Do you know your SaaS from your PaaS?
By Charles Batchelor
Published: March 16 2011 17:29 | Last updated: March 16 2011 17:29
The “cloud,” as a term, has the virtue of simplicity. But burrow into the different types of cloud computing service on offer and you realise the techies have got hold of the dictionary. Infrastructure-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service and software-as-a-service are terms frequently used to describe the shapes the cloud can take.
“There are real differences, but there is also a degree of marketing spin,” says Rupert Chapman, a cloud specialist at PA Consulting. “They describe the levels of service on offer.”
Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) involves the customer paying for off-site use of basic hardware and equipment – servers, network equipment, database storage from the provider. “I get access to very cheap shared machines and can put my own operating system and applications on top, so I have a degree of control,” says Mr Chapman.
Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) is the next level, with the customer renting both the machines and the operating systems that do the job. The customer does not need to understand the architecture of the platform or to carry out upgrades. At this level, customers can also develop and test their own applications.
Staff who are not programmers can try out applications to see how they work and if they are of value to customers and users. A credit-checking database could, for example, be used as a building block to construct a customer management application.
Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is the third layer in the cloud. Customers rent whatever applications they require – enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and human resources are common business applications – and have only to log in to be able to use them.
“All I need is an internet browser and I can log in from home, the office or the coffee shop,” says Mr Chapman. “Everything is looked after by the cloud provider.”
SaaS is sometimes used as a catch-all phrase to mean “cloud computing”, but the purists insist the two terms are different. Cloud computing is the more general term used to cover the different levels of service available.
“Clients tend to forget about the labels,” says Mr Chapman. “These are terms that will stay in the IT world. Most business users don’t care and are probably turned off by them.”
“We prefer to call it IT-as-a-service,” says Michael Kogeler, director of cloud strategy at Microsoft International, which has launched Windows Azure as a cloud computing platform. “That’s more understandable.”
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to others.
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Showing posts with label SaaS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SaaS. Show all posts
Friday, April 15, 2011
Friday, February 27, 2009
The benefits and risks of implementing software as a service
The benefits and risks of implementing software as a service
By Andrew Hartshorn, partner and head of the ICT practice at law firm Shakespeare Putsman, and member of the Federation Against Software Theft’s Legal Advisory Group
Published: February 27 2009 09:33 | Last updated: February 27 2009 09:33
Software as a service is growing apace. It has moved from revolution to mainstream – McKinsey predicts that SaaS will represent 35 per cent of annual software budgets by 2011. Whether Charles Black, Nasstar’s chief executive, will be proved correct in his prediction – that by 2013 web-based applications in the workplace will make IT departments redundant – is yet to be seen.
However, in the current climate, SaaS is seen as a way to reduce costs and allow future growth without capacity constraints.
My view is that customers should see the SaaS model as being more akin to a managed service or an outsourcing contract than the traditional software licence model. In a managed service model, while the customer might develop their own business requirements and specifications which are priced and delivered by a managed service provider, with SaaS the provider has pre-developed the specification and the software and the opportunity for customisation is limited. As with any system implementation, businesses still need to understand their own processes to ensure that they can map to the SaaS service and gain full value from the implementation.
In the SaaS model, a software application (and particularly complex software such as Customer Relationship Management, HR and accounting packages) is hosted by either the software vendor or a third party and the use of the application is provided remotely to the customer over the internet. The host is responsible for the operational environment including the software and hardware, dealing with upgrades and patches and data storage.
The customer accesses the application using a client side application which may be bespoke or a standard web browser.
Rather than undertaking expensive and time-consuming software development projects, its proponents say that SaaS is ready as an off-the-shelf solution. The standard pricing model is based around annual fees either on a per-user or an enterprise wide basis which enables budgets to be managed on an annual basis without the need for major investment in the initial implementation.
Pricing models vary however with some providers charging for additional storage capacity over a particular level. Training may also be a chargeable item as may any specific configuration requirements of the customer.
With SaaS, the customer is not tied to particular hardware platforms for its installation of the software – instead the provider manages the hardware. If the customer wants to add a raft of new users, it merely ups the user numbers and pays the additional annual fees. Active monitoring of users’ requirements for the software is important to avoid spiralling costs for users who don’t need to use the software.
