Azure and SaaS - SaaS Brief

We End the Year at All-Time Lows for SaaS Growth. A Buying Signal — Or The End of an Era?

SaaStr

DECEMBER 28, 2023

Shopify, Canva, Monday and tons of other SaaS leaders less focused on tech and startups had big years. And broader Cloud players had great years too, from MongoDB to Cloudflare to Azure, if not quite as crazy as at the peak of 2021. Altimeter: SaaS Growth Has Finally Rebounded. So 2023 wasn’t a rough year for everyone.

Azure

Azure Cloud SaaS Trends

Dear SaaStr: What is The Average Ratio of Support Staff to Customer Count in SaaS?

SaaStr

JANUARY 27, 2024

Dear SaaStr: What is The Average Ratio of Support Staff to Customer Count in SaaS? Typically support consumes about perhaps 5%-7% of your revenue at scale (excluding customer success) in most SaaS models. Another 5%-7% go to core infrastructure costs (AWS, Azure, Snowflake, etc). Have instant support while you can.

Azure

Azure AWS SaaS Customer Success

Gartner: SaaS Will Still Grow 18% in 2023 to $200 Billion Worldwide. And Another 18% in 2024.

SaaStr

MAY 2, 2023

So there’s no doubt things are a bit harder for everyone in SaaS and Cloud right now. A few of us are seeing no macro impacts, but probably the biggest tell are Cloud platform giants — AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. SaaS spend is still growing. All are still growing at very strong rates. But they are still growing.

Azure

Azure AWS Cloud SaaS

Webinars

Beyond the Basics of A/B Tests: Innovative Experimentation Tactics You Need to Know as a Data or Product Professional

MORE WEBINARS

Microsoft as a Mirror - What We Can Expect for SaaS in 2023

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 23, 2023

We saw moderated consumption growth in Azure and lower-than-expected growth [elsewhere]. Segment Expected Growth Productivity 12% Office Commercial 6% Office On-Premise -25% LinkedIn 5% Dynamics 13% Intelligent Cloud 18% Azure 26% Server -3% Services -3% 2. At some point, the optimizations will end.

Azure

Azure Underperforming Technical Team Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence

5 Interesting Learnings from Microsoft at $200 Billion in ARR

SaaStr

JULY 27, 2022

But fast forward to today, and Microsoft truly is a Cloud and SaaS company, with Azure and LinkedIn its fastest growing business units! Azure and other cloud services grew a record 40% and the total Microsoft Cloud grew to a $90 Billion run-rate. But the Cloud and SaaS parts of Microsoft are firing on all 8 cylinders.

Azure

Azure Cloud B2B Scaling

Clouded Judgement 10.27.23 - Cloud Giants Report Q3 '23

Clouded Judgement

OCTOBER 27, 2023

Subscribe now Cloud Giants Report Q3 ‘23 Not a great signal for software this week from the Cloud Giants (AWS, Azure and Google Cloud)…After Q2 (3 months ago), the tone from the Cloud Giants around optimizations was largely: optimizations have started to ease, and net new workloads have picked up. Staggering scale already.

Cost optimization & reporting

Cost optimization & reporting Cloud Azure AWS

ISVs vs SaaS: What’s the Difference?

Stax

APRIL 18, 2024

Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and Software-as-a-Service Providers (SaaS) operate within the same market, thus creating a push-and-pull revenue dynamic. SaaS companies deliver software applications over the internet on a subscription basis, simplifying access and management for users. What are SaaS companies?

Outsourcing Services

Outsourcing Services SaaS Payments Payment Services Payment Methods

Clouded Judgement 2.2.24 - Cloud Giants Report Q4 '23

Clouded Judgement

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

” Microsoft on Azure : “And I think last quarter, we said one, we are going to continue to have these cycles where people will build new workloads. Azure (excluding Azure AI) continued to decelerate, and while AWS did come in ahead of expectations, it wasn’t a blow out.

