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Oliver Niemandt, General Manager and Head of Sales, Cloud On Demand

As ISV’s embrace cloud & AI, businesses across multiple industries are encountering the same growth challenges. The next phase of ISV success will be defined by how effectively the ecosystem learns, aligns, and scales together.

Across the ISV community, ambition remains high. ISVs are innovating rapidly, modernising platforms, and responding to increasing market expectations.

Yet, as cloud-first, AI-enabled SaaS becomes the default operating model, many are encountering the same structural constraints across technology, cost, governance, and go-tomarket execution.

In this environment, building and scaling in isolation is becoming increasingly difficult. Growth is now influenced by shared platform dynamics, evolving customer expectations, and long term commercial sustainability, requiring a more interconnected approach.

This reality came into sharp focus at the recent Cloud On Demand C-suite roundtable in Cape Town. While the session set out to explore AI-driven innovation, the discussion quickly surfaced a broader insight: ISVs across sectors are navigating the same fundamental transition, and often grappling with it independently.

Around the table were ISVs with varied solution portfolios and levels of maturity. Despite these differences, the conversation consistently returned to a common inflection point: the shift from traditional, server-based models to scalable, cloud-first SaaS platforms.

This transition extends far beyond infrastructure. It reshapes product architecture, scalability, security posture, pricing models, and long-term profitability. Cloud adoption has become a defining factor not only in how ISVs build, but in how they compete, differentiate, and sustain growth.

Questions around platform selection, architectural readiness, cost management, and rising customer expectations surfaced repeatedly, underscoring how closely these decisions are tied to future viability rather than short-term execution. AI remains central to ISV growth strategies. Most participants view it as a key differentiator and a catalyst for scale. However, execution maturity varies widely.

The challenge is no longer whether to adopt AI, but how to operationalise it responsibly and at scale. Discussions highlighted tensions between innovation speed and governance, as well as gaps in skills, readiness, and platform alignment. What became clear is that shared learning, supported by experienced partners and proven platforms, can significantly reduce risk and accelerate AI adoption compared to isolated experimentation.

As ISVs modernise, security and compliance are increasingly treated as foundational requirements. With cloud native and AI enabled architectures becoming standard, Zero Trust is widely viewed as a baseline for customer trust and platform resilience. At the same time, cloud hosted SaaS models introduce ongoing operational costs that require careful management. Long term success now depends on balancing innovation with financial discipline, visibility, and sustainability.

Reflecting on the discussion, Cloud On Demand’s General Manager and Head of Sales, Oliver Niemandt, observed that the roundtable highlighted a broader ecosystem reality.

“What stood out was that ISVs are not struggling due to a lack of innovation,” he said. “They are navigating a fundamental market shift, often independently. The real opportunity lies in addressing these shared challenges together, rather than each ISV trying to solve the same problems on their own.” This insight marked a turning point in the conversation, shifting focus from individual pain points to shared responsibility and collective opportunity.

While ISVs may enter the ecosystem from different starting points, progress increasingly depends on collaboration, shared insight, and coordinated execution. In a rapidly evolving South African technology landscape, strong ecosystems are becoming essential for resilience, relevance, and scale.

The future of ISV growth will not be shaped by isolated innovation, but by collective momentum, and this conversation is only just beginning.

If you would like to learn more about how Cloud On Demand supports ISV growth, visit the their website on www.cloudondemand.co.za or follow them on socials.