With the provider responsible for looking after the system, the customer does not need to worry about managing patches and upgrades.
With web access, many SaaS applications are always available from any location where internet access is enabled. Clearly in an era where many businesses are looking to empower mobile working, the provision of remote access to business critical applications such as CRM can be a valuable business tool.
The fact that the provision of a SaaS service does not require the physical presence of the provider at any particular location enables the development of market specific applications. Thus an Australian SaaS provider could develop a CRM application that is particularly suitable for, say, media companies. UK media companies would be equally able to access this application from Australia as they would a UK based application.
However, the benefits SaaS offer can also be interpreted as risks for businesses.
One challenge is the ceding of control to the SaaS provider. By asking the SaaS provider to manage the system, the customer loses control over the system. The customer is reliant on the SaaS provider to respond to faults and to decide when and how to implement upgrades.
In weighing up the pros and cons of adopting a SaaS approach, a customer must understand (as with a managed services contract) the fix times (and consequences of not meeting these fix times) offered by the provider. The customer will have no ability to manage the fix itself.
Nor is the customer likely to have any say over the functionality of new versions of the software implemented by the SaaS provider. With the standard software licence model (and even in managed services contracts) the customer would expect some degree of control over the timing of the implementation of new versions and could decide for itself whether the functionality provided by the new version merited an immediate upgrade or whether to continue on the current version. As with any business change, there are costs other than the pure IT costs of implementation of a new version of software.
A major consideration for any business considering implementing an additional or alternative software application is the cost of integration of the application into the existing ICT infrastructure of the business. This is no less true for SaaS solutions.
The integration may require use of specialist third party SaaS integration tools or the development of a bespoke solution.
SaaS providers also control the timescale for release of upgrades and new versions of their product. While reputable providers of SaaS solutions are likely to consider backwards compatibility, there is no guarantee that newer versions of SaaS applications will not require further implementation work for customers.
Whilst SaaS is sold as deployed offsite, it is sometimes necessary for the customer to concern themselves with deployment or upgrade of packages such as Java or other “add-ins” to ensure the smooth operation of the SaaS software. The customer will also need to ensure that they are using a consistent and supported version of their internet browser.
As with any offsite managed service, the customer in a SaaS service is reliant on the application provider to manage data security. While a SaaS provider is unlikely to leave a laptop with the customer’s data on the train, both the protection of a business’s reputation and data protection laws require customers to understand exactly how the provider will manage all aspects of data security.
Many of the cost benefits of SaaS are predicated on a “one size fits all” approach and there is likely to be little opportunity to require the SaaS provider to move to a data security regime different from its standard offering without pricing implications. Indeed, for smaller customers, the offering is likely to be on a take it or leave it approach.
As a minimum, the following aspects should be documented:
● Back-up processes
● Any ability of the SaaS provider to send data overseas
● Disaster recover procedures
● Exit provisions (see the section on exit below)
As with an outsourcing, the customer is at risk of diluting the skill set of its in-house team. However, unlike outsourcing, it is unlikely that any employees of the SaaS provider will move to the customer on termination of the SaaS contract, potentially leaving the customer with a skills deficit.
While customers may ask for support on exit (see below), as outsourced customers have sometimes found this does not necessarily equate to in-house expertise. While there is always a challenge and cost of moving applications, the loss of in-house expertise may add to the problems faced by a business looking to migrate away from a SaaS provider.
With a standard licence model exit should not be an issue – the customer is in control of the implementation and data and can carry out all tests that it considers appropriate to provide comfort that, once it switches over to the new application, it will not suffer any unmanageable teething problems. This is not the case with an outsourced service as the customer is reliant on potentially two competing third parties to assist in transition.
Any managed services contract should therefore deal with exit. A SaaS contract is no different. Whether the exit is planned or forced, the customer needs to know that the transition away from the incumbent provider to the replacement (whether in-house or third party) will be seamless and with as little interruption in service as is practicable. It is important to ensure that the SaaS provider is not able to switch off access resulting in the loss of business-critical systems before the business has an alternative solution.
