Reaching for the Cloud – How A2Zapps is changing the remote computing game

Dipanjan Purkayastha

dipanjan@a2zapps.com

@dipanjanonline

By

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CONTENTS

Cloud Computing Marketspace ..................................................................................................................................... 2

Trends & Gaps ............................................................................................................................................................... 2

Mergers & Acquistions in the Cloud* ........................................................................................................................... 7

Most active M&A space ........................................................................................................................................ 7

SaaS/PaaS leads activity ........................................................................................................................................ 7

Cloud Computing products get the best revenue multiples ................................................................................... 7

BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) devices are projected to more than double ...................................................... 7

A2Zapps: Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 8

Value proposition ...................................................................................................................................................... 8

Differentiators ............................................................................................................................................................ 8

In the news ................................................................................................................................................................... 10

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CLOUD COMPUTING MARKETSPACE

Today, companies across the globe are competing on an equal footing, ignoring traditional barriers of location, scale

and reach. - by leveraging the most over-used and misunderstood term, “The Cloud” and its’ three main

services; IaaS, SaaS, and PaaS.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is the basic, and perhaps the most commoditized element of the Cloud. IaaS provides

customers with an instant, on-demand platform for their servers, storage and backup. No big capital expense is

required; merely a monthly payment for what you use.

The next level of evolution of Cloud Computing was Software as a Service (SaaS). SaaS provides access to business

applications and productivity/communication tools, all without having to hire people to manage these applications or

the infrastructure upon which they reside; another pay as you go model, allowing minimal up-front investment.

The most recent and fastest growing area of the Cloud is Platform as a Service (PaaS). PaaS allows these companies

to leverage existing infrastructures for application development, reducing the cost and complexity of managing these

environments in-house. PaaS is now increasingly getting super-specialized, like DBPaaS (Database Platform as a

Service), IPaaS (Integration Platform as a Services) and full-scale integrated application suites called APaaS

(Application Platform as a Services).

Companies that adopt the Cloud have all their needs taken are of for a monthly fee, and can keep their employees

focused on the core competencies of the company. The on-demand nature of the cloud gives them the agility they

need while access to social media give them instant feedback on their product ideas allowing them to quickly address

customer demand. Visual Computing tools allow ideas to become a reality in months, with little or no coding required

to build apps and functionalities within.

TRENDS & GAPS

Cloud Computing adoption is showing even triple digit growth in many industries and corporate segments. Gartner

research indicates that the cloud computing market reached $150 billion in 2013.

But unlike most prevous business technology trends that are typically adopted by large enterprises and then trickle

down; Cloud Computing is proving to be a much more democratized model, in that the core sector adopting the Cloud

is very clearly the SMBs. This trend, in synch with the mobile computing explosion the world is experiencing, is

leading to a much closer connect between business and consumer computing than ever before.

The 5 key reasons SMBs gain from the Cloud are:

1. Scalability: Cloud technology enables smaller companies to do business on a larger scale at a lower cost. It

provides access to enterprise-level applications, and makes functions like email marketing and online scheduling

easy and affordable. The latest MYOB Business Monitor Report showed business owners using cloud computing

were 59% more likely to see a revenue rise than those who didn’t

2. Productivity: Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is used for daily tasks such as number crunching, word processing,

collaboration, and file sharing. Businesses that use SaaS report an increase in productivity, which in turn allows

businesses to focus on growth and development .

3. Security: Infrastructure-as-a-service (Iaas) functions are important for items like storing important data and

documents. Many small businesses no longer house sensitive information locally to save space and protect

against data hacks. The cloud environment also makes it easy to recover data and applications if a computer fails.

4. Portability: Cloud-based data and applications means that it can be accessed on any device (e.g., notebook, tablet

or smartphone), anytime, anywhere. You can start a project at the office and finish it on the road, as well as

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securely share it with clients and collaborators. The ability to work remotely helps business owners and their

teams achieve a better work-life balance.

5. Flexibility: Easily adjust to your employees’ and clients’ needs with various applications (“apps”). You don’t

even need to buy a license for each user; most apps offer monthly pay-as-you-go subscriptions for a small fraction

of license software costs.

