Looking Back at 2007
A review of past 12 months in software reveals a mix of ups and downs to remember.
By Gary Griffiths, Cisco/WebEx
Dec. 17, 2007
2007: The year when Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan plumbed the depths of human intellect - and of their fans'. And - gasp - some professional athletes may have experimented with "performance enhancing drugs"(!)
Not to be left out of the "slimelight," the high tech industry has witnessed some interesting news as well. Here are the stories which shaped the year that was.
Déjà vu All Over Again
Trying out software's own "performance enhancing drug," Software-as-a-Service, affectionately known as "SaaS" in our acronym-loving Silicon Valley culture, rebounded from the bubble-era embarrassment of ASPs and emerged as a viable business model, sending software shockwaves from Bangalore to Boxborough. The combined revenue of industry leaders Salesforce.com and WebEx equaled over $1B in revenue, while VCs, tiring of nanotech and similar trends, poured more money into SaaS than Britney spent on wigs to mercifully cover that shaved noggin.
But it was also the year for realization that the second "S" in SaaS stands for "Service." More than simply stuffing packaged software in remote data systems, SaaS requires an equal investment in infrastructure and technology to insure high performance, reliable, and secure delivery and support. For the first time since Babbage left the drafting table, SaaS has forced software that actually has to work.
Meanwhile, while the tech IPO didn't come close to its stratospheric peaks of 1999-2000, they posted an impressive comeback this year. Led by VMWare's stunning $1B IPO in August the resurgence in IPOs had VCs dusting off long forgotten portfolios and people caring about "friends-and-families" again.
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Not to be left out of the "slimelight," the high tech industry has witnessed some interesting news as well. Here are the stories which shaped the year that was.
Déjà vu All Over Again
Trying out software's own "performance enhancing drug," Software-as-a-Service, affectionately known as "SaaS" in our acronym-loving Silicon Valley culture, rebounded from the bubble-era embarrassment of ASPs and emerged as a viable business model, sending software shockwaves from Bangalore to Boxborough. The combined revenue of industry leaders Salesforce.com and WebEx equaled over $1B in revenue, while VCs, tiring of nanotech and similar trends, poured more money into SaaS than Britney spent on wigs to mercifully cover that shaved noggin.
But it was also the year for realization that the second "S" in SaaS stands for "Service." More than simply stuffing packaged software in remote data systems, SaaS requires an equal investment in infrastructure and technology to insure high performance, reliable, and secure delivery and support. For the first time since Babbage left the drafting table, SaaS has forced software that actually has to work.
Meanwhile, while the tech IPO didn't come close to its stratospheric peaks of 1999-2000, they posted an impressive comeback this year. Led by VMWare's stunning $1B IPO in August the resurgence in IPOs had VCs dusting off long forgotten portfolios and people caring about "friends-and-families" again.
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