September 21: The evolution of enterprise computing

In the old days of enterprise computing, companies typically paid millions of dollars for both hardware and software.

Source: The Rise of the Data Cloud
Published: December 2020

The evolution of enterprise computing

In the old days of enterprise computing, companies typically paid millions of dollars to license a package of software, millions more to buy the hardware, and then more money for yearly maintenance contracts. Think Oracle. 

Then came Software-as-a-Service, or SaaS. The customer negotiated a price with the software supplier and paid monthly to use software that ran in the cloud. Think Salesforce.

Now, we have the utilization model, with payments based on consumption. You buy credits and use them when you need them. Think Amazon Web Services. 

“At Snowflake, we believe [the utilization model] is a superior model and that someday most enterprise software will be purchased and delivered this way.”

- Frank Slootman, CEO of Snowflake (market cap of $96 billion)