The exit provisions need include the ability of the customer to recover its own data. While one would expect this to be a given, certain SaaS provider terms explicitly deny this right to customers in the event of non-payment by the customer.
Clearly there can be benefits of adopting the SaaS model. The pricing model offered by the SaaS community is clearly articulated and may, on the face of it, provide a clear saving over the equivalent in-house licence model. Some of the obvious benefits of SaaS (such as simple remote access) may also be persuasive.
As with any investment decision, however, businesses need to understand the total cost of ownership including the medium term costs and potential disadvantages such as loss of in-house skills. Understanding the risk allocation in the contract clearly forms a part of this decision.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
By Andrew Hartshorn, partner and head of the ICT practice at law firm Shakespeare Putsman, and member of the Federation Against Software Theft’s Legal Advisory Group
Published: February 27 2009 09:33 | Last updated: February 27 2009 09:33
Software as a service is growing apace. It has moved from revolution to mainstream – McKinsey predicts that SaaS will represent 35 per cent of annual software budgets by 2011. Whether Charles Black, Nasstar’s chief executive, will be proved correct in his prediction – that by 2013 web-based applications in the workplace will make IT departments redundant – is yet to be seen.
However, in the current climate, SaaS is seen as a way to reduce costs and allow future growth without capacity constraints.
My view is that customers should see the SaaS model as being more akin to a managed service or an outsourcing contract than the traditional software licence model. In a managed service model, while the customer might develop their own business requirements and specifications which are priced and delivered by a managed service provider, with SaaS the provider has pre-developed the specification and the software and the opportunity for customisation is limited. As with any system implementation, businesses still need to understand their own processes to ensure that they can map to the SaaS service and gain full value from the implementation.
In the SaaS model, a software application (and particularly complex software such as Customer Relationship Management, HR and accounting packages) is hosted by either the software vendor or a third party and the use of the application is provided remotely to the customer over the internet. The host is responsible for the operational environment including the software and hardware, dealing with upgrades and patches and data storage.
The customer accesses the application using a client side application which may be bespoke or a standard web browser.
Rather than undertaking expensive and time-consuming software development projects, its proponents say that SaaS is ready as an off-the-shelf solution. The standard pricing model is based around annual fees either on a per-user or an enterprise wide basis which enables budgets to be managed on an annual basis without the need for major investment in the initial implementation.
Pricing models vary however with some providers charging for additional storage capacity over a particular level. Training may also be a chargeable item as may any specific configuration requirements of the customer.
With SaaS, the customer is not tied to particular hardware platforms for its installation of the software – instead the provider manages the hardware. If the customer wants to add a raft of new users, it merely ups the user numbers and pays the additional annual fees. Active monitoring of users’ requirements for the software is important to avoid spiralling costs for users who don’t need to use the software.
With the provider responsible for looking after the system, the customer does not need to worry about managing patches and upgrades.
With web access, many SaaS applications are always available from any location where internet access is enabled. Clearly in an era where many businesses are looking to empower mobile working, the provision of remote access to business critical applications such as CRM can be a valuable business tool.
The fact that the provision of a SaaS service does not require the physical presence of the provider at any particular location enables the development of market specific applications. Thus an Australian SaaS provider could develop a CRM application that is particularly suitable for, say, media companies. UK media companies would be equally able to access this application from Australia as they would a UK based application.
However, the benefits SaaS offer can also be interpreted as risks for businesses.
One challenge is the ceding of control to the SaaS provider. By asking the SaaS provider to manage the system, the customer loses control over the system. The customer is reliant on the SaaS provider to respond to faults and to decide when and how to implement upgrades.
In weighing up the pros and cons of adopting a SaaS approach, a customer must understand (as with a managed services contract) the fix times (and consequences of not meeting these fix times) offered by the provider. The customer will have no ability to manage the fix itself.
Nor is the customer likely to have any say over the functionality of new versions of the software implemented by the SaaS provider. With the standard software licence model (and even in managed services contracts) the customer would expect some degree of control over the timing of the implementation of new versions and could decide for itself whether the functionality provided by the new version merited an immediate upgrade or whether to continue on the current version. As with any business change, there are costs other than the pure IT costs of implementation of a new version of software.
