Sun helps ISVs to jump on the SaaS bandwagon

Vendor unveils latest programme aimed at turning ISV's products into on demand services

Sun has unveiled its latest programme aimed at helping its ISV community offer their solutions in a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) format to customers.

The Solaris On Demand programme is structured for every step of the SaaS conversion process, the vendor has claimed. To help ISVs begin the process, Sun and its hosting partners - which include NaviSite, At&T’s USi Communicaitons and NTT Europe Online – are offering a 90-day proof-of-concept environment that gives ISVs access to hosting, hardware, managed services and backup.

ISVs can also choose to have Sun or one of its hosting partners manage their applications. Sun is also offering technical, budgetary and marketing support.

Juan Carlos Soto, vice president of global market development and engineering at Sun, said: “Working closely with our community of ISVs, we developed a programme to meet the new needs of ISVs as they move from on-premise solutions and business practices to an on-demand model.

“The Solaris On Demand programme combines Sun's expertise and network computing technologies such as the open source Solaris OS, xVM virtualisation technology, and energy-efficient systems with high availability hosting solutions from Sun partners. In the end, we eliminate the risk for ISVs as they transition to delivering their SaaS applications.”

Jeff Saling, senior vice president at ISV Callidus Software welcomed the move.

“Callidus Software manages sales performance for over 1.8 million salespeople, brokers, and channel representatives. Our customers have come to expect a high level of integration, service and security that differentiates us from the competition,” he said. “To that end, we needed an easy way to implement SaaS with unparalleled scalability and flexibility. We found that in Sun's Solaris On Demand program. Sun’s virtualisation technology ensured secure management and scalability. It helped us realise explosive growth for our on-demand offering, while achieving 99.97 per cent solution availability and 75 per cent server utilisation.”