Archive for the ‘IT Utility’ Category

Gartner Says Enterprise E-Mail Hosting Is Poised for Explosive Growth

Matt Cain at Gartner recently wrote a report E-mail Hosting: Poised for Explosive Growth which predicts in the next few years 20 percent of enterprise email seats will be delivered via SaaS and similar models.

The market for hosted e-mail mailboxes is poised for rapid growth due
to the economics of cloud computing and the entry of new vendors…. the move to a hosted-delivery model will change the face of IT architectures over the next decade and that e-mail will be at the forefront of this change.

Sonian’s premise from the very beginning is based on this trend: IT will begin to selectively use SaaS services tactically to solve specific pain points like archiving, and over time, move more functions into the cloud. IT has to get comfortable with the idea of hosted versus on-premise, and that comfort and trust will mature over time. The next few years will be very interesting in the SaaS sector. Sonian is doing its part to create an affordable, reliable, secure SaaS experience.

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Posted by Greg Arnette on March 20th, 2008

Microsoft to reveal its "cloudy" future

Several announcements are expected soon about Microsoft’s plan for SaaS, hosted, cloud-compute, etc. product offerings. To date Microsoft has talked about a “software-plus-services” strategy that blends installed Windows desktop applications with a hosted component. This is a safe way to begin the process to embrace cloud compute without destroying the existing revenue pipeline of Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange.

We already know Microsoft has a service called Microsoft Online which offers managed PC desktops and will soon add hosted Exchange and Sharepoint to the menu. For quite a while now, Microsoft has been managing the desktops as a service provider for Energizer Holdings and XL Capital. Now smaller companies will be able to subscribe to these offerings.

It is still unclear where the channel partner fits in this new “direct to customer” world. Microsoft Online doesn’t mean there is no role for its channel partners, but clearly something will have to change in this new SaaS-y world.

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Posted by Greg Arnette on March 3rd, 2008

SaaS and Total Transparency – Through the Looking Glass

Sonian is convinced the best way to manage a long-term instantly search-able archive is to use a reliable and secure cloud-compute grid infrastructure. But for some customers, using a hosted service means taking a leap of faith with a vendor they are just getting to know.

Customers contemplating hosted archiving might think: “The price is right (certainly less expensive then doing it ourselves), the features are just what we need, but can we trust a vendor with our data?”

Trust, in the form of reliability and security, doesn’t come for granted. And hosted archive vendors have to earn the customer’s trust. This is especially true since the customer is putting a lot of faith in their archive vendor to protect the contents entrusted to the vendors care.

One way to build trust is to adopt a policy of “Total Transparency.” This means talking openly about how the mechanics work behind the scenes. This is especially important when it comes to how data is encrypted, stored and managed. Customers will want to know what encryption algorithms are in place, how the data is stored, what happens when a data center experiences an outage – basically all the things they would know if the archive were maintained “in-house.”

Sonian, with our use of Amazon Web Services, has our entire data center infrastructure under scrutiny by hundreds of thousands daily users. If a hiccup happens, everyone will know, just like when the electricity goes out. This is total transparency at its best.

http://trust.soniannetworks.com

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Posted by Greg Arnette on February 28th, 2008

Dell sees the future in the cloud


Dell, known mostly as a computer hardware supplier, is building out a range of Web-hosted services that the company plans to roll out globally by the end of the year.

Dell realized that SaaS is a “game changing” medium for providing support services, so it started putting together its own offerings through the acquisitions, Steve Schuckenbrock, senior VP of Dell’s Global Services, said.

Hardware vendors like Dell and EMC are sensing the changing market forces that will push more IT services into the cloud.

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Posted by Greg Arnette on February 28th, 2008

EMC buys Pi Corp – Another vote for "cloud compute"

EMC is buying Pi Corp according to this article at News.com.

According to Pi’s web site, the software Pi is working on is designed to let people control, share, and publish information that is online or locally stored.

Pi has ambitious goals, and the fact they are building this super-personal information manager (S-PiM) shows there is a growing desire among modern knowledge managers (i.e. any of us who use email, digital files for photos, music and record keeping) to have more flexibility in the way we manage and access our digital content. Cloud compute combined with a lightweight rich Internet application is a great way to accomplish this goal.

Apparently EMC agrees, since they have purchased Pi Corp. in an all cash deal.

“We’re saying that success in this new space will require a very different technology base–and a business model–very unlike other parts of the traditional IT landscape,” wrote Chuck Hollis, EMC’s global marketing chief technology officer, in his blog.

The IT landscape is changing rapidly. It’s exciting times to be at the forefront of the next wave of great innovation.

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Posted by Greg Arnette on February 22nd, 2008

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