A major consideration for any business considering implementing an additional or alternative software application is the cost of integration of the application into the existing ICT infrastructure of the business. This is no less true for SaaS solutions.
The integration may require use of specialist third party SaaS integration tools or the development of a bespoke solution.
SaaS providers also control the timescale for release of upgrades and new versions of their product. While reputable providers of SaaS solutions are likely to consider backwards compatibility, there is no guarantee that newer versions of SaaS applications will not require further implementation work for customers.
Whilst SaaS is sold as deployed offsite, it is sometimes necessary for the customer to concern themselves with deployment or upgrade of packages such as Java or other “add-ins” to ensure the smooth operation of the SaaS software. The customer will also need to ensure that they are using a consistent and supported version of their internet browser.
As with any offsite managed service, the customer in a SaaS service is reliant on the application provider to manage data security. While a SaaS provider is unlikely to leave a laptop with the customer’s data on the train, both the protection of a business’s reputation and data protection laws require customers to understand exactly how the provider will manage all aspects of data security.
Many of the cost benefits of SaaS are predicated on a “one size fits all” approach and there is likely to be little opportunity to require the SaaS provider to move to a data security regime different from its standard offering without pricing implications. Indeed, for smaller customers, the offering is likely to be on a take it or leave it approach.
As a minimum, the following aspects should be documented:
● Back-up processes
● Any ability of the SaaS provider to send data overseas
● Disaster recover procedures
● Exit provisions (see the section on exit below)
As with an outsourcing, the customer is at risk of diluting the skill set of its in-house team. However, unlike outsourcing, it is unlikely that any employees of the SaaS provider will move to the customer on termination of the SaaS contract, potentially leaving the customer with a skills deficit.
While customers may ask for support on exit (see below), as outsourced customers have sometimes found this does not necessarily equate to in-house expertise. While there is always a challenge and cost of moving applications, the loss of in-house expertise may add to the problems faced by a business looking to migrate away from a SaaS provider.
With a standard licence model exit should not be an issue – the customer is in control of the implementation and data and can carry out all tests that it considers appropriate to provide comfort that, once it switches over to the new application, it will not suffer any unmanageable teething problems. This is not the case with an outsourced service as the customer is reliant on potentially two competing third parties to assist in transition.
Any managed services contract should therefore deal with exit. A SaaS contract is no different. Whether the exit is planned or forced, the customer needs to know that the transition away from the incumbent provider to the replacement (whether in-house or third party) will be seamless and with as little interruption in service as is practicable. It is important to ensure that the SaaS provider is not able to switch off access resulting in the loss of business-critical systems before the business has an alternative solution.
The exit provisions need include the ability of the customer to recover its own data. While one would expect this to be a given, certain SaaS provider terms explicitly deny this right to customers in the event of non-payment by the customer.
Clearly there can be benefits of adopting the SaaS model. The pricing model offered by the SaaS community is clearly articulated and may, on the face of it, provide a clear saving over the equivalent in-house licence model. Some of the obvious benefits of SaaS (such as simple remote access) may also be persuasive.
As with any investment decision, however, businesses need to understand the total cost of ownership including the medium term costs and potential disadvantages such as loss of in-house skills. Understanding the risk allocation in the contract clearly forms a part of this decision.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
The Forrester Blog For Information & Knowledge Management Professionals
The Forrester Blog For Information & Knowledge Management Professionals
Open Text Makes A DAM SaaS-y Move
By Stephen Powers
I'll give you five seconds to recover from your pun-induced groaning [5...4...3...2...1] Now, on to the news: Open Text announced late last week that it has acquired eMotion, a software-as-a-service digital asset management (DAM) product, from Corbis. Open Text plans to rebrand eMotion as Artesia on Demand for Marketing, complementing its full-featured, installed Artesia DAM product.
This move into SaaS DAM is a smart move by Open Text. The installed version of Artesia has a reputation as one of the top DAM solutions out there, but its functionality and price tag may be daunting for those organizations just starting to dip their toes into the DAM waters. Some enterprises don't have the need for some of the high-end functionality - management of broadcast-quality video, for example - that "Classic Artesia" offers. Instead, many enterprises exploring DAM want to use it to manage rich media assets for use in the online channel.
