Reverse Engineering Appistry and 3Tera's Approach to the Cloud Computing Market
- 1. Cloud Software / Application Services ManagementREV 1REPAMASegment Analysis StudyDanny GoodallLead Marketing Analystdannyg@lustratusrepama.comNovember 2009
- 2. DisclaimerWhilst reasonable care and skill has been taken by Lustratus Research Limited (the company) in the preparation of this report no liability is accepted by the company (except in the case of death or personal injury caused by the company's negligence) by reason of any representation or any implied warranty condition or other term or any statutory or common law duty or otherwise howsoever arising for any direct or indirect general special or consequential damages or loss costs expenses or other claims (whether caused by the negligence of the company or otherwise) which come out of the provision of this report or its use.All trademarks are acknowledged as the property of their respective owners.REPAMA measures perception. The results are subjective and should be interpreted as such.
- 3. IntroductionThis document contains the findings of the REPAMATM Segment Analysis Study into the Cloud Computing market and particularly the Cloud Software / Application Services Management market segment.More vendors/providers will be added to this analysis over time. Right now only the positioning and messaging of Appistry’s CloudIQ Platform and 3Tera’s AppLogic is covered.Analysis for this study was performed during October and November 2009A guide for interpreting these results can be found online at http://www.lustratusrepama.com/about/repama-guide/Please provide any feedback you may have to dannyg@lustratusrepama.com
- 4. Cloud Software / Application Services ManagementREPAMA Baseline Assessment
- 5. The Cloud Computing Market - Technical Capability SegmentationThis study focuses on the cloud software / application services management segment of the cloud computing market.* These services have been arbitrarily grouped for layout purposes. There is no particular significance to this grouping.
- 6. Cloud Software Application Services Mgmt.Example Vendors/ProvidersWorking DefinitionA subset of the cloud management segment , application services management software provides automated management of the lifecycle of application services including provisioning, starting, stopping, moving, monitoring , scaling and billing.
- 9. Reverse Engineered Positioning - Appistry CloudForce.comFORenterprises seeking to take advantage of cloud computing WHOneed to migrate existing applications to the cloud and virtualized environmentsOURCloudIQ Platform IS A Cloud application platform THAT PROVIDES enterprises with the ability to move multiple existing applications to the cloud and manage them across multiple cloud environmentsUNLIKEinfrastructure-focussed approaches to cloud computing OUR PRODUCT allows existing applications to be packaged and deployed to a cloud without re-architecture
- 10. Reverse Engineered Positioning - 3Tera AppLogicFOR organisations looking to deploy successful online services to millions of users WHO are struggling to manage the complexity of the infrastructure required to serve online services to online users OURAppLogicISA grid operating system for web applications THATPROVIDES the ability to assemble existing software into portable applications that run on any grid and scale from a fraction of a server to hundreds of servers with a single command UNLIKE traditional dedicated infrastructure OURPRODUCTmakes it extremely easy to deploy scalable web applications without dedicated IT resources and personnel
- 12. Depositioning – AppistryNot included in this report – contact Lustratus for more information
- 13. Depositioning – 3TeraNot included in this report – contact Lustratus for more information
- 14. Appendix I - AnalysisThis section contains the detailed analysis of the vendors’ respective marketing and go-to-market strategies
- 15. Organisation and Market ApproachHow are the vendors in the study positioning their organisations and how are they engaging with the market?
- 16. What Marketing Elements are Covered?
- 17. Company ProfileHow does the company look to position itself?
- 18. Company ProfileHow does the company look to position itself and how does it want to be perceived?
- 19. Offer CategoryHow does the vendor describe their offer category?
- 20. Primary AudienceWho is the primary target audience for the vendor's marketing communication efforts?
- 21. Job TitlesWhich job titles does the vendor focus their outbound marketing activities on?
- 22. Sales Engagement LevelAt what level does the vendor look to engage its prospects – where does the sales process start? (this may be different from primary audience)
- 23. Market StageWhat market stage does the vendor’s marketing strategy suggest they are at?Evangelism – no existing market. Vendor is looking to create the market
- 24. Early, proven – the market is at an early stage but there is proof of customers deriving benefit from the vendor’s technology
- 25. Mature – the market has existed for some time, customers, competition and alternatives exists
- 26. Mature with breakthrough – as mature but with a significant recent technical or commercial breakthroughVertical Market SegmentationHow does the vendor segment their market (in terms of vertical market or industry)?
