Bio: Jeff Kaplan is the Founder and Managing Director of THINKstrategies, the only strategic consulting firm focused entirely on the business implications of the transition of the technology industry from product-centric to services-driven solutions. THINKstrategies helps IT/business decision-makers with their sourcing strategies; solution providers with their marketing strategies; and venture firms with their investment strategies. Kaplan is also the founder of the Cloud Computing Showplace (www.cloudshowplace.com), the largest, vendor-independent, online directory and best practice resource center focused on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions, including Managed Services. Prior to forming THINKstrategies, Jeff served as VP of Marketing and Business Development at InterOPS Management Solutions, and was Director of Strategic Marketing at International Network Services (INS) which was acquired by Lucent Technologies. Jeff was also a leading industry analyst at IDC, Dataquest and META Group. Jeff is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and contributing columnist for BusinessWeek, Mass High Tech Journal, Financial Times of London, NetworkWorld, Business Communications Review, ComputerWorld, InfoWorld, InformationWeek, Managing Automation, the Web Hosting Industry Review and Services News on topics including SaaS, cloud computing, managed services, outsourcing, IT operations and service level management (SLM). He has a BA in Urban Planning from Rutgers University and MBA from Boston College.