The New World of Software+Services

With PDC behind us and the actual commercial availability quite a few of the Service Providers (which in my world cover Hosters, Telco’s and Outsourcers) ask questions like: ‘Is this a thread to my business?’,  ‘How do we work with Windows Azure?’ and ‘Where so I start?’.

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll do a series of posts specifically targeted at this topic.

To get a level set on the topic, and trying to answer one of the most frequently asked questions from the non-core developer audience: What is Windows Azure?

You can find a lot a detail at the www.windowsazure.com site but I’ll try to give a best possible summary below;

Windows® Azure™ is Microsoft’s cloud services platform, designed to host web services and applications in Microsoft-owned, Internet-accessible data centers. Windows Azure provides four elemental services: compute services, storage services, a computing fabric and automated services management.

Compute Services

Goal: Massive application scalability by enabling multiple application instances, replicated as needed. There are two types  of application instances:

• Web Role,  for interfacing with users and web services via HTTP/HTTPS, TCP/IP and ports other than 80 and 443.
• Worker Role, for “background” processing, like a Windows service

Applications are built with web role instances, worker role instances, or combinations of both.

Storage Services

Goal: Scalable, durable, utility-based storage. There are four components of Windows Azure storage:

• Blobs:  Large, unstructured data (audio, video, etc.)
• Tables: Massive amounts of simply structured data
• Queues: Messages or requests, allowing web-roles and worker-roles to interact
• Drives : Durable NTFS file system volumes sharable across instances

For more complex data requirements, you can also use SQL Azure for relational data or use MySQL within a Virtual Machine (VM).

The Fabric

Goal: Simple abstraction of the hundreds of servers dedicated to hosting Windows Azure. Each server currently runs one of four variable sized dynamically allocated Virtual Machines (VM), automatically managed by the fabric controller.

The Fabric Controller

Goal: Automated management of Windows Azure services and hosted applications. The fabric controller performs load balancing, backup, replication, failover, scale up, scale down, roll back to previous versions, and simple management and deployment of applications and services via APIs

So the obvious next question than is; “How does this benefit me as a Service Provider? I have invested in my infrastructure and I can provide my customers with all services they ask for.”

What are the potential business opportunities for Service Providers?

The massive datacenters that are being build as part of the Microsoft Global Foundation Service (GFS) enable 2 unique aspects that any Service Provider will struggle to support; almost unlimited scale-out storage and burst capacity. Right now, this is where we see an immediate opportunity that Windows Azure can enable. 

• Scale Storage: Add cloud storage to an on-premises or hosted application, providing a service that enables secure and controlled sharing of data among stakeholders, partners and vendors, or cloud-based archival of mail and other corporate documentation.

• BURST Capacity: Utilize Windows Azure compute power to process data, as in the case of large-scale data mining or graphical rendering of large amounts of data.

We have produced 3 case studies that highlight these scenarios in an actual Service Provider environment;

• GoGrid: http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?CaseStudyID=4000006114
• T-Systems MMS: http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000006119
• Mamut: http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?casestudyid=4000006113

Next post I will provide more context on the partner model and how the integration between Service Provider infrastructure and Windows Azure can help to create brand new types of offerings and support differentiation in market.

After having started with Twitter (@walschots) I must admit the blog has gone somewhat silent.

The past 6 months my focus has slightly shifted away from the S+S Incubation Center program to planning the launch of Windows Azure for the Service Providers as well as the other Online Services like BPOS.

Over the next days I’ll be posting more details on how we see the Windows Azure Services platform work for and with Service Providers. Recent work we have done for PDC and workshops at the EMEA Hosting Club have supported the development of some scenarios that show this integration.

Stay tuned and give feedback!

Good to hear the different views from the panelists on the Cloud and what it means to them.

Good to hear the partners say “Partners, partners, partners”. Continuing to allow the partners to add value, as soon as the products and solutions are only available as a resell it will become tough to work together.

Another comment that is really core to the Hosting Business I’m responsible for resonates well with the panel: Connect the partners across the eco-systems to help them build new business together.

Is Virtual Desktop a viable model and is there a difference between Europe and the US?

No real clarity on the markets being different is coming out of the discussion.

* YouSaaS is big in Virtual Desktop business and uses it as a way to provide end customers with choice of both Microsoft and 3rd party applications

* Rackspace doesn’t offer it and is not getting asked for it.

* Use the Virtual Desktop to retain control and allow users more freedom to choose their hardware and local applications.

Dan had a great metaphor with Cloud as the iceberg. The visible tip of the iceberg is what the end users see and all the underwater parts are the ‘enabling technologies’ that just the Service Providers see.

Use of Cloud Computing Services

April 2008 quick check from TR1 shows 78% was not using, 15% don’t know and the rest would fit somewhere in between.

October 2008 poll shows not much progress in the uptake.

Most use is for Internet application Hosting, Databases, Disaster Recovery (DR). So it’s the SaaS providers using this as the infrastructure to run their apps.

Storage is most likely going to be the big winner when looking at Cloud in the SMB potentially some server replacement but much more they will be buying the pure SaaS offerings that run on the Cloud.

The real opportunity will be in the Mid-Tier Enterprise for both the SaaS apps as well as the more raw services.