The following cause-effect drivers are fundamental to the growth of Cloud:

The next three pages have a set of quick infographics about the Cloud Computing space, how it is influencing areas

as diverse as Governance, Business and Consumers - and where it is headed:

Business today

COPE, CYOD, BYOD

Cloud is the new hardware

Enterprise developers moving to PaaS

Identity is the new security

Consumer today

Social networking is passe …

… as users seek more functionality in their social

experience

Portals are back, leading to complex ecosystems …

… everyone gets everything in one interconnected place

Evolving towards

Bring Your Own Automation …

… Business and Consumer apps merge

Social network as dominant communication tool …

… like email, everyone will be part of at least one, and…

… they will all communicate seamlessly with each other

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MERGERS & ACQUISTIONS IN THE CLOUD*

MOST ACTIVE M&A SPACE

Cloud computing is seeing some of the highest M&A activities across all tech sectors. Activity does not appear limited

to a specific scale; M&A happening across all ticket sizes, from <$100mn right upto >$1bn

SAAS/PAAS LEADS ACTIVITY

SaaS/PaaS and various offshoots of subscription models are at the core of all activities. In fact, SaaS/PaaS drove 15%

of all global M&A last year (this is where A2Zapps plays)

CLOUD COMPUTING PRODUCTS GET THE BEST REVENUE MULTIPLES

There are companies that get revenue multiples of over 50x; the median revenue multiple here is 7x. Compare this to

other software companies that typically get 1.5x to 3x, depending on the sector

● A2Zapps competitor Salesforce has a market cap of $40bn, against a revenue of $4bn

● Whatsapp had a revenue of $20mn when Facebook bought it for $20bn

● Yammer had a revenue of $15mn when Microsoft bought it for $1.6bn

● Intuit, Open Solutions, Tumblr acquired last year or $1bn each ; Softlayer acquired for $2bn

BYOD (BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE) DEVICES ARE PROJECTED TO MORE THAN DOUBLE

Devices under BYOD/CYOD schemes is projected to scale from 198 million in 2013 to 405 million by 2016 – BYOD

is seen as a key contributor to accelerating Cloud adoption

References:

http://www.corumgroup.com/12-10-Cloud-Computing-Deals

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/021313-cloud-saas-266684.html

www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom.../us_ma_TopTenIssues_022014.pdf

PWC top M&A trends report - 2013

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A2ZAPPS: INTRODUCTION

A2Zapps is the world’s leading cloud-based OS + APaaS + SNaaS platform. Through our revolutionary Cloud

Desktop, A2Zapps is changing the way Businesses use computing for work and to collaborate within their employees,

partners and customers.

The Desktop has three core elements:

1. Cloud Operating System One OS for all devices. Just login and you are booted up

2. A2Z Apps Store A library of universal, interlinked apps. No more having to build versions for different

devices

3. Custom App builder Build apps within minutes, without coding. Use them anywhere.

The Desktop is built on platform-neutral and device-agnostic HTML5 technology with industry-standard REST API,

and is available at a subscription fee affordable to the smallest businesses and the largest corporations.

In addition to the above, every business subscription to the Desktop comes with

1) A set of standard productivity and utility apps, including Cloud storage, Word processing, and Calendar/Task

manager

2) An enterprise social network for instantly creating a custom social network to engage and build the community

around your business

VALUE PROPOSITION

A2Zapps fills in a number of key gaps in the fabric of today’s Cloud Computing environments:

• True Cloud products, that can auto-scale and can work beyond hardcoded ‘private cloud’ deployments

• Apps that can talk to each other in native form, without expensive back-end integration

• Social Network that acts as a spine for all existing apps, and not as a separate application

• Technology embedded in the platform that help build and add to apps rapidly – available online for all

developers to use

• Strong API layer to easily connect with external ecosystems and mobile app platform

DIFFERENTIATORS

Amongst current in-market players, there are few products that

• Work the same across all devices

• Can be deployed across public/private/hybrid Cloud environments, with flexible data models and scale of

usage

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• Has cloud database and app builder technology that can build apps that are natively interconnected with each

other

• Has the ability to engage entire communities; whether across hundreds or millions of users

Apart from these, there are no other products than A2Zapps that

• Has APaaS with built-in social network that can be extensively customized

• Allow users to build apps online with little or no knowledge of coding

Current market gaps, features of potential competitive products, and our product capabilities combine to create a set

of compelling differentiators A2Zapps offers its customers:

1. Rapid go to the market

a. Go live within hours/days

b. Enterprise ready mobile apps

c. Accelerate new internet business model

2. Built to fit

a. Develop apps without having to code

b. Real time customization / Ongoing changes

c. Scale on demand

3. Optimize existing investment

a. Extend current ERP beyond firewall distributed workforce (Employees, vendors, customers and

partners)

4. 360° Communication

a. All apps are natively integrated to each other

b. Full-featured social network come standard, for real time collaboration

5. Mobile

a. All apps are accessible from any mobile devices with moderate internet speed

b. Enterprise ready data / API platform for any mobile apps

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IN THE NEWS