Cost optimization & reporting

Cost optimization & reporting Cloud Azure AWS

Shopify Says eCommerce is Back. But AWS Says Cloud Under More Scrutiny.

SaaStr

OCTOBER 28, 2022

o this was an interesting week in terms of reading the tea leaves on what’s going on in SaaS, Cloud, the economy, and all that. Second, AWS, Azure and Google Cloud all grew nicely, and are still growing like a weed — but the growth rate slowed. So the good news is the bellwethers in SaaS are still growing at strong rates.

AWS

AWS Cloud Azure Investment

Pilot: 57% of Venture Startups Will Need to Raise More In 2024

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 18, 2023

SaaS products and services like Pilot track the finances of 1,000s of SaaS and other startup so they’re an interesting source of hard data. SaaS and Cloud growth overall will remain strong. Shopify , Datadog, Crowdstrike , Google Cloud-Azure-AWS, Snowflake , etc. What does Pilot’s latest data say?

Startup

Startup Venture Capital Azure AWS

Cloud Stocks May Be Down. But the Cloud Remains on Fire. That Matters More.

SaaStr

MAY 16, 2022

So follow AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. So there’s much angst and even panic with so many SaaS and Cloud public stocks down 50% or more from their peaks. Will things get worse for SaaS products themselves on a day-to-day basis? And is buying of SaaS and Cloud products accelerating, decelerating, and/or flattening out?

Cloud

Cloud Azure AWS Engineering

How Nimble + Azure Revolutionize Relationship Management for Office 365 Teams

Nimble - Sales

MAY 22, 2019

Nimble has migrated its market-leading SaaS CRM from Amazon Web Services (AWS) to Microsoft Azure. The migration enables Nimble to tap into Microsoft’s world-class Azure platform and partner ecosystem to scale.

Azure

Azure Scale AWS Management

SaaS Multiples Are At a 3+ Year Low. Where It Goes From Here.

SaaStr

MAY 6, 2022

Many SaaS and Cloud leaders are down more than 50% from their all-time highs. A Covid Hangover in SaaS stocks.’ Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure and even Google Cloud are on fire, adding insane amounts of revenue this year. The top SaaS and Cloud leaders are even accelerating at $1B in ARR, for goodness sakes!!

SaaS

SaaS Azure Cloud AWS

A Look Back at Q4 '23 Public Cloud Software Earnings

Clouded Judgement

APRIL 11, 2024

My hope is that this analysis can provide startup entrepreneurs with a framework for how to manage their businesses around SaaS metrics (e.g., It looks at the YoY dollar change in quarterly revenue from the hyperscalers (just looking at Azure / AWS because the data goes back further) going back a few years. Is Software Rebounding?

Cloud

Cloud Software Azure AWS

Bessemer: $1 Trillion in Cloud Market Cap Lost Year-to-Date

SaaStr

MAY 23, 2022

There are many ways to slice-and-dice public market data, but the headline one Bessemer called out is the most visceral I’ve seen: Public SaaS and Cloud companies lost $1 Trillion in market cap so far in 2022. And the number of public SaaS and Cloud decacorns has fallen from 50 to 17. Strange Days, Indeed.

Cloud

Cloud Azure AWS Marketing

SaaS Rule of 40 Drivers Using KeyBanc’s 2021 SaaS Survey

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 4, 2021

The “Rule of 40” is one of the most commonly cited valuation benchmarks in SaaS for both public and private companies. The SaaS “Rule of 40” has gained popularity due to its simplicity, requiring only two common financial metrics to be added together. What Is The SaaS “Rule of 40”?

SaaS

SaaS Technical Review Benchmarks Azure

Datadog, ZoomInfo, Atlassian, AWS: Epic Growth — But Some Real Headwinds For The First Time

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 4, 2022

So with the latest batch of earnings out, we can get a sense of where the leaders are in SaaS. Again, epic growth but a material slowing from what AWS cited as “economic headwinds” Still — Google Cloud didn’t see a slowing of growth, and Azure’s growth rate barely budged. pic.twitter.com/a6BKk61LQR.

