Research firms and vendors predict that internal app stores and cloud computing will be very important trends in enterprise application development over the coming year. For example, AppDirect says most large companies are setting up their own app stores. “Sometimes large companies can be slow to adopt new technologies, but the Fortune 500 are jumping into the app economy headfirst,” said AppDirect co-CEO Daniel Saks. “Not only do the majority of Fortune 500 companies offer apps of some type, but they overwhelmingly turn to application marketplaces to distribute them to end users.”
Similarly, Forrester writes, “SaaS applications will become the standard portfolio elements, and centralized IT procurement and management processes will rise up to support them. At the heart of these processes will be the service catalog, a place not only to define, advertise and price the services IT delivers, but the vehicle to empower cloud consumers and IT pros alike through self-service, single sign-on, and centralized delivery. Service catalogs will go beyond the ‘how’ of cloud delivery and engage the business consumer to decide ‘what’ should be delivered, and ‘when.'”
