Okta, a leading identity system that numerous organizations use for single indication-on (SSO), has been aggregating the knowledge of which applications their prospects use for the previous five years. Each and every year, they publish a report that shares a wealth of fascinating stats, these as the relative reputation of unique apps. This is yet another instance of ground-real truth empirical details about tech stacks that I locate highly credible.
In the 2022 edition of Okta’s report, just launched, the most attention-grabbing chart is the 1 I have excerpted above. It reveals that companies who use Microsoft 365 apps and platforms — which collectively span anything from docs and spreadsheets to improvement platforms and videoconferencing — have also been rising their adoption of “overlapping” applications and platforms from other firms.
Indeed, they are Microsoft 365 consumers. But some favor AWS around Azure. Or Salesforce about Dynamics. Or Slack and Zoom around Groups. Or Smartsheet about Excel. Or Tableau more than PowerBI.
For each and every of these applications, you can follow their light-weight-to-darkish-colored dots in the chart steadily sliding remaining to correct, 12 months-around-year. The adoption of best-of-breed apps, at least within just the context of Microsoft 365, has unmistakably been escalating.
With the exception of Box, which has been likely in the actual reverse way (sorry, Box). I personally like Box, and their CEO’s Twitter account is pure gold. But out of all the apps in the record, it appears to me their main product or service may possibly be the easiest for Microsoft to commoditize from inside of the Place of work 365 natural environment.
Is this greatest-of-breed craze agent of stacks overall, in particular for martech?
It unquestionably aligns with the continued expansion in stacks we’ve seen in other aggregate info from the SaaS Administration Platforms. And a lot of of the applications overlapping with Microsoft 365 are aspect of the martech earth.
But I can listen to the objection to the methodology. “Hey, just for the reason that I use Microsoft Term doesn’t suggest that I want to use Microsoft Dynamics as my CRM. All those are apples and oranges!”
Fair enough. But it is an appealing believed experiment. If the world’s next-biggest, $2.3 trillion software program firm — and the world’s very first-greatest, $2.8 trillion Apple, who doesn’t even touch most of these app groups — can not satisfy you with anything from their portfolio, then who could? And if you reply that it all is dependent on the pure boundaries of groups, because clearly files are distinct than CRM records, I would humbly take note that delineating those people so-called natural boundaries gets more difficult as types get closer to just about every other.
One particular other chart from that Okta report that I’d like to emphasize:
This is the expansion of adoption of key cloud platforms, this kind of as AWS and Azure, being linked as a result of Okta. Two issues well worth noting:
First — wowzers — the length concerning AWS and every person else is gorgeous.
But 2nd, and much more relevant to my narrative, the advancement in adoption of all of these cloud platforms — steep up-and-to-the-proper climbs — is expansion in their use by builders to create extra program. They are the motor guiding The Excellent Application Explosion. And far more and far more of that app explosion is custom made-designed.
If you stick to individuals pattern strains, they guide to a entire world of a lot more program variety, not fewer.
Now for the kind ask for I have of you…
Our Yearly Martech Vocation Survey
If you enjoy my posts and would like to enable our martech community, I’d check with this favor of you: you should acquire a couple of minutes to entire this 2022 Martech Income and Career Survey that I’m conducting once more with my good friends at Martech.org. The extra martech professionals like you who take part, the increased the n of the our study, and the extra considerable the success will be.
We’ll then publish the aggregate effects for anyone to go through. I’m tremendous curious to see the benefits. Aren’t you?
Thank you for your enable.