AWS

AWS Azure Cloud Scale

5 Interesting Learnings from Digital Ocean at $700,000,000 in ARR

SaaStr

DECEMBER 27, 2023

So is it possible to be too efficient in SaaS and Cloud? Many have used Digital Ocean at the cheaper, simpler version of AWS-Azure-Digital Ocean to get going fast and quickly. And if so, maybe that’s Digital Ocean. If you haven’t heard of Digital Ocean, ask your developer. It’s gotten crazy good.

Scale

Scale AWS Azure Cloud

Clouded Judgement 4.28.23

Clouded Judgement

APRIL 28, 2023

AWS (Amazon), Azure (Microsoft), and Google Cloud (Google) all reported this week. Azure reported on Tuesday and gave us that glimmer of hope. Azure : Coming into the quarter, a growth rate that would have satisfied the market would have been ~29%. Azure came in at 31% (constant currency). Follow along to stay up to date!

Cloud

Cloud Azure AWS AI Search

Sync Your MRR Movements with Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, or Azure Blob Storage

Chart Mogul

JANUARY 20, 2022

Configure Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, or Azure Blob Storage as a destination in ChartMogul and export your activities for further analysis. For that reason, we’re launching several new direct integrations that let you synchronize your MRR movements directly into your Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, or Microsoft Azure account.

Azure

Azure Cloud Forecasting Churn

Snow Angels Come Early to Data : Snowflake's Strength Spells Success for Startups

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

” A surprising impact of the cost-cutting may be increased margins for SaaS providers on infrastructure as their own cost reductions manifest as margin improvements. “Yes, we actually saw quite a bit of energy coming from the Azure platform this quarter. Consumption of unstructured data was up 17x year-over-year.”

GCP(Google Cloud Platform)

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Azure Data Startup

5 Interesting Learnings from ServiceNow at $7 Billion in ARR

SaaStr

JANUARY 25, 2023

That’s pretty efficient for SaaS. #5. But many in SaaS are seeing tougher times in Europe than North America. Microsoft also reported strong growth overall and for Azure and Cloud especially. As you can see, ACV has grown ~20% over the past 2 years, from $3.4m to $4m ACV. #4. Some softness in EMEA. But ServiceNow?

Azure

Azure Cloud Enterprise Subscription

Gartner: SaaS Spending Will Grow Another 40% in Next 2 Years Alone

SaaStr

APRIL 27, 2021

Just how fast is SaaS and Cloud growing? After polling CIOs, Gartner found that total SaaS spend will grow from $100B in 2020 to $140B in 2022: A few interesting implications and learnings: The growth in SaaS buying should give you a +20% a year boost on top of your other sales and marketing efforts. Go grab your piece.

GCP(Google Cloud Platform)

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Azure AWS SaaS

Clouded Judgement 1.6.23

Clouded Judgement

JANUARY 6, 2023

Cloud Downgrades This week UBS came out with a couple research reports citing concerns in AWS / Azure growth. This brings me back to AWS / Azure downgrades. This was the worst tone that we’ve heard in years from large AWS/Azure partners, a group that usually expresses different shades of optimism about AWS/Azure growth.”

Cloud

Cloud Azure AWS Underperforming Technical Team

5 Interesting Learnings from Google Cloud at $13 Billion in ARR

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 20, 2021

So we’ve had a lot of fun in our 5 Interesting Learnings profiling the top SaaS and Cloud companies at scale, from Slack to Zoom, from Shopify to Datadog, from Box to DropBox. But are AWS, Azure and Google Cloud just too big for us to learn from? Google Cloud continues its march upmarket, competing with Azure.

