Cohesity’s CEO pays close attention to CIO priorities as cloud continues to disrupt enterprise software

CLOUD

In its forecast for what to expect in the cloud industry during 2022, SiliconANGLE Media predicted that Amazon Web Services Inc. was unlikely to enter the software-as-a-service business and offer applications.

Based on news from the recently concluded AWS re:Invent conference, that prediction turned out to be mostly true — though its established Amazon Connect call-center service and its newly announced AWS Supply Chain offering are essentially SaaS applications. Rather than offer applications broadly, however, AWS focused instead on new tools for developers to build them, a dynamic that will undoubtedly continue the way cloud companies disrupt how enterprise software is sold.

“You have to be an ostrich with your head in the sand to not see this happening,” said Sanjay Poonen (pictured), president and chief executive of Cohesity Inc. “In SaaS companies, I don’t see why you would ever implement a CRM solution on-prem. It’s all gone to the cloud. Some of those markets are never coming back to an on-prem capability.”

Poonen spoke with theCUBE industry analysts Paul Gillin and Dave Vellante at AWS re:Invent, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the cloud’s impact on how companies build and manage enterprise solutions. (* Disclosure below.)

Moving from point to platform

The cloud has also changed the landscape when it comes to implementing an ultimately successful business model. Companies such as Snowflake Inc. and Databricks Inc. have built multi-billion-dollar businesses, essentially superclouds, on top of platforms such as AWS.

“You are constantly asking yourself how to move from being a point product to a platform with more and more services,” Poonen said. “You look at these companies who are going from point product to platforms and are steadily able to grow into new total addressable markets. To me, that’s very inspiring.”

Cohesity itself launched its data management as-a-service platform on AWS in 2020. More recently, the company had added a suite of SaaS offerings targeting disaster recovery, data security and governance.

“If you are a tech investor or an operator, pay attention to CIO priorities,” Poonen said. “There is a big focus on security. By intelligently being a management and a security company around data, we’ll continue to be extremely relevant to CIO budgets.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of AWS re:Invent:

(* Disclosure: This is an unsponsored editorial segment. However, theCUBE is a paid media partner for AWS re:Invent. Amazon Web Services and other sponsors of theCUBE’s event coverage have no editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE