Nov
9
2009

Managed Dedicated Servers- Why they beat PaaS for developers

In the technology arena, the buzzwords and catchphrases come almost as fast as the technical advancements, and one of the latest phrases to join the club is PaaS, or Platform as a Service. Service oriented approaches are becoming more and more popular, and largely for good reason. In general this is positive. People don’t care about the specific things it takes to deliver a particular service or set of services- the care about the outcomes. The problem for many PaaS offerings is they fail to fully deliver on some of the most critical requirements.

In many ways, Software as a Service (SaaS) and Hardware as a Service (HaaS) products are easier to define and fulfill. SaaS, effectively application hosting, is common enough for things like e-mail and web site hosting, and the advent of cloud computing and a hyper-connected user base has made distributed applications more and more feasible and efficient. Google’s document editing and sharing applications are one good example of this.

HaaS takes that same ‘black box’ approach to the role of hardware in an IT deployment, commoditizing computer components and defining them as their deliverables. Hard drives become disk space, memory and processor chips become resource percentages. When you make photocopies at your local office supply store, that’s HaaS in action. The customer pays a small cost for the use of an expensive machine, in this case a photocopier.

Platform as a Service merges SaaS and HaaS approaches, and is intended to function in similar capacities to managed dedicated servers. In theory this is an attractive idea, giving developers low cost, flexible platforms for application development, testing, and deployments. In practice, PaaS offerings often fall short in the most important requirements.
more

Aug
12
2009

SaaS application hosting- the secret to controlling IT costs

A tighter economy has been a recurring theme for the last few years, and the businesses that have successfully adapted to the new economic reality have come out leaner and better equipped to react quickly to new trends and opportunities. Regardless of a particular industry or market niche, these businesses have taken similar approaches to key processes, and chief among them is a trend towards outsourcing costly, IT heavy initiatives and operations.

Here’s the paradox- it doesn’t matter what product or services you sell, success in the 21st century marketplace is largely dependent on efficient and flexible IT solutions. The upshot of this is businesses have to make a choice- hire and train the personnel and acquire the hardware and bandwidth needed to deploy and manage all their IT needs in house, or outsource those needs to a quality application host. SMBs that don’t have money to burn smartly turn to outsourcing as the answer.

SaaS, or Software as a Service, takes an end user perspective on what software should accomplish and the best way to deliver on those requirements. To take a simplistic view- people don’t want to own word processing software, they want to create and edit documents. Purchasing and installing a word processing application (as well as the computer to run it on) are the steps needed to do that, and until recently that’s been the only option.
more

Dec
17
2008

2008: Looking Back at Small Business Hosting Purchases

Small and medium-sized businesses found 2008 to be the year when many previously “leading edge” and “out of reach” technologies became accessible and, more importantly, critical to their bottom line.  In 2008, SMB technology teams, ISVs, and IT consultants were transforming their technology deployments to hosting services utilizing formerly out-of-reach technologies.

For the first time, SMBs were benefiting from solutions and technologies such as Software as a Service, Quad-Core CPUs, Virtualization, and the new Microsoft server technologies.

Software as a Service (SaaS) is now the preferred method for SMBs to consume software to meet their application and business process needs.  SMBs now clearly see that it no longer makes sense to buy software and hardware from traditional retailers and distributors.  The VARs and MSPs that service SMBs have moved from break-fix agreements to recurring arrangements with their SMB customers.  In 2008, SaaS became not only a viable option but in many ways the preferred solution.  Large capital outlays on new hardware and the associated big expenses on installation and upgrade licenses are now seen as the not financially advisable and inefficient.  Hosted dedicated servers and virtual dedicated servers enable SMBs and their VARs to quickly deploy new solutions and upgrades and save time and capital.
more

• view all