It was great having the opportunity to hear Sanjay Brahmawar, CEO, Software AG share his vision for the evolution of software at the company's international press event. Prior to becoming the CEO of Software AG seven months ago, Sanjay was with IBM for 14 years most recently serving as the GM of Watson IoT.

During his first 100 days at Software AG, Sanjay traveled the world meeting with employees and customers to get their perspective on what the firm should start doing, stop doing, and keep doing.

He sees the need for software companies to shift to a monthly subscription model, integration platform as a service (iPaaS), whereby clients can determine the value they are getting from their investments on an ongoing basis with the ability to change solutions as needed with no vendor lock-in— be it software or infrastructure.

The needs for enterprises, hence where solutions providers and developers need to be focused, are the integration of APIs, applications, infrastructure, as well as IoT and analytics. This is why Software AG is committed to helping clients turn data into value by unlocking data to improve operations, UX, and CX providing a better future for end users. Software AG will focus on three verticals: industrial IoT, telecommunications, and logistics.

Data drives business success and solutions providers must ensure data transparency, privacy, and security. The right iPaaS platform does this by helping to secure everything that's being integrated.

According to Gartner, the integration marketplace is projected to grow from $12 billion in 2017 to $18 billion in 2022 —10 percent CAGR while the IoT/analytics market is projected to grow from $9.5 billion in 2017 to $25.6 billion in 2023 - 38.5 percent CAGR. 

This projected growth in integration and IoT/analytics is something developers, engineers, and architects should keep in mind with regards to their company and their career.