Automatisering Gids, Salesforce.com biedt zijn platform ook zónder CRM aan
Salesforce.com kondigt vandaag een Platform Edition aan, waarmee het online-softwarebedrijf zijn platform aanbiedt zonder de gebruikelijke CRM-functionaliteiten.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Friday, April 06, 2007
Add “On Appliance” to Your “On Premise” and “On Demand” Strategies | AMR Research
Add “On Appliance” to Your “On Premise” and “On Demand” Strategies | AMR Research
I was recently in Dallas moderating a session at the first-ever Virtual Appliances Leadership Summit, a conference hosted by rPath. rPath is headed by Billy Marshall, a former Red Hat executive and arguably the industry’s first software appliance evangelist.
What’s a software appliance? If you’re an application vendor, imagine how much easier life would be if you could buy a pre-integrated suite containing the operating system, database, application server, and other necessary middleware components. All you have to do is integrate your software to one complete platform rather than worrying about ensuring compatibility with the ever-growing list of potential combinations and permutations as you move up and down the software stack.
While Wikipedia defines a software appliance as an “alternative approach to software-as-a-service,” one could argue that salesforce.com has created the mega-appliance, with all the underlying infrastructure tightly bundled on a single, multi-tenant platform. Salesforce users can’t opt for a different operating system or database. The difference between on demand or software-as-a-service (SaaS) and appliances is that the latter are located locally or on the customer’s premise. The difference between traditional “on premise” and on an appliance is that appliance has a streamlined software stack. The differences are not as subtle as they may seem.
One other assumption is that the appliance will be comprised of a lot of open source components but they don’t have to be. While it hasn’t done so, Oracle could conceivably package its Unbreakable Linux with a trimmed down version of its database, middleware, and applications, and label it as an appliance. A better bet may be to develop an appliance for those customers it has acquired who have yet to adopt Oracle such as the bulk of J.D. Edwards users.
Now how many of you are saying, “Wait, I’ve been here before!” You have, sort of. The attraction of appliances is the same for customers and software vendors as the lure of the AS/400 or VAX/VMS. IBM and Digital Equipment Corporation, respectively, bundled the operating system, database, networking, and other components into a single platform. So while appliances may seem like these platforms minus the hardware, the real goal is to offer lightweight, inexpensive, open appliances.
Become the Southwest Airlines of software
I had the good fortune of having excellent panelists, including Karl Perron, SAP’s vice president and managing director for deployment and operations; Deb Woods, Ingres’ vice president for product management; and Scott Dietzen, Zimbra’s president and chief technology officer.
SAP is in the very early stages of unveiling its appliance strategy. While the company has talked about several hardware appliances (like the Business Intelligence Accelerator and some of the application-oriented networking gear it has been developing with Cisco), it has said little about software versions except for the ESA (Enterprise Services Architecture) Discovery Server. This has been described alternately as a “ready-to-go” development appliance and an “ePod” for helping companies use SAP’s web services.
Appliances would certainly simplify SAP’s testing and deployment. Mr. Perron compared appliances to Southwest Airlines. Southwest flies only one type of plane—Boeing 737s—and thus gets optimal use of pilots and flight crews, not to mention how much it simplifies fleet utilization and maintenance. Compare this to a competitor like Delta which deploys the whole range of Boeing planes from 737s to 777s as well as the McDonnell Douglas MD-88s and MD-90s, too.
Given its fleet of hardware platforms, it’s easy to see why SAP would like software appliances. Mr. Perron described an early Linux build of mySAP. Installation and deployment of the components took two people more than a week. That same effort on top of rPath took one hour and 14 minutes running on any Intel or AMD platform already supported by SAP. He didn’t take the bait, though, when I suggested that SAP could use a NetWeaver appliance.
Mr. Perron said that a great role for a software appliance would be for demo systems and test drives, a point that drew nods of approval from the other panelists. All agreed that the lighter-weight nature of appliances could facilitate faster downloads to a “bootable disk.”
The next logical candidate might be new applications like those being developed as part of the nascent governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) product line. While Mr. Perron declined comment, my own view is that SAP should be able to consolidate a pre-configured operating system, database, and NetWeaver application server in a software appliance, thus simplifying configuration, implementation, and management.
I could also see SAP deploying a hybrid strategy for the new A1S line. While the company wants to host the initial implementations in an on-demand mode, some of the high bandwidth or transaction-intensive functions could leverage an on-premise software appliance to ensure optimal performance. Ingres’ Woods referred to this as a caching appliance. An appliance would likely also be preferred over SaaS for managing sensitive data such as financials, credit card information, and employee data.
