The verdict is in - 2009 officially the year of cloud computing

Ray Wang over at Altimeter just posted a great analysis of the financial performance of traditional vs. cloud computing based business applications companies in 2009. The bottom line - almost every one of the large on-premises vendors lost revenue year over year - with new license sales falling off a cliff. On the other hand, public SaaS vendors grew, led by SuccessFactors at nearly 40% YOY growth. Intacct, while not quite public yet, grew even faster.

Ray says: A review of last year’s financial performance should erase any doubts about the viability of SaaS as a deployment option and a business model.


The charts in his analysis are compelling. It's a quick read and a picture is indeed worth several thousand words. Check it out here.