8 articles tagged ‘ISV’

Revealed: Confidence trick at heart of cloud computing May 20th 2008

See the confidence trick at the heart of cloud computing? Banking relies on a similar trick, but seems to (mostly) get away with it.

In part one of this article I introduced Phil Wainewright’s five layer PaaS model. Phil asked readers to say which layer they would prefer to use for building a SaaS application. Readers had cast 173 votes by May 15th.

In part two I looked at layer one: do-it-yourself and layer two: managed-hosting. Neither is suitable for SaaS ISVs. In part three I move up to PaaS layer three: cloud computing. Might this be more suitable for ISVs building SaaS solutions?

Cloud computing was the most popular choice of Phil’s readers. 27% said they would prefer it to develop a SaaS application. I wonder how many of them realise that cloud computing, just like banking, relies on a simple confidence trick…

Managed hosting: Don’t migrate your on-premise apps May 15th 2008

Managed hosting seems a good way to migrate to SaaS. Look closer and the chances of making money like this are slim to non-existent.

In part one of this article I introduced Phil Wainewright’s five layer PaaS model.

Phil asked readers to say which layer they would prefer to use for building a SaaS application. Readers had cast 173 votes by May 15th.

Let’s work though these results and see what they mean for ISVs moving to SaaS.

Understand the market: 5-layer model for PaaS vendors May 8th 2008

ISVs moving to SaaS have trouble classifying PaaS options. Phil Wainewright’s five-layer market model helps position PaaS vendors.

As an ISV moving to PaaS, you need to understand what choices are available to pick the right one. The Cloud Computing, Saas and PaaS market map is a good high-level view, but does not go into enough detail. To understand PaaS vendor positioning we need something more.

Phil Wainewright has a good five-layer PaaS model on the Software as Services blog that is more helpful. Phil splits the PaaS market into the following five layers:

SaaS ISVs: Know your customers or risk going to jail April 28th 2008

Many countries have strict “Know Your Customer” laws. SaaS ISVs will increasingly have to navigate their way through these laws.

ISVs must consider their jurisdiction, as well as that of their customers, suppliers, processing utilities and data storage providers. Not knowing enough about your customers can be expensive, and could even land you in jail. PaaS providers can add value to European ISVs by abstracting these jurisdiction issues and keeping track of future legal changes.

In Is jetting to Cuba this summer a bad idea for European SaaS ISVs? I reported on how the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) can impact non-US companies. A European travel agent appeared on the OFAC blacklist for selling Cuban holidays.

German SaaS survey: 2548 ISVs asleep at the wheel!

A recent survey of German ISVs revealed half have no plans to move to SaaS. Are these German ISVs right to ignore SaaS?

A recent survey of 5,200 small to medium-sized German ISVs caught my attention last week. A report by ComputerWoche summarised the findings of a SoftGuide survey on SaaS. SoftGuide is a software and IT services buyer’s guide for the German-speaking market.

Amazon EC2: Squeezing the profits from SaaS apps? April 8th 2008

A workload you can move from one utility to another gives you leverage to build negotiating power with CPU service providers.

As an SaaS ISV you can’t build a data centre; CPU cycles must come from utility providers. Amazon’s EC2 cloud computing platform is the current market leader. Microsoft is coming soon; Google and IBM will likely follow.

Relying on one CPU service provider, no matter who it is, is a bad idea. There is a risk a future monopoly provider could lock you in. Running your SaaS applications is a major part of your running costs. If your CPU service provider can lock you there’s a good chance your costs will increase.

Hiding by abstraction: Not enough for SaaS applications April 3rd 2008

Building reliable SaaS applications from non-reliable services demands fault-tolerance. Abstraction just doesn’t cut it any more.

Whether using frameworks, cross-platform toolkits or even application generators, abstraction has worked well for the different combinations of OS, database, networking and user interfaces that confront on-premise developers.

As an SaaS ISV you only have one platform–what technology doubts could you possibly have to worry about?

Platform selection: SaaS doesn’t solve your platform troubles March 31st 2008

SaaS ISVs select their platform. Even so, there are hard choices to make; the identical choices ISVs were facing 30 years ago.

SaaS is a dream come true for ISV development managers; finally there is only one platform to worry about. The long years of cross-platform development are over.

The bad old days are over where every customer had a different combination of hardware and software. No more support calls asking you to confirm in writing that you support version x.y of product z.

In the new SaaS world there is only one platform–the one you choose to run your hosted application. Even better, you have total control of your platform. What’s more, not just making the first choice, but for all future upgrades and improvements as well. Luxury, pure luxury!

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