Cloud

Cloud Azure AWS Scale

The Macroeconomic Signal to Watch for Software & Infrastructure Startups

Tom Tunguz

MAY 31, 2022

Large SaaS and IaaS vendors are precisely that: indexes of software buyers. Amazon Web Services and Azure, the business units inside Amazon and Microsoft serve and sell to small, medium, and large companies in every major geography. Microsoft Azure. That should bode well for SaaS startups. Fortunately, it exists.

Azure

Azure Software Startup Cloud

Clouded Judgement 10.20.23 - Hyperscaler Q3 Preview

Clouded Judgement

OCTOBER 20, 2023

Hyperscaler Preview Next week Amazon, Microsoft and Google report earnings and we’ll see Q3 data for AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. The promise of SaaS is that growth in the early years leads to profits in the mature years. Said another way, the 10Y today is double what it averaged from 2010 to 2020.

Cloud

Cloud Azure AWS Software Review

Clouded Judgement 8.4.23 - Cloud Giants Q2 Update

Clouded Judgement

AUGUST 4, 2023

You can see more detail about their net new ARR added each quarter below Azure Growth came in at 27%, and guided to 25-26% growth for Q3. The promise of SaaS is that growth in the early years leads to profits in the mature years. Then Q2 came in at 12% (must have seen improvements throughout the quarter).

Cloud

Cloud Azure Cost optimization & reporting AWS

10 Predictions for Data at the Impact Summit

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

Look no further than the massive companies pushing the public & the private market forward: Snowflake, Databricks, Amazon, Azure, Google Cloud. It’s quite possible that data products have created more market cap than any other subsegment of SaaS in the last five years.

Data

Data Azure Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence

5 Interesting Learnings from DigitalOcean at $500,000,000 in ARR

SaaStr

MARCH 9, 2022

Focusing on smaller developers, in some ways it’s been a bit overshadowed by AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. DigitialOcean doesn’t want to take AWS, Azure and Google on in the enterprise and doesn’t really try. Another great challenge to the idea growth has to always slow in Cloud and SaaS.

Azure

Azure AWS SMB Cloud

Clouded Judgement 10.28.22

Clouded Judgement

OCTOBER 28, 2022

Hyperscalers Report Quarterly Earnings This week we saw AWS (Amazon), GCP (Google) and Azure (Microsoft) report earnings. At the same time, Azure came in below expectations. Azure called out an incremental $800m of costs expected throughout the year (they just finished their Fiscal Q1).

Cloud

Cloud Azure AWS Cost optimization & reporting

Founders Today Just Need to Assume the Next Round Never Comes

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 3, 2022

So we’ve talked about it often here at SaaStr, but things are just so … odd right now in SaaS. And while AWS’s growth is down a bit, it’s still at epic levels, Azure isn’t even really down, and Google Cloud is growing faster than ever.

AWS

AWS Venture Capital Azure Cloud

Thanks to ChartMogul, ChurnZero, Cledara, Secureframe, and Verdane for Sponsoring SaaStr Europa 2023!

SaaStr

OCTOBER 13, 2022

We’ll see 2,500+ of the best SaaS founders, execs, and VCs June 6-7 at 2022 SaaStr Europa ! ChurnZero is the Customer Success platform and partner for growing SaaS and subscription businesses. From discovery to purchasing, management and cancellation, Cledara is the All-in-One SaaS management platform that companies love.

GCP(Google Cloud Platform)

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Azure AWS Enterprise readiness

Clouded Judgement 7.28.23 - Optimization Cycles and Economy Update

Clouded Judgement

JULY 28, 2023

AI = Data + Compute I’ll continue beating this drum, but we got two great quotes from Azure and AWS this week. This week we had two of the hypserscalers report (Microsoft / Azure and Google / GCP), and everyone was eager to see their results. Lots to unpack, I’ll hit on a couple of my favorite topics from this week below.

Cloud

Cloud Azure AWS GCP(Google Cloud Platform)

The 4 Questions Startups Should Ask Themselves about Building with Generative AI

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 6, 2023

In the cloud, AWS, Azure, & GCP have created about as much market cap as all the top 100 B2B & B2C publics built on cloud (Netflix, ServiceNow, AirBnb, etc). Usage & distribution, like in classical SaaS, are likely the most sustainable & repeatable. Layer : application, platform, or infrastructure?

