Software as a Service for ISVs - Final

How many definitions of Platform as a Service (PaaS) have you come across with? Maybe you've read about Saugatuck's opinions or if you're a wiki-lover, you've read this. And definitely, if you've followed Morph Labs closely, you would have stumbled on this podcast or the three layers of cloud computing.

It is much a buzzword just as "in the cloud" is. In this post, how about we just give you analogies?

Analogy 1. You need transportation to get you from your house to work. Now, would you get an engine, a set of wheels and a chassis? You could assemble these into transportation, but do you really want to spend your time doing that? Do you have the skills to do it?

On the other hand, platform as a service providers offer you a car. You just get in and drive to work. Now apply this to applications. Morph Labs' value proposition is that our environment is ready to accept the application, removing the tasks of configuring/setting up servers, load balancers and databases. You could build a system on Amazon EC2, for instance to deliver a Grails application, but then you are spending your time building out the delivery platform. This also assumes that as a developer, you understand how to build out such an architecture to ensure that your applications are available, are backed up properly and are serviced over the long run.

Here is a link to Cleve Gibbon's article mentioning this analogy.

Analogy 2. Think of platform as a service as a fully serviced office. You just pick a package, move right in and get to work. You'll have a desk to work on, you're equipped with connectivity, and you'll even have people to help you manage incoming calls. In addition, you won't even have to think about facility maintenance.

So there you go. And yes, let me say this: don't take our word for it. BUT do hear out what our customers say about us.

Send us an email at info at mor dot ph if you'd like to know more about our services. OH! Here's a link to the webinar that I mentioned in the previous post.

Introducing the Morph Development Partners

You have a business centered around a software product or service that you think is worth putting all your resources to. First, you go at it alone comfortably with development only to find out that you need to spend a few hundred dollars more on deployment as it is part of the customer negotiations which you initially, reluctantly agreed to. Luckily, you find out that there's an easier way to do all that and let's you just focus on your core competency. Time for the Morph Partner Program.



Deploy scalable on-demand Rails applications without hiring additional IT staff for managing infrastructure. Simplify Software as a Service innovation and build success around your business by signing up to the Morph Partner Program.

Whether you are a Rails developer, ISV, consultant, technology provider, re-seller, or an entrepreneur, Morph's Partner Program is your vehicle for success.

We are happy to announce that Morph is now joined by five (5) new Development Partners namely; Atlantic Dominion Solutions, ASAP Websoft, Lumatila, SurgeWorks and WisdomGroup. Stay tuned as we keep you posted on the people behind these companies, their work and how the partnership with Morph brings mutual value to the businesses.

Related:
ADS Eliminates EC2 Overhead with Morph Application Platform

SaaS: Another S for Solutions

I just happen to come across fairly recent articles regarding SaaS adoption which I think provides meaningful insight that tends to dispel the thinking that it's all about hype. Maybe the 'spread like wildfire' phase has slowed down and the real acceptance has begun but nonetheless, it proves that business and people are always on the prowl for solutions to their problems. Who isn't anyway?

Saugatech has just posted a snippet of their recent research regarding increasing 'front door' acquisition. It does mean that SaaS is now being embraced as a formal business solution and not simple 'test and deploy', 'small group of users' alternatives. (You can visit the site for more SaaS research news).

Next stop: Krissi Danielson's recent podcast with Jim Heeger of Payscale. Mr. Heeger in all simplicity pointed out that 'small businesses' do not necessarily think about SaaS solutions because current wisdom says it's tailored for small groups. Instead, he says it's still mostly because these businesses 'they?re just looking to get a specific job done' and don't necessarily went out looking for technology solutions.

And we at Mor.ph believe so, too.

Software as a Service for ISVs - Part 3

A very much delayed post, but still. (Initially had plans of "podcasting" the second to the finale ... ended up with a quick and easy webinar. Soon to post here!) Anyway, let's move on to the next deployment models.

Hosted applications - one application, one tenant

The easiest path to Software as a Service is hosting a web application on behalf of a tenant, in other words a customer organization. This style is reminiscent of ASP (Application Service Provider) offerings. In this deployment model, the ISV deploys an individual version of the application for each customer. This model has some great benefits. An ISV can quickly take an existing web-based application and make it available as a service. By deploying on behalf of a customer, the ISV can use its expertise to minimize implementation issues. Also with this model, the customer can enjoy a hassle-free experience without having to think about infrastructure, servers, data centers, or system administrators.

On the flip side, this model poses challenges to the ISVs that are typically based in costs. When an application is deployed for a customer, the ISV must create an environment for each of those applications that is enterprise-quality -- meaning the environment is fault-tolerant, has disaster recovery capabilities, has the ability to scale, to name a few. These quickly may drive the cost of hosting a single application past the price point that the customer is willing to pay.

