Microsoft now leads the SaaS market
Microsoft is now the overall leader in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) market, beating Salesforce by a tiny margin. However, not everything is as straightforward as it seems.
According to Synergy Research Group, Microsoft, even though late to the party as usual, now holds 15 percent of the SaaS market, while Salesforce, the leader so far, has 14 percent share.
In the first quarter of 2016, both were tied at 14 percent each. The funny thing is, Salesforce doesn't even rank in all the different aspects of SaaS. It holds the dominant position in customer relationship management (CRM), true.
But Microsoft ranks number one in collaboration tools, two in CRM and three in enterprise SaaS. What's also interesting to notice is that the global SaaS market has also grown, hitting $11 billion in quarterly revenue.
Earlier this month, Gartner has named Microsoft Azure "top cloud service" -- for the third year in a row.
"We are, of course, thrilled and honored that Microsoft Azure named a Gartner Magic Quadrant leader for the third year in a row", says Necip Ozyucel, Cloud and Enterprise Business Solutions lead, Microsoft Gulf, back then.
At the same time, Oracle is elbowing its way into the mix, as well. According to multiple media reports, the company is being perceived as the fastest growing SaaS provider.
"In SaaS, a big battle is playing out between the traditional broad-based software vendors and companies that are focused on a specific application area or industry sector, many of which are entirely cloud-based", says chief analyst and research director John Dinsdale in a media advisory.
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