In addition, marketers are now driving some of the demand for DAM, and they're not excited about waiting in the IT queue for another installed content management implementation. While other components of ECM (like Web content management) may need customizations that don't lend always themselves to the SaaS model, marketing requirements for DAM tend to be more a bit more straightforward: repository, workflow, search, metadata, permissions, and hooks into delivery mechanisms.
Now, Open Text has a DAM solution that can meet mid-level needs, and customers who want SaaS - without worrying about the stability of some of the niche DAM vendors - get the benefit of the relative stability of Open Text. Plus, this acquisition has the possibility of being an effective answer to North Plains' recent release of a SaaS version of its TeleScope product. Time will tell how much tinkering Open Text needs to do with its new acquisition, but this is a good first step into the SaaS world.
Open Text Makes A DAM SaaS-y Move
By Stephen Powers
I'll give you five seconds to recover from your pun-induced groaning [5...4...3...2...1] Now, on to the news: Open Text announced late last week that it has acquired eMotion, a software-as-a-service digital asset management (DAM) product, from Corbis. Open Text plans to rebrand eMotion as Artesia on Demand for Marketing, complementing its full-featured, installed Artesia DAM product.
This move into SaaS DAM is a smart move by Open Text. The installed version of Artesia has a reputation as one of the top DAM solutions out there, but its functionality and price tag may be daunting for those organizations just starting to dip their toes into the DAM waters. Some enterprises don't have the need for some of the high-end functionality - management of broadcast-quality video, for example - that "Classic Artesia" offers. Instead, many enterprises exploring DAM want to use it to manage rich media assets for use in the online channel.
In addition, marketers are now driving some of the demand for DAM, and they're not excited about waiting in the IT queue for another installed content management implementation. While other components of ECM (like Web content management) may need customizations that don't lend always themselves to the SaaS model, marketing requirements for DAM tend to be more a bit more straightforward: repository, workflow, search, metadata, permissions, and hooks into delivery mechanisms.
Now, Open Text has a DAM solution that can meet mid-level needs, and customers who want SaaS - without worrying about the stability of some of the niche DAM vendors - get the benefit of the relative stability of Open Text. Plus, this acquisition has the possibility of being an effective answer to North Plains' recent release of a SaaS version of its TeleScope product. Time will tell how much tinkering Open Text needs to do with its new acquisition, but this is a good first step into the SaaS world.
Monday, March 17, 2008
FT.com / Technology - A bright future in the cloud
FT.com / Technology - A bright future in the cloud
A bright future in the cloud
By Shane Robison
Published: March 4 2008 17:36 | Last updated: March 4 2008 17:36
Nicholas Carr is right – the future of computing lies in the internet cloud. The technology industry is shifting to a new model in which people and businesses no longer install packaged software applications on their computers. Instead, they use their web browsers to access a wide range of “cloud services”, available on demand over the internet.
Without question, this marks an exciting new era in computing.
But there is a risk of over-simplifying this picture. The “cloud” itself – a vast data-processing infrastructure – represents a critical foundational piece. But on its own, it cannot deliver the rich experience that people and companies want as they look for a better way to access information, enjoy content, and communicate.
To realise the full potential of this new model, the IT industry needs to think about the cloud as a platform for creating new services and experiences that we have yet to imagine.
For example, cloud services could eveolve that are intelligent enough to anticipate people’s needs. In this next phase, searching will be done for users, not by them. This would be accompanied by a seamless, consistent experience across all of the different devices users own, and all the on-demand services they care about.
This leaves the IT industry with a lot of hard work to do. It requires a new set of core building blocks to deliver this new category of services; it needs smarter devices and more intelligent networks; and software will be the “secret sauce” that powers these new services and shapes the quality of the user experience.
The power of the cloud happens when there is continuous interaction between a device – smartphone, laptop, TV – and the network. A simple example: it is 2pm and your calendar shows you are booked on a flight to Toronto at 6pm. Your device should anticipate this trip and gather relevant information – weather forecast for the Toronto area, status update on the flight, recommended route to the airport based on latest traffic conditions, and so on. In this scenario, the step forward is the pervasive, proactive and personalised nature of cloud services.