Generative AI

Generative AI AI GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Startup

Clouded Judgement 1.27.23

Clouded Judgement

JANUARY 27, 2023

Azure (Microsoft) Quarter The week the first of the cloud giants reported - Azure. Early Look at 2023 Guides Given the Azure weakness reported on Tuesday, all software tumbled Wednesday morning with most names down 5-10%. The promise of SaaS is that growth in the early years leads to profits in the mature years.

Cloud

Cloud Azure Pricing Payment Features

Atlassian and AWS Say: “Maybe Worry a Little Bit”

SaaStr

JULY 31, 2020

Zoom is growing at rates we’ve never seen before in SaaS and Cloud. But when two of the blue chips in Cloud and SaaS say darker clouds may be coming … it’s worth paying close attention. Azure and Google Cloud also saw growth begin to slow. Shopify grew 100% at $3 billion in ARR. It could just be a bump.

AWS

AWS Azure Cloud SaaS

Clouded Judgement 6.9.23 - Recap of Consumption Trends in Q1 '23

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 9, 2023

Usage on Snowflake is driven by queries run on Snowflake Azure: Neutral Tone With Strength in AI Overall I’d characterize Azure’s quarter as a net positive. They guided to 26-27% growth in Azure in Q2 (with 1% coming from AI). The promise of SaaS is that growth in the early years leads to profits in the mature years.

Trends

Trends Cloud Azure AWS

Thanks to Unit, Everstage, Aiven, Zip, and Mission Cloud for Sponsoring SaaStr Annual 2022!

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 10, 2022

Currently, we offer Apache Kafka, Apache Cassandra, PostgreSQL, MySQL, OpenSearch, Redis, InfluxDB, Grafana, and M3 in more than 90 regions around the world on AWS, GCP, Microsoft Azure, DigitalOcean, and UpCloud cloud platforms. We’ll see 10,000 of the best SaaS founders, execs and VCs Sep 13-15 at 2022 SaaStrAnnual.com !

Cloud

Cloud GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Payments SaaS Payments

Why Would Microsoft Buy Wunderlist and Later Just Shut it Down?

SaaStr

APRIL 8, 2020

In 2015, Microsoft wanted to help accelerate its SaaS / Cloud strategy and made a bunch of bets. Once Office 365, Azure, etc. But an experiment. They didn’t all have to work out. And in the end, have too many products is a distraction. You have to eventually close one down if it’s not a winner.

Azure

Azure Cloud Acquisition Strategy

Clouded Judgement 4.21.23

Clouded Judgement

APRIL 21, 2023

Next week we get all 3 hyperscalers reporting (AWS from Amazon, Azure from Microsoft, and GCP from Google). Let’s double click on Azure. The promise of SaaS is that growth in the early years leads to profits in the mature years. Q1 Earnings Season We’re on the eve of Q1 earning season.

Cloud

Cloud Azure AWS GCP(Google Cloud Platform)

What do Google Search Query Trends Reveal about the Changes in How We Work?

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 28, 2020

How about the big platform SaaS companies: Salesforce, Workday, ServiceNow, and Microsoft? ZDNet reported demand for Azure is up 775%. Everyone but Microsoft is flat. The difference in query volumes might be due to a similar phenomenon to Slack because of Microsoft’s Teams product.

Trends

Trends Azure Software Review Content Marketing

6 SaaS Development Services Your Startup Needs In 2024

How To Buy Saas

MARCH 21, 2024

With over 50 billion SaaS service users in the US (including repeat customers) there’s little doubt about the health of the SaaS industry. What Is SaaS? One way to think of Software as a Service (SaaS) is as renting software instead of owning it. Which Businesses Need SaaS Software?