Let us look at an example. Let?s say that Frabitz Co. sells and markets a web application for HR Management. They want to offer this solution to customers in a hosted model. For each customer, Frabitz will deploy five servers to provide an enterprise-quality environment. Two load balancers, two web servers, and a database server. In addition, they will have to setup ongoing backups and monitoring from an external system. Using Amazon Web Services pricing model, the cost of this simple environment would be a minimum of $362.50 per month just for the ?bare metal? not including data storage or data transfer fees. This base fee would need to be included in the price to the customer.

Adding this new capability to service customers also means that the ISV must extend its business from developing software to managing a series of complex environments on behalf of its customers. This means the hiring of system administrators, 7x24 support, and emergency response. So in our example above, the $362.50 per month must now be increased to support the cost of the new business extension.

The ISV can quickly see how a subscription rate of $1,000 per month would be a minimum for this type of hosted service. This level of subscription eliminates a giant segment of the market from the ISV. At such a price point, the small and medium-sized businesses will more than likely look for other solutions.

Multi-tenant applications - one application for many tenants

The most advantageous deployment method of Software as a Service is the multi-tenant application. This deployment method takes a single application and enables it to facilitate multiple tenants (or companies). It also ensures that data, preferences, and customizations for each tenant are kept distinct and separate. In this model, each tenant can have hundreds to thousands of individual users all running on the same back-end systems. The prime example of a multi-tenant application is Salesforce.com. Salesforce.com hosts a giant version of their application yet they allow thousands of tenants to use that application all while keeping each tenant?s data and interactions separate from one another. Multi-tenancy has a tremendous advantage for the ISV - cost consolidation and skyrocketing margins to start with. By consolidating tenants into one running version of the application, economies of scale come into play for the ISV. (Need another example of a multi-tenant application? Check this.)

Let us build upon the Frabitz example. Frabitz decided to enable multi-tenancy in its web-based HR application. They re-architect their database schemas and update the application to ensure that the software can handle multiple tenants individually and without conflict with other tenants. Frabitz then can deploy its application one time to an enterprise-quality environment and reap the benefits of a growing customer base. In this model, every time Frabitz adds a new customer, there is no direct fixed cost increase as there is in the hosted model. As a matter of fact, well behaved web applications can support hundreds of tenants on a small scale environment. The ISV has tremendous leverage in this case.

Nevertheless, deploying a single instance of the software for several tenants is fraught with its own challenges -- scalability, data separation and management to name a few. You have to be able to create an enterprise-quality environment for your web application. You would have to think about how to manage those complex back-end work. These and a lot more challenges aren't impossible to overcome (traditional software vendors must take heed). And this is where Platform as a Service comes into play. We'll cut this blog and will tackle Platform as a Service up next.

Gartner's Cloud Computing Risks and the SaaS Trust and Confidence

Beyond the hype and the debate, cloud computing as mainstream is pretty much an inevitability especially with the oil crisis sparking worldwide calls for heightened belt-tightening measures in all facets of life both personal and business. Throw in environmental concerns, and having thousands of servers working at half-capacity needing electric-powered cooling for efficiency is an ugly site to behold. (We're not even mentioning really tech-stuff reasons yet)

But the road to cloud efficiency and security is fraught with wolves aiming for easy prey. Better to arm yourself with the right information before you take the plunge.

Read about Gartner's Cloud Computing Risks and learn to plug away your valid concerns. Then treat yourself for a second heap by hopping over to what Mor.ph has done to address important SaaS questions.

Because it's not necessarily a hype or blind faith thing. It's earned trust and confidence that builds relationships. And that's what the Morph Appspace is all about.

Software as a Service for ISVs - Part 2

Distribution and management of a thick client - one application, one user

Thick clients are applications which are installed locally on the users computer and remain on that computer. These thick clients were typically delivered via physical media such as CDs or DVDs. When you think of thick clients, you can think of Symantec Anti-virus, Adobe Photoshop, or Apple iTunes. All of these are thick clients that are installed on the endpoint. In the Software as a Service model, companies are changing their delivery model from physical media to over-the-Internet provisioning and licensing via application downloads.

The back-end systems to deliver and manage the distribution of thick clients are typically custom-built by the ISVs and integrated with their e-Commerce storefronts. Symantec for example allows you to visit their online store, purchase a copy of their software, immediately download it, and obtain your license key -- all through the Internet without the intervention of a human. This is software delivery as a service, which has proven to be quite an efficient delivery model for applications when compared to retails stores or physical media distribution.

Implementation of this type of web-based delivery system is highly dependent upon the business model of the ISV. There are dozens of 3rd party e-commerce solutions in the marketplace today that assist a company in digital downloads and licensing management. Although Morph Labs does not provide an out-of-the-box electronic software delivery system, many of these stand-alone solutions can run within a Morph AppSpace subscription, allowing the ISVs to take advantage of a complete end-to-end infrastructure to run their business.