Some may say they heard this during the 1990s internet bubble but at that time it was not possible to use the internet as a platform for anything more than static pages. Broadband changes all that but brings us to the need for a higher level of intelligence built into devices and networks, and the software that ties everything together.
Nicholas Carr correctly points out that the shift to cloud computing will dramatically reduce the cost of IT. But this shift goes far beyond cost savings; it marks a quantum-leap in the user experience.
Much attention so far has focused on software as a service, a proven model for making software applications available on demand over the internet – it frees customers from the expense and hassle of having to install and maintain applications locally.
But Saas is the tip of the iceberg. In the future, everything will be delivered as a service, from work life to entertainment to communities. In an “Everything as a service” world individuals and businesses will customise their computing environments and shape their experiences – from individual consumers to the largest global enterprises, which will increasingly turn to dynamic cloud-based offerings to meet their most demanding computing requirements.
As we approach the tipping point where computing moves into the cloud, there are five trends I believe worthy of close attention:
1. The digital world will converge with the physical world: Starting in about 1995, the mantra was, “Everything is virtual. Geography is irrelevant”. But from 2008, factors such as your physical location will mean a lot. Cloud services will be increasingly aware of context, down to details such as time, weather, where a user is headed, and which friends or business colleagues are nearby.
2. The era of device-centric computing is over. Connectivity-centric computing will take centre stage. The question “When am I going to get that one device that does everything I can imagine?” will be flipped on its head as any number of devices will provide easy access to all services and content. Devices become interchangeable, with cloud services becoming the focal point.
3. Publishing will be democratised. A global internet population of 1.2bn people now has the tools to produce everything from books and magazines to music and videos. This represents a massive disruption of old publishing models. People will soon be able to print on demand any book ever published; warehouses of physical inventory in the publishing world will no longer be necessary.
4. Crowd-sourcing is going mainstream. Fortune 50 companies will access top talent on a global basis via the internet, saving millions of dollars in professional areas as diverse as accountants, advertising professionals, attorneys, engineers, etc. Reputation systems will lower the risks involved by exposing poor performers.
5. Enterprises will use radically different tools to make key business decisions, including systems to predict the future. A merger is taking place between the structured data that fuels business intelligence and the unstructured data of the web. This combination will advance business intelligence. At the same time, market-based systems enabling accurate predictions of the future will become common practice in the enterprise.
By moving from the desktop to the cloud, we have an opportunity to reshape the computing industry and, more importantly, create more dynamic services that enrich lives and improve how we do business.
To realise this potential, we must innovate by building a higher level of intelligence into the next generation of devices, networks and software. When we are successful in providing a dramatically better user experience, we will be poised for the next wave of growth.
Shane Robison is executive vice president, chief strategy and technology officer, HP
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
A bright future in the cloud
By Shane Robison
Published: March 4 2008 17:36 | Last updated: March 4 2008 17:36
Nicholas Carr is right – the future of computing lies in the internet cloud. The technology industry is shifting to a new model in which people and businesses no longer install packaged software applications on their computers. Instead, they use their web browsers to access a wide range of “cloud services”, available on demand over the internet.
Without question, this marks an exciting new era in computing.
But there is a risk of over-simplifying this picture. The “cloud” itself – a vast data-processing infrastructure – represents a critical foundational piece. But on its own, it cannot deliver the rich experience that people and companies want as they look for a better way to access information, enjoy content, and communicate.
To realise the full potential of this new model, the IT industry needs to think about the cloud as a platform for creating new services and experiences that we have yet to imagine.
For example, cloud services could eveolve that are intelligent enough to anticipate people’s needs. In this next phase, searching will be done for users, not by them. This would be accompanied by a seamless, consistent experience across all of the different devices users own, and all the on-demand services they care about.
This leaves the IT industry with a lot of hard work to do. It requires a new set of core building blocks to deliver this new category of services; it needs smarter devices and more intelligent networks; and software will be the “secret sauce” that powers these new services and shapes the quality of the user experience.