I was recently in Dallas moderating a session at the first-ever Virtual Appliances Leadership Summit, a conference hosted by rPath. rPath is headed by Billy Marshall, a former Red Hat executive and arguably the industry’s first software appliance evangelist.
What’s a software appliance? If you’re an application vendor, imagine how much easier life would be if you could buy a pre-integrated suite containing the operating system, database, application server, and other necessary middleware components. All you have to do is integrate your software to one complete platform rather than worrying about ensuring compatibility with the ever-growing list of potential combinations and permutations as you move up and down the software stack.
While Wikipedia defines a software appliance as an “alternative approach to software-as-a-service,” one could argue that salesforce.com has created the mega-appliance, with all the underlying infrastructure tightly bundled on a single, multi-tenant platform. Salesforce users can’t opt for a different operating system or database. The difference between on demand or software-as-a-service (SaaS) and appliances is that the latter are located locally or on the customer’s premise. The difference between traditional “on premise” and on an appliance is that appliance has a streamlined software stack. The differences are not as subtle as they may seem.
One other assumption is that the appliance will be comprised of a lot of open source components but they don’t have to be. While it hasn’t done so, Oracle could conceivably package its Unbreakable Linux with a trimmed down version of its database, middleware, and applications, and label it as an appliance. A better bet may be to develop an appliance for those customers it has acquired who have yet to adopt Oracle such as the bulk of J.D. Edwards users.
Now how many of you are saying, “Wait, I’ve been here before!” You have, sort of. The attraction of appliances is the same for customers and software vendors as the lure of the AS/400 or VAX/VMS. IBM and Digital Equipment Corporation, respectively, bundled the operating system, database, networking, and other components into a single platform. So while appliances may seem like these platforms minus the hardware, the real goal is to offer lightweight, inexpensive, open appliances.
Become the Southwest Airlines of software
I had the good fortune of having excellent panelists, including Karl Perron, SAP’s vice president and managing director for deployment and operations; Deb Woods, Ingres’ vice president for product management; and Scott Dietzen, Zimbra’s president and chief technology officer.
SAP is in the very early stages of unveiling its appliance strategy. While the company has talked about several hardware appliances (like the Business Intelligence Accelerator and some of the application-oriented networking gear it has been developing with Cisco), it has said little about software versions except for the ESA (Enterprise Services Architecture) Discovery Server. This has been described alternately as a “ready-to-go” development appliance and an “ePod” for helping companies use SAP’s web services.
Appliances would certainly simplify SAP’s testing and deployment. Mr. Perron compared appliances to Southwest Airlines. Southwest flies only one type of plane—Boeing 737s—and thus gets optimal use of pilots and flight crews, not to mention how much it simplifies fleet utilization and maintenance. Compare this to a competitor like Delta which deploys the whole range of Boeing planes from 737s to 777s as well as the McDonnell Douglas MD-88s and MD-90s, too.
Given its fleet of hardware platforms, it’s easy to see why SAP would like software appliances. Mr. Perron described an early Linux build of mySAP. Installation and deployment of the components took two people more than a week. That same effort on top of rPath took one hour and 14 minutes running on any Intel or AMD platform already supported by SAP. He didn’t take the bait, though, when I suggested that SAP could use a NetWeaver appliance.
Mr. Perron said that a great role for a software appliance would be for demo systems and test drives, a point that drew nods of approval from the other panelists. All agreed that the lighter-weight nature of appliances could facilitate faster downloads to a “bootable disk.”
The next logical candidate might be new applications like those being developed as part of the nascent governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) product line. While Mr. Perron declined comment, my own view is that SAP should be able to consolidate a pre-configured operating system, database, and NetWeaver application server in a software appliance, thus simplifying configuration, implementation, and management.
I could also see SAP deploying a hybrid strategy for the new A1S line. While the company wants to host the initial implementations in an on-demand mode, some of the high bandwidth or transaction-intensive functions could leverage an on-premise software appliance to ensure optimal performance. Ingres’ Woods referred to this as a caching appliance. An appliance would likely also be preferred over SaaS for managing sensitive data such as financials, credit card information, and employee data.
Monday, April 02, 2007
RightNow Goes Back to School for First Industry Version | AMR Research
RightNow Goes Back to School for First Industry Version | AMR Research
In yet another watershed event in the evolution of software as a service (SaaS), RightNow Technologies is rolling out the first industry-specific version of its customer management suite, this one aimed at higher education. RightNow Higher Education targets colleges and universities looking to improve student recruiting activities and retention.
In yet another watershed event in the evolution of software as a service (SaaS), RightNow Technologies is rolling out the first industry-specific version of its customer management suite, this one aimed at higher education. RightNow Higher Education targets colleges and universities looking to improve student recruiting activities and retention.
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