Application session delivery - one application, many users

One enterprise approach for software as a service is the delivery of a virtual session to an end user. In this model, ISVs or enterprises physically run the software within their own data center. They are then delivering a session to the end user via the Internet. This deployment style of Software as a Service has been popular in some enterprise companies.

It provides the ability to take existing applications and extend their reach securely within or beyond the enterprise. ?It eliminates the need to physically install and manage thick clients across a wide range of computers reducing IT costs.
?
As an example, a large financial service organization does not want to expose their internal accounting software to the Internet at large. Therefore, the organization uses a session delivery suite such as one provided by Citrix to securely enable external users to interact with an internal system.

Although effective for many enterprise companies, this option doesn?t seem extensible for the ISV who is looking to build a new market via Software as a Service. There is added cost of the infrastructure to power the applications as well as the proprietary software needed to support this environment. Typically the end user must install a thick client or download a one-time-use client every time they connect to the service. This extra step will prove to be a barrier to adoption for mass market applications.

Software as a Service for ISVs - Part 1

Our Social Media Analyst (aka Friarminor) talked about the Platform as a Service (PaaS) hype a little earlier. In this post, we're going to discuss about deployment models, linking Software as a Service (SaaS) and PaaS into the discussion. This is a series of posts that we'll tackle in the next few days. Let's start.

Delivering SaaS is a business model that has taken hold in today?s Internet-enabled environment. Companies big and small are looking to their software vendors to provide more and more applications through a subscription-based service available anytime to anyone connected to the Internet.

Some Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) have quickly adapted to this new marketplace and model. Some vendors such as Salesforce.com have led the way in proving that the model can work, even when mission-critical data is at stake. Double digit growth rates and exposure to brand new markets have made Software as a Service an attractive new channel around the globe.

The convergence of Software as a Service with the availability of virtual data centers has leveled the playing field for many ISVs. No longer does the ISV need to build and maintain a data center from the ground up to support a Software as a Service offering. The ISV is able to leverage on-demand resources and build its own delivery environment without ever having to purchase a single server.

On the surface, software as a service is easily defined but under the covers the implementation can be complicated for a vendor. Architecting, building, and managing highly available, fault tolerant application delivery environments require a great deal of skill, time, and money. To level the playing field, a new category of software has arisen called Platform as a Service. This end-to-end application environment that combines technology with managed services holds promise for ISVs allowing them to focus on innovation.

Software as a Service comes in many flavors depending on the different types of software available today. Traditional ?thick client? software packages look to SaaS to provide an online delivery and updating mechanism. Enterprise applications look to extend beyond the data center through session delivery services. Individual web applications can be hosted on a per customer basis. And the emergence of multi-tenant applications puts the power of the web to work for the ISVs. All of these delivery methods excluding session delivery can benefit from Platform as a Service today.

PaaS: Imperfect Cloud Has Got to Have a Silver Lining

With all the talk about 'cloud' coming on all fronts online, most of it dwelling on the pros and cons of adoption, it is a safe bet that many will form their own preference for what a cloud should be.It would take no less than an ambitious task to create the perfect cloud for all - be it dev guys to regular web users. But first, every provider has got to lay their options and then the process of picking out the standard begins. Wince.

PaaS or Platform as a Service (don't you just hate saying that :) has taken upon itself the innovative task of luring more early adopters to the cloud concept. PaaS provides the ease of deployment, hastens the learning curve and metaphorically, sweetens the bitter pill. And what better way there is than by getting the best of open sourced technologies and bundling them up. No lock-ins and no surprises.

So where's the innovation in that, some might ask? Well, as simple as it may all sound, it does take a lot of effort to create which unfortunately most of the people, even if they know how, doesn't have the time nor resources to mess with it. Put in design interface and valuable metrics, you've got palatable PaaS ready for the taking. Cost-effective and hassle-free.

So, until we can get the cloud to function like an easy-to-switch-to electric grid (or plug n play, if you like), expect a lot more innovations in the PaaS scene. What those specifics are? Don't have all the answers but I'm sure it has nothing to do with proprietary.

Ruby Slip-per Then Back to 'Live'

Just have to slip this quick Ruby and Rails fix for our friends who attended POSS and are interested about becoming 'rock star' developers in the future.

Some Ruby and Ruby on Rails (whatever your choice of starting point) online resource for newbies.

Guru or just plain Satish, he'd definitely welcome you as a Ruby pupil. Visit Ruby Learning and enroll like in a college course without the school fees.

74 Quality Ruby on Rails Resources and Tutorials

Neighborly Advice: By the time you get through this list, you're certified.

Why? I dunno. But it's one clever piece of hands-on tutorial that has a certain special quality about it. Poignant.

Any other cool resource I may have missed? Feel free to comment so we could add to the list. Now, back to our 'live' show for the week.

Of if's and else's

If almost everything is turning into a commodity,

First things first, I'd like to give credit to Erle of Exist Global, who owns this blog site title.