- 27. Channel ApproachWhat channel relationships does the vendor’s outbound marketing suggest they engaged in?
- 28. Implied Sales MethodologyDoes the vendor’s marketing approach suggest a specific methodology or approach is used towards sales?
- 29. Geographic OperationsWhere does the vendor claim to have offices or representation. Each vendor’s commitment to a region is ranked based on their claimed number of offices. Regions are categorised as follows:Africa
- 30. Americas
- 31. Asia Pacific
- 32. Europe
- 33. Middle-EastTone of VoiceWhat attitude does the vendor take when addressing the market? Each of the categories describes the perception that the reader/viewer experiences when interacting with the vendors marketing materials.
- 34. ProductHow are the vendors in the study marketing the features and benefits of their respective products?
- 35. What Marketing Elements are Covered?
- 36. Primary Feature/Benefit FocusWhat features or benefits does the vendor ascribe to its product?These are capabilities or elements of functionality that the vendor highlights in their outbound marketing activities
- 37. This list is not interpreted or rationalised but is instead the pure claims that the vendor makes for their offer Interpreted Feature / BenefitWhat features or benefits does the vendor ascribe to its product?These are capabilities or elements of functionality that the vendor highlights in their outbound marketing activities
- 38. This list is rationalised so that multiple, similar features / benefits are grouped together to aid vendor to vendor comparisonValue Proposition ApproachHow does the vendor approach selling business value?No specific value proposition approach - This suggests that the vendor focuses on technical capability and does not sell based on business value
- 39. Cursory use to show affinity - This suggests that whilst the vendor uses business value in their marketing efforts it is not central to the sales process
- 40. Integral to the sales process - Value propositions and selling to the business are key to the vendor’s market engagement strategyPrimary Value PropositionWhat value does the vendor ascribe to its product?This is different from feature/benefit in that the vendor must translate a feature or capability into the value that the prospect would enjoy in business terms
- 41. This list is not interpreted or rationalised but is instead the pure claims that the vendor makes for their offer. Interpreted Value PropositionWhat value does the vendor ascribe to its product (using Lustratus REPAMA’s MITICOR value proposition classification?)This is different from feature / benefit in that the vendor must translate a feature or capability into the business value that the prospect would enjoy
- 42. This list is rationalised so that multiple, similar value propositions are grouped together to aid vendor to vendor comparisonUse CasesWhich use cases does the vendor suggest its product is suitable for?An omission here does not suggest a lack of suitability but rather the fact that the vendor does not specifically list the use case in their marketingPositioningHow are the various vendors positioning their own products and depositioning the competition?
- 43. What Marketing Elements are Covered?
- 44. PositioningThis section shows the reverse-engineered positioning statements for each of the vendors in the studyThe positioning statements shows the following perceived strategic marketing elements:Target customer PainProduct name and categoryPrimary value/benefitPrimary competition or alternativeUnique selling proposition
- 45. Reverse Engineered Positioning - Appistry CloudIQ PlatformFORenterprises seeking to take advantage of cloud computing WHOneed to migrate existing applications to the cloud and virtualized environmentsOURCloudIQ Platform IS A Cloud application platform THAT PROVIDES enterprises with the ability to move multiple existing applications to the cloud and manage them across multiple cloud environmentsUNLIKEinfrastructure-focussed approaches to cloud computing OUR PRODUCT allows existing applications to be packaged and deployed to a cloud without re-architecture
- 46. Positioning Matrix – Appistry
- 47. Reverse Engineered Positioning - 3Tera AppLogicFOR organisations looking to deploy successful online services to millions of users WHO are struggling to manage the complexity of the infrastructure required to serve online services to online users OURAppLogicISA grid operating system for web applications THATPROVIDES the ability to assemble existing software into portable applications that run on any grid and scale from a fraction of a server to hundreds of servers with a single command UNLIKE traditional dedicated infrastructure OURPRODUCTmakes it extremely easy to deploy scalable web applications without dedicated IT resources and personnel
- 48. Positioning Matrix – 3Tera
- 49. Differentiation StrategyHow does the vendor approach differentiation?Organisational – The claimed difference lies with the company itself – age, experience, stability, etc.
