Jan 17, 2016

SKYY ETF 4+ Years On

Well, it seems that First Trust's Cloud ETF has done fairly well over the past 4+ years, opening at about $20 USD and closing last Friday at $27.06. That's about a 35% increase in value despite an initial drop down to $15 and a rocky road ever since.

The list of companies held in the ETF has grown over time, but it's interesting to note that the top 10 holdings represent an interesting cross section of the industry that covers IaaS, PaaS and SaaS companies and service providers as well as hardware manufacturers. Interestingly, Alphabet (the GOOG parent holding company) sits at number 3 and Red Hat (the only software company that markets a cloud platform, OpenStack) rounds out the top 5.


Total Number of Holdings: 36
Security NameIdentifierClassificationWeighting Descending sort
Equinix, Inc.EQIXReal Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)4.36%
SAP SE (ADR)SAPSoftware4.20%
Alphabet Inc. (Class A)GOOGLInternet Software & Services3.97%
Zynga Inc.ZNGASoftware3.97%
Red Hat, Inc.RHTSoftware3.96%
F5 Networks, Inc.FFIVCommunications Equipment3.93%
Facebook, Inc. (Class A)FBInternet Software & Services3.92%
EMC CorporationEMCTechnology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals3.87%
NetSuite Inc.NSoftware3.87%
salesforce.com, inc.CRMSoftware3.87%
Cisco Systems, Inc.CSCOCommunications Equipment3.84%
Open Text CorporationOTEXSoftware3.83%
Oracle CorporationORCLSoftware3.80%
Amazon.com, Inc.AMZNInternet & Catalog Retail3.77%
Juniper Networks, Inc.JNPRCommunications Equipment3.72%
Akamai Technologies, Inc.AKAMInternet Software & Services3.68%
Netflix, Inc.NFLXInternet & Catalog Retail3.66%
VMware, Inc.VMWSoftware3.61%
Teradata CorporationTDCIT Services3.48%
NetApp, Inc.NTAPTechnology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals3.25%
Rackspace Hosting, Inc.RAXInternet Software & Services3.24%
International Business Machines CorporationIBMIT Services2.57%
Microsoft CorporationMSFTSoftware2.56%
Hewlett Packard Enterprise CompanyHPETechnology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals2.39%
Apple Inc.AAPLTechnology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals2.29%
Brightcove Inc.BCOVInternet Software & Services1.30%
CA, Inc.CASoftware0.94%
Adobe Systems IncorporatedADBESoftware0.92%
Intuit Inc.INTUSoftware0.92%
j2 Global, Inc.JCOMInternet Software & Services0.92%
Wipro Ltd. (ADR)WITIT Services0.90%
Activision Blizzard, Inc.ATVISoftware0.89%
Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.CHKPSoftware0.86%
Polycom, Inc.PLCMCommunications Equipment0.81%
NetScout Systems, Inc.NTCTCommunications Equipment0.80%
EVS Broadcast Equipment S.A.EVS.BBCommunications Equipment0.38%

As an ETF, we do expect that the equity mix is more than likely based on growth opportunity of the stock, company and product line/sales than on fidelity to the cloud paradigm. The usual suspects in cloud are found in the rest of the list

But, (I can't resist!) it's interesting to see that there are a couple of companies represented in the list that appear to offer "services in the cloud" rather than actual IaaS, PaaS or SaaS services. While it is possible that their offerings are actually SaaS, but they do seem to rely on marketing to brand their services/products as "cloud".

Jan 15, 2016

Updated Cloud Stats Page

The Cloud Stats page has been updated with new graphs and revised analysis of the graphs as of January 15, 2016.

While this is not authoritative, it's interesting to watch the evolution of search for cloud-related terms. It's clear that we've entered a new era of introspection by Information Technology teams: are we a Mode 1 shop, or Mode 2? Is there room for our Mode 2 in a Mode 1 environment? Can we run pet-like workloads in a cattle environment?

To me, this means that we are on the cusp of a revolution in IT. Decisions are being made that will affect the future of service delivery, internal or external, and that will define once and for all whether IT is a cost center, a profit center, or a center for innovation.