Sun to enable ISVs to convert apps to SaaS 23 April, 2008 By Liam Lahey

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The program provides ISVs with the technology, hosted infrastructure and services needed to offer their software as a service, Sun said. It is especially targeted at ISVs with traditional on-premise license models that want to offer their existing application on-demand without having to use multi-tenancy application architectures.

"We're trying to help ISVs move from an on-premise licensing model to an subscription-based model," said Sanjay Sharma, director of startups and emerging markets, for Sun in Menlo Park, Calif. "What we see in the market is a lot of interest with ISVs to move to an on-demand model but the challenge they face is they don't want the complexity of managing hardware or a datacenter."

With the Solaris On Demand program, ISVs could create offerings that meet the application availability, security, scalability and cost requirements of their own customers and without enduring a steep learning curve.

"There's no code change to (the ISV's) applications," added Vince Vasquez, business development manager for SaaS, Sun. "You do need to put the application into a virtualized model so you're going to put it into containers. There are some questions as to 'what's the best way to split up those containers?' and there's a bit of a discussion there. But that can be (done) relatively quickly."

To provide the hosting services, Sun is working with several partners such as NaviSite for U.S.-based and European Union companies, AT&T's USi Communications for U.S.-based companies and NTT Europe Online for European Union companies.

"In the short period of that this program has been around, we've seen many service providers come in and join us in this program," Sharma said. "There have already been successful deployments that we can't talk publicly about yet."

The Solaris On Demand program caters to every step of the SaaS conversion process. To help ISVs begin the process, Sharma highlighted what he called the ISV sandbox -- offering a 90-day proof-of-concept environment where ISVs have access to hosting, hardware, managed services and backup with a 99.5 percent guaranteed uptime service level agreement (SLA). ISVs could choose to have Sun or one of Sun's hosting partners manage their applications. Sun would also provide technical, budgetary and marketing support.

"The ISV can come in, work with Sun and the hosting provider, go through this proof-of-concept . . . and typically by the end of that three months they should be able to start generating customers for on-demand and start generating revenue," he said. "[They'll] be ready to launch into a new business."

"Working closely with our community of ISVs, we developed a program to meet the new needs of ISVs as they move from on-premise solutions and business practices to an on-demand model," said Juan Carlos Soto, vice president of global market development and engineering, Sun, in a statement. "The Solaris On Demand program combines Sun's expertise and leading network computing technologies such as the open source Solaris OS, xVM virtualization 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."

To join the Solaris On Demand program, visit www.sun.com/ondemand.