Savvis to Launch SaaS Hosting Platform
September 29th, 2008 : Rich MillerManaged hosting provider Savvis, Inc. is launching a new solution to help independent software vendors (ISVs) offer their products as hosted applications. Savvis said the new platform is designed to meet growing demand for software as a service (SaaS) licensing and delivery models.
Savvis (SVVS) also announced a major SaaS contract with Availity, an electronic health exchange that handles more than 500 million transactions a year between health care professionals and providers.
The new platform is designed for ISVs entering the SaaS market and existing providers who want to outsource their IT infrastructure. Savvis will partner with virtualization specialist Parallels to make it easier for software companies to port their existing products to a hosted, multi-tenant SaaS offerings on Savvis' new platform.
The result is an SaaS "enablement platform" in which Savvis provides infrastructure, services and partnership opportunities to software companies.
"We are significantly enhancing our existing global IT infrastructure services to enable ISVs to move quickly and cost-effectively to the SaaS model, as well as to provide support to those ISVs who want to outsource their existing SaaS infrastructure," said Larry Steele, SAVVIS' Vice President of SaaS. "Through our SaaS enablement services, we are leveraging our managed hosting expertise and adding development capabilities, changing operational features, and providing better integration to SaaS markets. At the same time, we are also providing our customers a platform to help them deliver SaaS to their customers in a much faster, broader way."
The offering is structured in three categories:
- Core Infrastructure Services– SAVVIS' core managed hosting and security elements tailored to SaaS vendor needs. New services include multi-tenancy enablement, application fire-walling, and application-centered service level agreements.
- Lifecycle Services– These services assists ISVs through all the tasks involved in development, integration, delivery and operation of their applications.
- SAVVIS Marketplace – These services will "create connectivity and commercial opportunities between SAVVIS customers by lowering integration barriers." Additionally SAVVIS will be creating marketplace awareness tools for use within SAVVIS' customer base.
By designing an "infrastructure plus services" offering, Savvis hopes to win customers among ISVs who are currently struggling to sort out the best path to online delivery.
"ISVs looking to adopt a SaaS delivery model have to address a number of key challenges to ensure their application is scalable, secure and multi-tenant," said Bill McNee, Founder & CEO, Saugatuck Technology, a leading industry research firm covering the SaaS marketplace. "The reality is that successful ISVs and enterprise buyers not only need world-class managed hosting support, but an end-to-end software development ecosystem and cloud-based platform as they 'SaaS-ify' their offerings, and create new value for end-users."
"Many ISVs want to meet customer demand for software offered as a service, but for those that don't have existing multi-tenant capabilities this can be an expensive and time-intensive process, requiring significant rewrites of application code," said Michael Gold, Senior Vice President at Parallels. "As a result, these ISVs cannot capitalize on SaaS to expand their business or grow their revenue. However, with the SAVVIS-Parallels alliance, thousands of ISVs are now able to deploy a completely managed hosting solution … to rapidly meet the demands of a growing customer base looking to benefit from software as a service."
