MSPs Will Blur the Line Between SaaS and On-Premise IT
Jeff Kaplan did it again. In his latest Think IT Services blog entry, Kaplan describes the a hybrid software as a service (SaaS) model that blurs the line between on-premise and cloud-based services. If you’re skeptical of this trend, check out these examples involving managed service providers working with Symantec, Vembu, Amazon.com and Fonality.
The blurring line between SaaS and on-premise IT is easily explained. Some customers and managed service providers don’t want to let go of their data. They prefer on-site IT. But mixing in some off-site solutions can provide added data protection and easier administration.
Three prime examples:
1. Symantec Protection Network and Symantec Backup Exec: Thousands of customers already run Backup Exec on-site as their primary data protection and recovery system. In recent months, Symantec has introduced links between Backup Exec and the company’s SaaS platform — dubbed the Symantec Protection Network (SPN). More than 200 MSPs have already signed up to support SPN. Symantec employees blog about the SPN strategy here.
2. Vembu StoreGrid and Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3): It’s still a little early for this example. But over the next few months managed service providers should expect to see clearly connections between StoreGrid and Amazon’s S3 services. MSPs currently deploy StoreGrid on-premise in their own data centers. Sekar Vembu, founder of the company, maintains a blog here.
3. Fonality Hybrid-Hosted VoIP Services: Fonality leverages the Asterisk open source IP PBX at its core. But the company has pushed beyond Asterisk to develop a hybrid VoIP system. Portions of the hybrid-hosted solution live on-premise at customer sites, while Fonality’s own data centers offer centralized management of those customer settings. Fonality CEO Chris Lyman maintains a blog about his company’s strategy here.
Those three examples are just the start of the hybrid on-premise/off-site approach to software.
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We’re an Asterisk shop that had not heard of Fonality hybrid hosted. In concept, it’s exactly what we’ve been looking for. Any idea if hybrid hosted has customer references?
Joe –
Timely post. This will be the crux of the message we will try to convey at the N-able partner summit. There is no such thing as a silver bullet or an all-encompassing approach when it comes to integrating SaaS or Cloud Computing into the MSP service mix. A hybrid approach is not just an important design consideration. It is a requirement. Large volume data storage (such as backups) and voice are key examples. But I think the biggest example is VDI. All of these ‘hosted’ apps require very efficient bandwidth utilization – and even the best still require massive pipes. Having made this observation, it will be crucial for MSPs to partner with centralized computing providers (notice I didn’t say ‘Cloud’?) that can take them as deep as possible before requiring the intervention or a combination of other vendors. Keeping your SLA’s clean and transparent in the era of centralized computing delivery will be a big challenge.
John: Solid points. I look forward to continuing the discussion at the N-able Partner Summit.
I’m glad you liked my perspective on the changing meaning of a ‘hybrid’ model. Since I posted my views on this topic, I’ve receive numerous messages from vendors heading down this path who are getting a tremendous response from customers who want a choice. Interestingly, most of the vendors I’ve spoken to have also discovered that once customers are given a choice they generally choose the hosted alternative rather than deal with the hassles of housing the application, even in an appliance form, on their premises. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for Salesforce.com and the other leading SaaS players to adopt this new hybrid strategy and give it even greater credibility and visibility in the market.