“Open source has always provided a number of benefits, including easing adoption costs, propagating a better understanding of the technology, and allowing for faster evolution and commercialization of products and services based on it,” noted Terry Woloszyn, Founder & CEO, Leeward Security Ltd., in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan. “This is clearly evident with the OpenStack and CloudStack,” Woloszyn continued, “and others that have been quickly commercialized as...| By Praising Gaw | Article Rating: |
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| July 25, 2008 11:15 AM EDT | Reads: |
74,418 |
Praising Gaw's Blog
Every time I log into Facebook, or search for flights online, I am taking advantage of cloud computing. However, neither of these examples would be considered SaaS. According to Gartner, cloud computing is not just a buzzword; it does have a distinct meaning separate from SaaS.
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Recently, I’ve noticed that a lot of vendors have started talking about “cloud computing” in their marketing materials. In many cases they’re referring to solutions that were previously called Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), which begs the question – what is the difference between these two terms, anyway? Is “cloud computing” simply a new industry buzzword with no real meaning? Or is there actually a difference between the two? 
Fortunately, the analysts at Gartner helped to answer my question with a recent report that clearly addressed just this issue. According to them, cloud computing is not just a buzzword; it does have a distinct meaning separate from SaaS.
The way I understand it, “cloud computing” refers to the bigger picture…basically the broad concept of using the internet to allow people to access technology-enabled services. According to Gartner, those services must be “massively scalable” to qualify as true “cloud computing”. So according to that definition, every time I log into Facebook, or search for flights online, I am taking advantage of cloud computing. However, neither of these examples would be considered SaaS.
While most (but not all) Software-as-a-Service solutions fall under the larger cloud computing definition as “massively scalable”, they also have a number of other defining factors. First, SaaS is software that’s “owned, delivered, and managed remotely by one or more providers.” It also “allows a sharing of application processing and storage resources in a one-to-many environment…on a pay-for-use basis, or as a subscription.”
So, with all that said, I can clearly state that Fortiva is a SaaS solution using cloud computing…but does it really matter? At the end of the day it comes down to how well the solution meets the needs of the user, both from a feature-functionality, as well as from a total cost of ownership perspective. Whatever you want to call it, the benefits of SaaS solutions go well beyond the buzzwords that may be used to describe them. Understanding that is much more important than getting caught up in the terms marketers use to try to get customers’ attention.
[This post appeared originally here and is republished in full with the kind permission of the author.]
Published July 25, 2008 Reads 74,418
Copyright © 2008 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
Syndicated stories and blog feeds, all rights reserved by the author.
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Praising Gaw is VP of Marketing at Fortiva.
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abramowski 03/10/09 09:08:00 AM EDT | |||
One addition to your article would be a brief discussion of Platform as a Service (PaaS). This is a technology stack that lives between the Cloud infrastructure & the software as a service application. Every software application must have an environment that runs that software. The environment is made up of web servers, application servers, database servers, search servers, etc. All of this needs to be wrappered together with managed services like application level monitoring, backups and continuous improvement. This is the PaaS layer. |
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Simple Difference 07/17/08 05:44:37 AM EDT | |||
Cloud computing serves *developers & companies* who develop software and services. SaaS serves *end users* who use software. |
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Brian de Haaff 07/15/08 06:51:44 PM EDT | |||
There sure is a lot of confusion when it comes to talking about cloud computing. Yet, it does not need to be so complicated. There really are only three types of services that are cloud based: SaaS, PaaS, and Cloud Computing Platforms. I am not sure being massively scalable is a requirement to fit into any one category. We recently published a blog post on this subject with the purpose of simplifying the discussion via images and cutting through the confusion. You can read about it here - "The ASP is dead, long live the Cloud" https://community.paglo.com/blog_topic/index/110-the-asp-is-dead-long-li... Brian de Haaff, |
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OpenStack powers some of the most widely-used SaaS app...
SYS-CON Events announced today that Wowrack will exhibit at SYS-CON's 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York.
Wowrack’s core expertise lies in high-availability Private and Public Cloud IaaS Hosting Solutions. Wowrack provides a true Hybrid service – where business release all IT management and hardware provisioning – taking the data center and server system administrative headaches off our customer’s shoulders. ...
Many have heard of OAuth but are unsure of how it might apply to their business.
In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Alistair Farquharson, CTO of SOA Software, will describe how OAuth can be used to facilitate certain business models and simplify the sharing of private data.
Alistair Farquharson is a visionary industry veteran focused on using disruptive technologies to drive business growth and improve efficiency and agility within organizations. As the CTO of SOA Software A...
SYS-CON Events announced today that nfina Technologies, a provider of highly reliable cloud server products, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York.
nfina Technologies develops, manufactures, and markets highly reliable cloud server products, designed to solve the most demanding data center requirements in mission-critical cloud applications. Nfina’s staff has decades of experience in co...
“Social, mobile, analytics and cloud can’t be looked at as distinct technology trends; they are facets of the same movement and an everyday reality for consumers and businesses alike,” said Craig Sowell, IBM VP of SmartCloud Marketing, in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan. “This means that businesses need to start looking at trends as one: cloud is the delivery, analytics is the unique insight, social is a shareable service, and mobile is the ubiquitous access.”
...
In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Dave Eichorn, Global Data Center Practice Head at Zensar, will share a case study describing how a utility services company handled the migration of its Microsoft platform to the cloud. Challenged with the time-consuming task of opening operations out of temporary offices, this company struggled with the need to simultaneously access data that was accumulated from a vast amount of data-intensive jobs. Zensar migrated the company’s application ...
Organizations across the world are increasingly starting to see the benefits of moving more and more services to the cloud. The focus on the cost-saving potential of cloud is rapidly shifting to completely transforming the business with cloud. As organizations are investing enormous sums on technology they are starting to realize that in order to maximize the return on investment and accelerate the business transformation process the first area of focus should be people. By ensuring the organiza...
You're getting pitched every day from your legacy enterprise software and hardware vendors about "cloud." They're doing an amazing job of convincing your CIO and CTO about what cloud is and how you should use it. The reality is they're defending their shrinking market share and keeping you on the legacy treadmill for as long as they can by selling you solutions that aren't "cloud."
In her session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Niki Acosta, Cloud Evangelista for Rackspace, will talk thro...
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