- 50. Technical/Functional – Differentiation is about the product, features, functionality, capacity, etc.
- 51. Service – The human skills a company can offer
- 52. Holistic – No one thing differentiates the company, instead it is a combination of the above.Perceived ThreatWhich other vendor(s) does the vendor apparently perceive as a threat?Implied/Explicit All – All vendors in the category
- 53. Other – Other vendors outside of the categoryDepositioning FocusHow does the vendor categorise their main competition or alternative?The vendor may explicitly or implicitly direct negative attention towards an alternative suggesting that the vendor fears this alternative and that overcoming it is key to sales success
- 54. This may be a competitor or simply an alternative way of doing thingsPositioning Spectrum AnalysisFor each of the elements of the positioning statement, how does each of the vendors compare to each other, and to the market mean?
- 55. Positioning Spectrum Analysis (PSA)The PSA compares each vendor’s positioning elements with each others and with the market meanThis identifies similarities and differences in positioning strategy amongst the vendors in the studyThe PSA elements studied includeTarget customer (for...)Their pain (who...)The product (our...)Product category (is a...)Main benefit (that provides...)Main competition / alternative (unlike...)Unique selling proposition (USP)
- 56. PSA – For (Ideal Customer)Who is the ideal target audience for the vendor’s product in their chosen market segment?
- 57. PSA – Who (Pain, Need, Desire)The need, pain or desire of the target customer. How will this improve their lives?
- 58. PSA – Our...(Product Name)The product name
- 59. PSA – Is A...(Product Category)The name of the product category. Where possible we have tried to interpret whether each other vendor has a legitimate claim to be present in each of the others’ categoriesPSA – That Provides...(Reason to Buy)The compelling reason for the ideal customer to buy
- 60. PSA – Unlike...(Competition/Alternative)The name of the primary competitor or alternative
- 61. PSA – Our Product...(Primary Differentiation)Primary differentiation. Note that in some instances the REPAMA process cannot be specific about the precise, single differentiator that an organisation cites. In these cases, multiple differentiators are usedAppendix II – What is Repama?
- 62. What is REPAMATM?REPAMA is Lustratus Research’s methodology for reverse engineering high-technology vendors’ marketing strategies, positioning and messagingThe REPAMA Segment Analysis Study compares multiple vendors’ market engagement strategies and projects a market mean that can be used for comparisons with the “average” vendor strategyThis information is interpreted qualitatively as well as represented graphicallyThe Lustratus REPAMA Guide can be found online at http://www.lustratusrepama.com/about/repama-guide/
- 63. REPAMA For SalesIn competitive situations, sales teams need to understand how their competitors are likely to behave. Gaining insight into the current messages and sales tactics that competitors are likely to use can provide a powerful advantage. REPAMA helps sales teams understand the strategies and tactics that their competitors use in sales situations which allows better competitive strategies to be built. It helps to answer the following questions:
- 64. REPAMA For MarketingWhether setting product strategy, empowering sales teams or generating leads, gaining an understanding into competitive behaviour is key for the marketing organisation. Comparing your own marketing strategy to those of your competitors and to the “average” strategy for your market segment allows for early identification of potential weakness as well as new opportunities.REPAMA helps marketing teams to understand how their competitors are positioning their offerings and provides answers to the following questions:
- 65. REPAMA For General MgmtWhen comparing marketing and sales performance against competitors it is important to understand the differences in approach of the respective organisations. To do this it is key to map your own performance for a variety of indicators against those of key competitors. REPAMA tracks the key marketing strategies of vendors in a specific market segment and plots these graphically against each other. By interpreting these indicators, the following questions can be answered for general management and equity investors:
- 66. Other REPAMA DeliverablesFor more information on any of these items please contact us at info@lustatusrepama.com or via http://www.lustratusrepama.com
- 68. Revision History