all the application development that happens, OrangeScape calls long-tail application development for those customers. As it pertains to your suite of applications the bridge between Google Docs, Google Apps in general, and the Sage applications suite, are you going to customize all these? Or is there the expectation that you are going to provide the SMEs with some sort of technology environment, and the SMEs are themselves going to customize that? >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Klaus-Michael Vogelberg, CTO Of Sage Group Plc, Newcastle (Part 4)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Siddharth Garg

Klaus-Michael Vogelberg: So, again, we first look at interoperability standards. The next step is to think about what kind of services we require, and then it comes down to the question, Are we in category 1 or 2 or 3 which we have just talked about? We next look what are the common services we need to provide to deliver an extraordinary customer experience to our desktop applications. That would typically be things such as automatic update mechanisms and diagnostics. To support customers, you need more plumbing-related stuff such as single sign-on or license and subscription management. >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Klaus-Michael Vogelberg, CTO Of Sage Group Plc, Newcastle (Part 3)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Siddharth Garg

Sramana Mitra: Let’s get back to what you do. So, if I understood correctly, one of your big value prepositions to the ERP world is compliance and having a good handle on all the different tax laws in various  countries. You push all the updates and changes to those laws and so forth to your customers. You are able to push those changes and updates more easily because of your cloud-based deployment model. >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Klaus-Michael Vogelberg, CTO Of Sage Group Plc, Newcastle (Part 2)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Siddharth Garg

Sramana Mitra: What is the architecture of your offering? Sage has been around for a long time, so I am sure you are coming from the older shrink-wrap software architectures and client server architectures. Where you today, and what is the status of cloud computing adoption and your deployment of a cloud computing model?

Klaus-Michael Vogelberg: We help small businesses to manage their accounts, payrolls, and invoicing processes with customer relationship processes.  In the U.S., household names in that area  would be, for instance, Peachtree or ACT. We also have more recent editions such as online payments services – Payments Services Division in the U.S. or Sage Pay in the UK. In terms of technologies, most of the core businesses started in early and mid-1980s.  The first technology wave was at the dawn of the PC era and the shrink-wrap era. Those were the first generation of Sage solutions, general shrink-wrap DOS-based solutions, and of course later in the 1990s came Windows, and followed by Web-enabled applications. >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Klaus-Michael Vogelberg, CTO Of Sage Group Plc, Newcastle (Part 1)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Siddharth Garg

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing (TLCC) returns with an interview with Klaus-Michael Vogelberg, CTO of Sage Group Plc. Before diving in, readers new to the series may want to read more about its purpose and goals, which are set forth in Cloud Computing Trends And Opportunities

About Klaus-Michael Vogelberg
Klaus-Michael was R&D director and partner of the German KHK Software Group, acquired by Sage in 1997. In 2000, joined the Group team to assist Sage operating companies and the board on software architecture and technology strategy. Between 2004 and 2007, Klaus-Michael acted as R&D director for Sage UK and Ireland before taking up his current post of Group chief technology officer.

About Sage
Sage Group Plc provides business software, services, and support to small and medium-sized businesses. Founded in 1981 in Newcastle upon Tyne in northeast England, the company has grown to become a major provider of business management software and services. It employs more than 13,400 people in a global operation that, in the year ended September 30, 2010, generated revenues of £1.435 million.

Traditionally, the company has been associated with accounting software, but over the past twenty years it has applied its experience here to other areas and now has a range of solutions to help businesses from front to back office. Functions addressed include accounting, payroll, customer relationship management (CRM), financial forecasting, payment processing, job costing, human resources, business intelligence, taxation and other products for accountants, business stationery, development platforms, e-business, and enterprise resource planning (ERP). >>>