Some time back Padmajaya has posted a long comment in my post, due to my engrossment on other activities, I was not able to respond immediately. This post will cover some thoughts and also open up new areas for future discussion
Padmajaya:Typical blockers that come to my mind when I think of going for SaaS are the limitation towards customizations and integration with data contained within the organization. Do you have any suggestions on how this can be taken forward?
My thoughts: With regards to customization, it is a myth that SaaS application do not support customization. They don't support customization in the traditional Way of allowing people to modify ASP / JSP pages, they allow what is called as meta-data based customization, this might not be as flexible as the traditional model, but should be sufficient for most of the customization needs. Today multiple vendors provide different depth of customization capability, some stop with the UI, some have data model customization and a few like salesforce through app exchange is enabling you to customize the entire process flow.
Integration with Data inside the organization -- We see some SOA solutions like the one from BridgeWerx, to address such requirement - Integrating the data / application across the firewall. But this is definitely an area which requires more attention today.
Padmajaya: ISV's wishing to enter this space must find a way to acquire significant networking skill either directly or through partnering with hosting vendors. What is the confidence or comfort level with which this can be achieved for an ISV?
My thoughts: OK, if I understand your question correctly, you are asking about managing the infrastructure for hosting and delivery. Today few ISV's like SFDC have acquired this capability, but i am sure through hard way. We see a lot of hosting providers in the market offering such services focused on SaaS ISV's. IBM, Opsource are some of the few companies which are into this business. I feel that it is better to outsource operations and hosting and ISV can focus on innovation and making their product better.
Padmajaya: To what extent is the disaster recovery support given to each customer? How will the pricing model be considered in those cases?
My thoughts: Customers own the data, but it is providers responsibility to ensure that the data is safe and protected. This is a basic requirement for SaaS and should be a part of the SLA agreement. This cannot be priced separately as it is a part of the basic package.
Padmajaya: How is the security model been shared between the internal and on-demand applications? To what extent is the exposure of the secure data and/or security levels advisable or safe to go about?
My thoughts: SaaS companies do not expose their data directly, they operate like a blackbox when it comes to data. But they provide ability for people to extract data from the application and use it for integration purposes. Informatica has come out with a product which will help people to integrate data from hosted application with the on-premise one. By not exposing the data directly, the providers have ensured that data is safe. I didn't understand your second part of the question, post it back as a comment and i will respond.
Padmajaya: Also it will be good if you have any suggestions on what are the easy steps for a ISV's of various levels (small-medium-large, products with lot of dependencies on other third party applications etc) to move to this on-demand mode.
My thoughts: There are multiple maturity models in which people can deliver the software as a service. It is not mandatory that the application should be multi-tenant, if we look at SAP, they advocate the concept of Isolated tenancy. But for the best optimization of your cost structure and hence your price, it is recommended you adopt Multi-tenant model. The only basic requirement i see is that the software should be accessible through the web -- but companies like Softricity through their application virtualization environment has shown us that even client server applications can be streamed into your desktop for usage, looks like SaaS. So, the answer to your questions is that there are multiple ways in which software can be delivered as a service through the web.
Do you want to provide a differential experience by adopting Multi-tenancy, Service orientated or just host a SoSaaS like how Phil Wainewright calls them is left to the discretion of the ISV
Technorati tags: SaaS, Software as a Service, SaaS Challenges
