ReadWriteEnterprise

Today HP CEO Leo Apotheker announced HP's new strategy: cloud, connectivity and software. Mobility, consumerization of IT and big data will all play a role in this new strategy. In particular, HP's WebOS and Vertica acquisitions will drive it forward.

Here's a look at the specific plans Apotheker discussed.

As 2010 draws to a close we're taking a look at a few enterprise startups that show promise and that we haven't covered on ReadWriteEnterprise.

Podio is a highly customizable Web-based enterprise collaboration application. Like Huddle it emphasizes external collaboration as well as internal collaboration. Podio's distinguishing features are its large internal app store and its app builder. End-users can easily add or modify existing apps from the more than 2,000 apps available in the app store, or build new ones using a point and click interface.

SnapLogic is a cloud integration platform. It offers an app store (called the SnapStore) of connectors (called snaps) for integrating services like Box, Netsuite, and Salesforce.com. Unlike Jive or Salesforce.com, which offer services in addition to an app store, SnapLogic is focused on being a platform for connecting other services. Customers can also build their own snaps through a visual programming interface.

SnapLogic rigorously vets submissions to its app store, and applications are sandboxed. SnapLogic Server has support for both Active Directory and LDAP, enabling enterprises to integrate services with their existing access controls.

Last week we told you about how Jive is becoming a platform company by introducing its own apps platform and marketplace. And this week we took a look at the most popular apps in the Google Apps Marketplace. But there's a lingering question: is this really what IT wants, or is it just what vendors say IT wants?

Last night, Jive Software released its Jive Apps SDK to developers. For Jive, this isn't just an SDK release: it's the beginning of a new direction. Jive assigned twice as many developers to building its application platform and Jive Apps Market as it did to developing the previous release of Jive. And that's an indication not just of where Jive is going as a company, but where the enterprise software market seems to be headed. Salesforce.com made it clear last week that it is now a platform company vendor first and a SaaS company second. Companies such as Jive, Salesforce.com and Google are not just trying to copy the success of app stores in the consumer market, but create a whole new paradigm for enterprise software.

Now that Apple's iPhone Enterprise Developer Program is available for organizations of all sizes, all enterprises can take advantage of the ability to bypass the App Store and create and share internal apps. But how do you distribute and manage those applications? Business Week recently covered how companies like IBM are creating internal app stores for employees to find and share mobile apps. Although IBM built its own store, there are now at least five products on the market that help organizations easily build their own app stores.