"Is SaaS killing traditional IT departments?" was a recent title of a wired blog, noting that more companies are turning to software-as-a-service (SaaS) for their business needs. Gartner is projecting that the enterprise app economy will generate $40 billion in sales for developers by 2016. The explosive growth of mobile, social and cloud applications in the enterprise is fragmenting the adoption of disparate technologies across the lines of business. The post noted: "Forrester research predicts the IT department could disappear as soon as 2020," a theory that is largely based on adoption of consumerization of IT and cloud computing in the enterprise. Massive adoption of cloud computing in small and medium size businesses is now a competitive advantage for winning. Here are a few cloud computing market statistics worth noting:
- Worldwide public cloud service market to total $131 billion in 2013 - Gartner
- By 2015, worldwide public cloud market to reach $180 billion - InformationWeek
- 60% of respondents from North America plan on increasing their budget in SaaS and public cloud within the next two years. - Gartner
- 60% of server workloads will be virtualized in 2013 - Cloud Hypermarket
- IDC - One of every seven dollars spent on packaged software, server, and storage offerings will be through the public cloud model, growing five times faster than the total IT industry, by 2015.
- 84% of CIOs cut application costs by moving to the cloud - Business Insider
- 77% of enterprises are in the initial stages of cloud adoption: standardization, consolidation, and virtualization - CIO Insight
- 88% of health care organizations have reduced their cost of software applications by moving them to cloud - Information Management
- SMB spending on cloud solutions will grow by almost 20% over the next five years, with 3 in 10 midsize firms adopting public cloud solutions.
- Forrester - channel partners will increase their reliance on cloud software and services from 22% to 27% from 2013 to 2014.
- The latest research note from Bain & Company predicts revenue growth for SaaS companies will triple between 2011 and 2014
A true understanding of cloud computing's business impact is critically important for the c-suite - CIOs, CTOs, CFOs and CMOs. Today, some of the leading cloud advocates and experts are actively sharing their views on social networks, especially Twitter. I have compiled the list of the top 100 cloud computing pioneers and advocates on Twitter. The list consists of industry analysts, chief executives - including CEOs, CTOs, and CIOs, journalist, authors and keynote speakers. It is important to note that active participation on Twitter is a significant part of the selection criteria.
The Top 100 Cloud Computing Experts on Twitter:
- Werner Vogels, @Werner
- Krishnan Subramanian, @krishnan
- Marc Benioff, @benioff
- Ray Wang, @rwang0
- James Staten, @Staten7
- Randy Bias, @randybias
- David Linthicum, @DavidLinthicum
- James Governer, @monkchips
- James Urquhart, @jamesurquhart
- George Reese, @georgereese
- Louis Columbus, @LouisColumbus
- Peter Coffee, @petercoffee
- Aaron Levie, @levie
- Stephen Foskett, @SFoskett
- Reuven Cohen, @rUv
- Narinder Singh, @singhns
- Zoli Erdos, @zolierdos
- Jeff Barr, @jeffbarr
- Alex Williams, @alexwilliams
- Jeff Kaplan, @thinkstrategies
- Joe Weinman, @joeweinman
- Hoff, @beaker
- Ben Kepes, @benkepes
- George V Hulme, @georgevhulme
- Simon Wardley, @swardley
- Alessandro Perilli, @a_perilli
- Duncan Epping, @DuncanYB
- Sam Johnston, @samj
- James Watters, @wattersjames
- Steve O' Grady, @sogrady
- Jeff Sussna, @jeffsussna
- Eran Kampf, @ekampf
- Dave McCrory, @mccrory
- David Mortman, @mortman
- Michael Ducy, @mfdii
- Mark Collier,@sparkycollier
- Adam Seligman, @adamse
- Lauren Cooney, @lcooney
- Jared Wray, @jaredwray
- Joe McKendrick,@joemckendrick
- Botchagalupe, @botchagalupe
- Sinclair Schuller, @sschuller
- Diane Muller, @pythondj
- Geoff Arnold, @geoffarnold
- Jonathan Murray, @adamalthus
- Richard Seroter, @rseroter
- Mark Theile, @mthiele10
- Rodney Rogers, @rjrogers87
- Christian Riley, @reillyusa
- John Cowan, @cownet
- Stuart Miniman, @stu
- John Rymer, @johnrrymer
- John Mark Troyer, @jtroyer
- Buck Woody, @buckwoody
- Andi Mann, @AndiMann
- Phil Komarny, @philkomarny
- Brian Gracely, @bgracely
- Derrick Harris, @derrickharris
- Michael Sheehan, @HighTechDad
- Sramana Mitra, @sramana
- Lori MacVittie, @lmacvittie
- Marten Mickos, @martenmickos
- Dana Gardner, @Dana_Gardner
- Laurie McCabe, @lauriemccabe
- David Terrar, @dt
- Ed Saipetch, @edsai
- Larry Carvalho, @robustcloud
- Chris Yeh, @chrisyeh
- Vanessa Alvarez, @vanessaAlvarez1
- Defrag/Gloe, @defrag
- Tim Crawford, @tcrawford
- Cody Bunch, @cody_bunch
- Paul Miller, @paulmiller
- Willian Vambenepe, @vambenepe
- Rich Miller,@rhm2k
- Chris Wolf, @cswolf
- Hutch Carpenter, @bhc3
- Bernard Golden, @bernardgolden
- Vaughn Stewart, @vStewed
- George Watt, @GeorgeDWatt
- Rene Buest, @ReneBuest
- Maish Saidel-Keesing, @maishsk
- Frank Gens, @fgens
- Dave Asprey, @daveasprey
- Scott C. Sanchez, @scottsanchez
- Chris M Evans, @chrismevans
- Fuat Kircaali, @FuatKircaali
- Tim Freeman, @peakscale
- Kevin L. Jackson, @Kevin_Jackson
- Lydia Leong, @cloudpundit
- Don Jennings, @djenningspr
- Aaron Delp, @aarondelp
- Chirag Mehta, @chirag_mehta
- Paul Calento, @pcalento
- Kent Langley, @KentLangley
- Stefan Ried, @StefanRied
- Gregor Petri, @GregorPetri
- Robert Mahowald, @SaaSpro
- Ofir Nachmani, @IAmOnDemand
- Sam Charrington, @samcharrington
There are many more cloud computing experts that we could include - I will add another 100 names in the comments section of this post. Please let us know who else should be on our list?
I would like to thank Rich Casselberry, Director of IT Operations - Enterasys, for assisting me with research and development of this list.