The Invisible Database

Continuing my thoughts from my last post, I would like to expand on the idea that users of a computing solution are not religious about the architecture, as long as the solution actually solves their problems and makes their lives easier.

Software vendors or ISVs have long existed to create software solutions, that when combined with the right computing hardware, solves problems. The trick of course, is to find customers willing to pay money for the solution being offered. Some ISVs focus on mass market solutions that appeal to a wide range of customers, while others concentrate on customized solutions for a small number of customers. As anyone who has worked with customers knows, it is often true that many customers have similar desires, but often require some flexibility in the exact implementation of their own solution. This is the reason that there are so many different options and pricing levels for any piece of business software.

In my position within Sybase iAnywhere, I have had the good fortune to speak with a great many customers over the years. In particular, since the publication in the fall of 2009 of my series on multi-tenant database solutions (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5), I have spoken with many of our OEM/ISV partners. One of the most common themes to emerge in these discussions is a desire to provide a hosted or cloud architecture option as an alternative to their current on-premise solution. Note that I said “alternative”, and NOT “replacement”.

The other common discussion point I heard many times from our ISV partners was around combining their current on-premise solution with additional cloud options. They are seeking to provide additional value to their customers. This will open opportunities to drive additional revenue for themselves.

Several challenges for an ISV emerge when considering these two issues:

1. How to continue to support customers who prefer an on-premise solution?
2. How to support new requests for a hosted/cloud offering with a full featured solution?
3. How to provide migration between the two offerings (on-premise to cloud, or cloud to on-premise)?
4. How to minimize development effort?

The one message I heard time and time again is the desire to continue to offer on-premise solutions, while creating an additional hosted or cloud offering. They are looking for an easy “on-ramp to the cloud” for some customers, and an easy “off-ramp from the cloud” for customers whose requirements change over time, and want to run the system on-premise.

I will explore these issues in future posts.