Web Hosting Providers Take Part in Microsoft Initiative

Posted by Webhost - 17/04/07 at 01:04 am

The Microsoft SaaS Incubation Center Program, a global independent software
vendors (ISVs) initiative, has been created to provide business and technical
guidance, consulting services, and access to an established hosting channel.

Developed for the reliable and security-enhanced delivery of applications,
participating hosting providers, may work closely with the ISV community to
foster the opportunity to develop key partnerships, help expand their customer
base and drive revenue.

John Zanni, Director of Worldwide Hosting at Microsoft remarked, ”The growth
projections for software delivered as a service present ISVs with significant
opportunities, as well as new challenges. Through the SaaS Incubation Center
Program, hosting providers are able to combine their traditional expertise in
managing infrastructure and delivering services with business and design
guidance to help ISVs embrace this new model. Building on the Microsoft
Solution for Windows-based Hosting for Applications and the SaaS On-Ramp
Program, the SaaS Incubation Center Program helps bring together the
world-class infrastructure, consulting services and partnerships ISVs need to
be successful.”

The Microsoft SaaS Incubation Center Program has established a number of
facilities operated by Microsoft partners, where ISVs are guided through a
structured series of business and architectural consulting sessions to help
ensure their business model and applications are ready for the challenges of
service-based delivery. SaaS Incubation Center Program partners utilize the
Microsoft Solution for Windows-based Hosting for Applications, which provides
the platform architecture, guidance and sample scripts for service providers to
host SaaS-based applications. Using the platform, hosters are able to monitor
system performance and health, measure system usage, automate server builds,
and manage security for ISVs. This ultimately allows ISVs to provide a strong
service-level agreement (SLA) to end users, a critical component of online
service-based delivery.

Richard Dym, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at
OpSource Inc. added, ”As one of the pioneering SaaS application delivery
companies, OpSource is well aware of the commercial, financial and technical
challenges ISVs can encounter when transitioning to the SaaS delivery model.
Microsoft’s early commitment to helping build the SaaS industry by bringing
together hosting providers and ISVs has played an important role in the growth
of OpSource’s SaaS and web application delivery business. We believe that by
combining formalized technical assistance and financial incentives, the
Microsoft SaaS Incubation Center Program will benefit ISVs, hosters and SaaS
delivery companies like OpSource by accelerating the worldwide adoption of the
SaaS delivery model.”

In addition to the Microsoft SaaS Incubation Center Program, Microsoft is
announcing Phase II of the Microsoft SaaS On-Ramp Program. Based on Microsoft?s
Service Provider Licensing Agreement (SPLA), the program offers discounted
licensing for eligible ISVs, including a Windows Server license for up to eight
central processing units (CPUs) and a Microsoft SQL Server license for up to two
CPUs. In Phase II of the program, ISVs can now acquire discounted SKUs through
enrolled hosting providers, rather than signing a licensing agreement directly
with Microsoft. This empowers hosting providers to offer a complete service to
ISVs and gives ISVs the ability to focus on their core competency, building
their applications.

The SaaS On-Ramp Program was launched in November 2006 and will run through
April 2008 as part of Microsoft?s global effort to help ISVs take full
advantage of the opportunity presented by SaaS.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft is a worldwide leader in software, services and
solutions designed to help people and businesses accelerate. Microsoft,
BizTalk, Microsoft Dynamics and Windows Live are trademarks of the Microsoft
group of companies. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein
may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 17th, 2007 at 1:35 am and is filed under Web Hosts. The entry is tagged under You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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