The last few decades have seen multiple major shifts in how applications are built and deployed, and now we’re seeing the start of a new shift that opens up enormous opportunities for all kinds of developers. Instead of bringing data to applications, developers are bringing their applications to the data.
Let’s back up. In the 1990s, as data grew too large for local machines, applications moved with the data to data centers—a model more like the mainframes that preceded them. Then, in the 2010s, those same applications migrated from data centers to the cloud, bringing the data with them again. Now we’re seeing a third major shift, where customers take back control of their data and centralize it in the cloud. And developers are picking up on this trend, building their applications to not control their own data, but instead to connect to the customers’ data, letting them have and control a single copy.
In a traditional SaaS application, the SaaS vendor stores and processes data in their own platform, even if that platform is running on one of the major public clouds. A traditional CRM (customer relationship management) tool, for example, will use its own data platform to store all of the data that all of its customers are managing with the tool. When a customer wants access to their data, often to join with other data sets, they either have to export the data (via APIs or CSVs) or upload the other data set into the tool and use whatever analytics capabilities the tool has built. This is painful for customers and also painful for the developer who has to support use cases that are further afield from traditional relationship management.
In this new world, the customer runs and the applications all connect to the same data platform, storing and processing their data there. This means that joining two data sets is a single query away, with no movement of the data required. It also means that the customer owns and controls the data, making security and governance hurdles much easier for developers to overcome. And, because the customer pays for the data platform, the developer doesn’t have to mark up the costs and is able to command significantly higher margins.
While it’s early, this shift is already underway. Fast-growing startups like Supergrain, Anecdotes.ai and Rudderstack, to name a few examples, are taking full advantage of this shift and leading investors have picked up on it as well.
Why Now? Access to the Best Data Platforms Available
There are two key trends that are leading to the emergence of these connected applications: The wide adoption of cloud data platforms and the prioritization of control over data by customers.
In the last ten years, a new class of highly scalable and cost-efficient data platforms has emerged, allowing enterprises of all sizes to adopt technology that was previously only available to the most sophisticated vendors for use inside their own products. Previously, SaaS vendors had to roll their own complex data platforms that were very specific to their use case and charge high prices to cover the cost of running those platforms. Today, we’re not only seeing SaaS vendors migrate to cloud data platforms but also enterprises adopt the platforms themselves. This means that, for the first time, every enterprise has access to the best data platforms available.
We’re also seeing a huge change in how enterprises think about and secure their data. Partly because of regulations, and partly because of publicity around data breaches, large and small companies are paying significantly more attention to how secure, how controlled, and how well governed their data is. When your data is spread across dozens or more different SaaS applications, it’s nearly impossible to guarantee its security and access controls. Centralizing that data into a single platform, and connecting your applications to it, allows for a single point of control and security for every piece of data.
What’s In It For Developers?
It’s clear that connected applications are a big win for customers: A centralized source of truth with strong security and control. But this model has enormous benefits for application vendors as well.
First, it changes the go-to-market dynamics by letting you tap into work that customers have already done to centralize their data. According to George Xing, co-founder and CEO of customer engagement platform Supergrain, CEPs built with traditional SaaS models suffer from several drawbacks including long implementation times, poor reporting, and higher costs. The connected app model makes Supergrain more competitive, he said.
“Instead of moving your customer data to a third-party data platform, we bring the marketing software to your data warehouse, unifying source-of-truth customer data and marketing product experiences into one cohesive system,” Xing said.
It also accelerates time to market. Developers no longer need to build and maintain a data platform for their customers and can focus instead on their core product differentiators. They also get to leave responsibility for data security and compliance to the customer and their data platform.
With the customer managing and paying for storage and compute directly, vendors can significantly increase their margins, charging for the value they provide, rather than trying to mark up the compute they’re consuming.
What’s Next for SaaS?
The incredible growth in the amount and types of data available to companies is only accelerating this shift in how applications store and operate on their customers’ data. We’re going to see more and more SaaS vendors support connected application deployment models, but it won’t replace vendor-managed models. Instead, there will be opportunities for both models to flourish depending on the customer and specific application. We expect that many vendors will offer both models, just as we’ll see others go even further, bringing their entire application—including its UI, logic, authentication, etc.—fully into the customers’ data platform.
The opportunity for companies that take advantage of these new models is enormous, and we’re in the very early days. But the applications that take full advantage of this shift will be the winners of the next generation of data apps.