The power of the cloud happens when there is continuous interaction between a device – smartphone, laptop, TV – and the network. A simple example: it is 2pm and your calendar shows you are booked on a flight to Toronto at 6pm. Your device should anticipate this trip and gather relevant information – weather forecast for the Toronto area, status update on the flight, recommended route to the airport based on latest traffic conditions, and so on. In this scenario, the step forward is the pervasive, proactive and personalised nature of cloud services.
Some may say they heard this during the 1990s internet bubble but at that time it was not possible to use the internet as a platform for anything more than static pages. Broadband changes all that but brings us to the need for a higher level of intelligence built into devices and networks, and the software that ties everything together.
Nicholas Carr correctly points out that the shift to cloud computing will dramatically reduce the cost of IT. But this shift goes far beyond cost savings; it marks a quantum-leap in the user experience.
Much attention so far has focused on software as a service, a proven model for making software applications available on demand over the internet – it frees customers from the expense and hassle of having to install and maintain applications locally.
But Saas is the tip of the iceberg. In the future, everything will be delivered as a service, from work life to entertainment to communities. In an “Everything as a service” world individuals and businesses will customise their computing environments and shape their experiences – from individual consumers to the largest global enterprises, which will increasingly turn to dynamic cloud-based offerings to meet their most demanding computing requirements.
As we approach the tipping point where computing moves into the cloud, there are five trends I believe worthy of close attention:
1. The digital world will converge with the physical world: Starting in about 1995, the mantra was, “Everything is virtual. Geography is irrelevant”. But from 2008, factors such as your physical location will mean a lot. Cloud services will be increasingly aware of context, down to details such as time, weather, where a user is headed, and which friends or business colleagues are nearby.
2. The era of device-centric computing is over. Connectivity-centric computing will take centre stage. The question “When am I going to get that one device that does everything I can imagine?” will be flipped on its head as any number of devices will provide easy access to all services and content. Devices become interchangeable, with cloud services becoming the focal point.
3. Publishing will be democratised. A global internet population of 1.2bn people now has the tools to produce everything from books and magazines to music and videos. This represents a massive disruption of old publishing models. People will soon be able to print on demand any book ever published; warehouses of physical inventory in the publishing world will no longer be necessary.
4. Crowd-sourcing is going mainstream. Fortune 50 companies will access top talent on a global basis via the internet, saving millions of dollars in professional areas as diverse as accountants, advertising professionals, attorneys, engineers, etc. Reputation systems will lower the risks involved by exposing poor performers.
5. Enterprises will use radically different tools to make key business decisions, including systems to predict the future. A merger is taking place between the structured data that fuels business intelligence and the unstructured data of the web. This combination will advance business intelligence. At the same time, market-based systems enabling accurate predictions of the future will become common practice in the enterprise.
By moving from the desktop to the cloud, we have an opportunity to reshape the computing industry and, more importantly, create more dynamic services that enrich lives and improve how we do business.
To realise this potential, we must innovate by building a higher level of intelligence into the next generation of devices, networks and software. When we are successful in providing a dramatically better user experience, we will be poised for the next wave of growth.
Shane Robison is executive vice president, chief strategy and technology officer, HP
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Small Firms Take on Big SaaS Integration Woes | The Intelligent Enterprise Blog
Small Firms Take on Big SaaS Integration Woes | The Intelligent Enterprise Blog
Small Firms Take on Big SaaS Integration Woes
Posted by David Linthicum
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
10:47 AM
As highlighted in this article by Computer Weekly, SMBs using SaaS face a complex integration challenge.
"According to research firm Saugatuck Technology, as more companies use SaaS, the need to integrate those applications with the rest of a company's systems grows. In fact, 17 percent of SMBs are using more than one application delivered via SaaS, according to the Westport, Conn.-based firm's findings."
Small Firms Take on Big SaaS Integration Woes
Posted by David Linthicum
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
10:47 AM
As highlighted in this article by Computer Weekly, SMBs using SaaS face a complex integration challenge.
"According to research firm Saugatuck Technology, as more companies use SaaS, the need to integrate those applications with the rest of a company's systems grows. In fact, 17 percent of SMBs are using more than one application delivered via SaaS, according to the Westport, Conn.-based firm's findings."
