PaaS: Disrupting Traditional Software Business Models

Cloud platform providers are increasingly building native versions of the features ISVs used to sell standalone — forcing ISVs to rethink their strategy.

As cloud providers like AWS and Google Cloud have matured into full platforms, they've started offering native versions of capabilities that independent software vendors used to sell as standalone products, from DDoS protection to load balancing to access control.

For developers, that native functionality is often convenient enough to skip third-party tools altogether, since most teams only use a fraction of any specialized product's advanced features anyway.

Where This Leaves ISVs

Cloud marketplaces increasingly showcase platform-native apps alongside third-party ISV products, giving platform providers a structural advantage, but with legacy applications still far outnumbering cloud-native ones across most enterprises, ISVs still have real runway to adapt their strategy.