Why is everyone and their grandmother offering
platforms?
#iforum
this.about
Talk is in English Q&A at the end in English/Russian No code or technical details in this talk Restating the obvious
@olegpodsechin
Russia, Finland, UK, Germany … Working with mediatech startups since before
the bubble 30+ companies in total, expert on failure Do technical due diligence for investors
Breaking apart the Clouds
Software as a Service (SaaS) Platform as a Service (PaaS) Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Coined by Tim O'Reilly (but pretty self evident) Benefits of services: economies of scale, ease
of maintenance, seamless upgrades and better revenue model (predictable cash flow)
Software vs. Infrastructure
Software sell value, customized solutions low initial investment, higher profit margins closer to the users, higher risk?
Infrastructure sell a utility, commoditized solutions high initial investment, race to the bottom closer to the hardware, lower risk?
Positive Network Effects
Infrastructure: one VPS is just like another, only differentiator is price
Software like Dropbox can differentiate itself with the user experience & brand (consumer awareness) Also able to tap into user base for promotion Charge each user for shared storage space, but
pay IaaS provider only once (value vs. utility)
Platform Initiatives
SalesForce Force.com, Heroku acquisition
Akshell (full disclosure: I'm helping out) Google AppEngine, Microsoft Azure
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Linode etc. Dell, HP moving into infrastructure, platforms
Why Platforms?
A successful platform requires technology, users & developers – some have two of these covered, makes sense to leverage them
“When everybody is digging for gold, you should be selling shovels” - low risk, high yield
Crowd source development; share common components
Extend ecosystem (think API++)
Why not Platforms?
Giving up control – no clear SLAs Introduce technical debt – trade short term
benefits for potential long term pains Bait and switch – think Twitter Lock you in – think Amazon (without
Eucalyptus)
Food for Thought
Will I be able to run my service on top of this platform in one year, two years etc.?
Thank you for listeningQuestions? Feedback?
@olegpodsechin
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