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Friday, April 13, 2007
Salesforce.com Gets Into Content Management Through SaaS
Salesforce.com Gets Into Content Management Through SaaS
Salesforce.com's new offerings are evidence of the growing interest in basic content management delivered through the software-as-a-service model. But prospective buyers should approach these new offerings cautiously.
Salesforce.com's new offerings are evidence of the growing interest in basic content management delivered through the software-as-a-service model. But prospective buyers should approach these new offerings cautiously.
Salesforce.com Gets Into Content Management Through SaaS
Salesforce.com Gets Into Content Management Through SaaS
Salesforce.com's new offerings are evidence of the growing interest in basic content management delivered through the software-as-a-service model. But prospective buyers should approach these new offerings cautiously.
Salesforce.com's new offerings are evidence of the growing interest in basic content management delivered through the software-as-a-service model. But prospective buyers should approach these new offerings cautiously.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Salesforce.com Buys Into ECM (AMR)
Salesforce.com is acquiring on-demand content management provider Koral, Inc., and while the deal is so small that salesforce.com isn’t required to report its size, it’s a big enough deal for the press and investment community to take heed. But even after wiping the hype off, the acquisition points to looming changes in the content management market. Koral, a $2.5M venture-funded startup, had already demonstrated its capability, ease of use, and ease of integration as a salesforce.com AppExchange partner. Salesforce.com will deploy Koral in a two-pronged content management strategy:
Salesforce.com’s vision for content management is aggressive, suggesting competition with long-standing, firmly established enterprise content management (ECM) providers like Documentum, FileNet, and Open Text and more pointedly, Microsoft’s rapidly growing SharePoint product. Established ECM vendors have far too frequently expressed their growth potential in terms of how much information is unstructured (industry lore has it as about 85%) versus structured. Warning customers that their information is unstructured incites neither fear nor urges to buy. The better point, one that Koral and salesforce.com express aptly, is that only 5% of employees use any content management system. Productivity, collaboration, and knowledge management needs dictate that far more people should; compliance mandates that far more must.
Of course, the value of getting to more users is not lost on Microsoft, already in front of most business users and seeking to retain and leverage the position. It may only come to a salesforce.com-Microsoft showdown if someone can successfully evangelize a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model for content management; not an easy task considering companies’ efforts to consolidate their content management investments while addressing growing compliance concerns. These days, compliance is a primary or secondary concern in almost every content management inquiry AMR Research takes. In many industries and for many business processes, systems must meet rigorous regulatory standards, some advising and some requiring that documentation must reside within the enterprise’s control. A deeper look at this acquisition, its ramifications in the ECM market, and the future of SaaS in ECM can be found in, “Salesforce.com Buys Into ECM: Is Content Management Ready for SaaS?”
Salesforce.com’s vision for content management is aggressive, suggesting competition with long-standing, firmly established enterprise content management (ECM) providers like Documentum, FileNet, and Open Text and more pointedly, Microsoft’s rapidly growing SharePoint product. Established ECM vendors have far too frequently expressed their growth potential in terms of how much information is unstructured (industry lore has it as about 85%) versus structured. Warning customers that their information is unstructured incites neither fear nor urges to buy. The better point, one that Koral and salesforce.com express aptly, is that only 5% of employees use any content management system. Productivity, collaboration, and knowledge management needs dictate that far more people should; compliance mandates that far more must.
Of course, the value of getting to more users is not lost on Microsoft, already in front of most business users and seeking to retain and leverage the position. It may only come to a salesforce.com-Microsoft showdown if someone can successfully evangelize a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model for content management; not an easy task considering companies’ efforts to consolidate their content management investments while addressing growing compliance concerns. These days, compliance is a primary or secondary concern in almost every content management inquiry AMR Research takes. In many industries and for many business processes, systems must meet rigorous regulatory standards, some advising and some requiring that documentation must reside within the enterprise’s control. A deeper look at this acquisition, its ramifications in the ECM market, and the future of SaaS in ECM can be found in, “Salesforce.com Buys Into ECM: Is Content Management Ready for SaaS?”
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