SaaS Payments

SaaS Payments Payment Services Payment Solutions Payment Methods

How to Categorize Expenses in a SaaS Startup v2.0

Baremetrics

DECEMBER 7, 2023

The main benefits of categorizing your SaaS company’s expenses are more accurate metrics and forecasts, and getting a better understanding of your company’s overall spending. Here’s an overview of the series: Part 1: How to Categorize Expenses in a SaaS Startup v2.0 This is a v2.0 New Gross Margins?

Merchant Services

Merchant Services Startup DevOps as a Service SaaS

We End the Year at All-Time Lows for SaaS Growth. A Buying Signal — Or The End of an Era?

Dear SaaStr: What is The Average Ratio of Support Staff to Customer Count in SaaS?

Webinars

Trending Sources

Gartner: SaaS Will Still Grow 18% in 2023 to $200 Billion Worldwide. And Another 18% in 2024.

Webinars

Microsoft as a Mirror - What We Can Expect for SaaS in 2023

5 Interesting Learnings from Microsoft at $200 Billion in ARR

Clouded Judgement 10.27.23 - Cloud Giants Report Q3 '23

ISVs vs SaaS: What’s the Difference?

Clouded Judgement 2.2.24 - Cloud Giants Report Q4 '23

Shopify Says eCommerce is Back. But AWS Says Cloud Under More Scrutiny.

Pilot: 57% of Venture Startups Will Need to Raise More In 2024

Cloud Stocks May Be Down. But the Cloud Remains on Fire. That Matters More.

How Nimble + Azure Revolutionize Relationship Management for Office 365 Teams

SaaS Multiples Are At a 3+ Year Low. Where It Goes From Here.

A Look Back at Q4 '23 Public Cloud Software Earnings

Bessemer: $1 Trillion in Cloud Market Cap Lost Year-to-Date

SaaS Rule of 40 Drivers Using KeyBanc’s 2021 SaaS Survey

Datadog, ZoomInfo, Atlassian, AWS: Epic Growth — But Some Real Headwinds For The First Time

5 Interesting Learnings from Digital Ocean at $700,000,000 in ARR

Clouded Judgement 4.28.23

Sync Your MRR Movements with Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, or Azure Blob Storage

Snow Angels Come Early to Data : Snowflake's Strength Spells Success for Startups

5 Interesting Learnings from ServiceNow at $7 Billion in ARR

Gartner: SaaS Spending Will Grow Another 40% in Next 2 Years Alone

Clouded Judgement 1.6.23

5 Interesting Learnings from Google Cloud at $13 Billion in ARR

The Macroeconomic Signal to Watch for Software & Infrastructure Startups

Clouded Judgement 10.20.23 - Hyperscaler Q3 Preview

Clouded Judgement 8.4.23 - Cloud Giants Q2 Update

10 Predictions for Data at the Impact Summit

5 Interesting Learnings from DigitalOcean at $500,000,000 in ARR

Clouded Judgement 10.28.22

Founders Today Just Need to Assume the Next Round Never Comes

Thanks to ChartMogul, ChurnZero, Cledara, Secureframe, and Verdane for Sponsoring SaaStr Europa 2023!

Clouded Judgement 7.28.23 - Optimization Cycles and Economy Update

The 4 Questions Startups Should Ask Themselves about Building with Generative AI

Clouded Judgement 1.27.23

Atlassian and AWS Say: “Maybe Worry a Little Bit”

Clouded Judgement 6.9.23 - Recap of Consumption Trends in Q1 '23

Thanks to Unit, Everstage, Aiven, Zip, and Mission Cloud for Sponsoring SaaStr Annual 2022!

Why Would Microsoft Buy Wunderlist and Later Just Shut it Down?

Clouded Judgement 4.21.23

What do Google Search Query Trends Reveal about the Changes in How We Work?

6 SaaS Development Services Your Startup Needs In 2024

How to Categorize Expenses in a SaaS Startup v2.0

Stay Connected