many of these implementation headaches and functionality shortcomings, and instead get the best of both worlds by working with best-of-breed vendors. Cloud Computing provides the opportunity to leverage best-of-breed applica- tion offerings, with the standardization and pre-integration of many of the applications and APIs. You can pick the world’s best application for every need, every user, and every business case. You can deploy exactly the number of seats you need, where and when you need them. Since the internet is the common underlying infrastructure, deployments can now be done in days or weeks, and service ratios are a small fraction of the software subscription costs. This means that with Cloud Computing, the pen- dulum is swinging back to best-of-breed, and away from integrated suites. Better APIs are now allowing users and developers to literally leverage only the best product services, including the ultimate consumerization of software down to the “best-of-feature” level. This fragmentation means more choices and more pricing transparency for end users and application developers alike. Of course, a handful of vendors are working hard to also create a generation of SaaS suites as well, and some will likely emerge to have success. But for the foreseeable future, these companies won’t claim to address all (or even most) of the application needs of an enterprise, but will instead carve out multiple vertical slices for an enterprise and then highlight preferred ecosystem partners to fill the gaps. Workday is having considerable success running a focused version of the “PeopleSoft for SaaS” strategy for very large enterprises, NetSuite has carved out market share in the mid market, and even the narrowly-named Salesforce.com is now responding aggressively by building out several new functional clouds. However it is now easier than ever to compete as a best-of-breed business. What does this mean for cloud entrepreneurs? The entire software landscape is now open. It’s the great land rush. It’s noon on April 22, 1889 in Oklahoma and the gun just went off. Now’s your chance to plant your flag and claim a valuable plot of land in the software landscape, while the incumbents are giving it away. Dr. Jonathan Golovin CEO, Retail Solutions “The CPG industry is undergoing a massive change as social, mobile, location services and personalization change their ability to interact with shoppers and consumers. The cloud offers our clients the ability to immediately leverage the RSi offerings, to gain business value with focused applications that leverage massive data sets and gain access to the most relevant and up to date information on mobile devices to drive both savings and increased sales.” Bessemer Venture Partners 8