SunGard Availability Services is cultivating business among software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers. This week, the company reported HarrisData as a new customer for its managed services, and more deals seem to be pending. Here’s a quick look at the SaaS strategy.

HarrisData offers enterprise software applications for mid-sized organizations. The company previously worked with a colocation vendor to host software. Now, HarrisData taps SunGard to support three of its applications with a mix of hosting, network, managed security and storage services.

Rahul Bakshi,VP of managed services strategy and solution design at SunGard Availability Services, said HarrisData repackages SunGard’s managed services as part of its SaaS offering.

Growing Trend

HarrisData isn’t alone in that kind of thinking. Bakshi said SaaS providers, in general, are looking into delivering their wares in a managed environment. He said software vendors use their MSP arrangements as a marketing tool. The message to customers: a managed hosting environment boosts the security and availability of the application you’re accessing.

“We have a significant amount of interest,” Bakshi said regarding SaaS providers.

Bakshi also noted interest in the company’s discount program. Back in March, SunGard announced discounts of up to $15,000 for its AdvancedHosting enterprise managed services and colocation solutions.

The discounts have contributed to a “pretty healthy pipeline,” according to Bakshi. He said the effort has generated some wins in the colocation business, while helping to close opportunities in the managed service side.

Bakshi said he isn’t sure what to thank for the sales activity — demand that was already there or good timing with the pricing. At any rate, he said he’s happy with the results thus far.

Contributing blogger John Moore covers Master MSPs and Web hosts, and has written about the IT channel for two decades. MSPmentor is updated multiple times daily. Follow us via RSS, Facebook and Twitter. And subscribe to our enewsletter, webcasts and Resource Center.