Top Internet Applications

• Now: Messaging/Collaboration, CRM & BI, BPO & productivity, Accounting
• 2012: HR & Accounting, Filer Server replacement, Internet-based NAS and Storage

So bottom-line Cloud will become the platform

What do Customers need from Cloud Computing???

• Over 50% is asking for Flexibility; 40+% Low Cost; 40% IT move to opex
• Most interesting is that Green IT, Billing, Branding and Ease of Use scored a zero in the TR1 poll

What are the Hosters challenges to deploy Cloud services?

Not the technology or the how-to do it but the Other Priorities. Also selling it showed as a challenge

Top Managed Hosting Cloud Players according to TR1

• OpSource On-Demand & Connect
• Mosso (Rackspace) Slicehost, CloudFiles
• StrataScale’s Ironscale (RagingWire)
• Flexiscale (XCalibre)
• Terremark Infinistructure
• Savvis Utiliity
• Layeredtech on-demand storage
• Nirvanix

How not to lose in the Cloud:

• Security, Compliance, SLA, Availability, Cost vs In-House,
• Legacies and willingness to change, Hostile software licensing regimes, Hype

How to win:

• Understand your target audience. Are you focusing on SMB’s or ISVs or SaaS? Also look for synergies and partners
• Use Virtualization Solutions. CHoose to be a Cloud Infrastructure Provider or be a fully integrated PaaS.

Doug is doing another example of 5 level leadership at the MS Hosting Summit. If you want to see more check this YouTube vid of his story on the Beatles.

Watching the old Beatles TV material is showing of screaming girls, crying out loud. Doug is positioning how the Beatles are a great example of a business that is willing to take a risk before the rest of the market does.

But then … we’re just not all a Beatle… sigh.

Now on stage in the Bellevue Westin at the MS Hosting Summit is Eddie Amos, Server and Tools business.

Balancing capex and opex is the reality of many business when it comes to investing in IT. Mixing on-premise with online services leads into the software plus services model. He’s having some good examples of how the enterprise is mixing their on-premise software with services like off loading payroll to ADP.

Eddie is giving a great update on the many things we already do but apparently have kept way to secret. Good to see that BizSpark finds quite some people to raise their hand as one they know about.

Software plus Services has reached a point where the hype seems to have passed and most of our customers and competitors now embrace, still in their own wording and models, but it’s clear that just cloud or just on-prem are not the way forward.

Partners are front and center in the S+S strategy and vision. It has been proven that partners drive the innovation curve faster and more agile, which is key to the overall success of the partnership.

Another element of the success moving forward is choice and interoperability. On top of Windows Server and Windows Azure with .net and php the key is to provide industry standard connectivity through SOAP, REST and XML.

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR HOSTERS

Windows Server and Windows Azure provide an opportunity for Hosters. Windows Azure can become a part of the set of services Hosters can use and add to their datacenter based set of services. Use Windows Azure to offload certain workstreams with a different economic model. The message is mix and match to provide your customers choice.

More details on Windows Azure at the World Wide Partner Conference in July this year. Stay tuned.

Finally we’re revealing a program to help partners benefit from co-branding their expertise. The Microsoft Communication Services program will launch at WPC later this year. Demo’s and logos to help partners that invest in our platform.

To get this you have to get the Hosting Competency and make sure you join us at the Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans in July.

Managed hosting is still where the margins are. Partners should focus on being (or becoming) the trusted advisor and competing on value and ROI – not price.

Tier1 data projects 25% segment growth from 2009 to 2010 and 24% for the year after.

John also shows the updated IDC data with the economic climate factored in a November 2008 paper. Upward adjusted CAGR to 17.5% over 2008-2012. They uplifted the July2008 release of this research from WW SaaS Revenue forecast to move from 16B$ to about 20B$ by 2012.

Just picking on the trends slide with the Developers and ISV component. We’re calling out to partners that these ISVs needs reliable partners to host and manage their apps. Check the Incubation Center program if you’re interested in learning how we educate and expose our hosters to this opportunity.

POWER OF CHOICE

Let there be no mistake: partner hosted is still the way to go. First evidence: 2 pillars of the business show partner-hosted direct and partner-hosted white label as ways to go. Second point of evidence: lots of tools and materials (Hyper-V whitepaper, Hosting Deployment Accelerator, Hyper-V fast start programs….)

The kick off of the day was done in style… a story on survival of the fittest by Doug Keeley, CEO and chief storyteller. The amazing story of Shackleton illustrated the intro of managing and leadership in tough times.

Martha Bejar on stage to outline the vision and strategy of the Communication Sector. Personally I think we finally reached a point where the Software plus Services starts to show an integrated message to the partners.

Busy day ahead. If you’re around and want to meet come and find me! I’m looking for ideas and feedback on how we can keep the momentum on Software plus Services going with the ISV’s. What’s your experience in bringing them on the platform?

Just back from a great session with the S+S Incubation Center partners that join us this week in Bellevue, WA for the MS Hosting Summit.

Main themes of the discussion were around lead generation and promoting offerings. An interesting topic for discussion with all partners was launched after Richard Dym from OpSource showed some of his metrics on how they find and win new ISVs.

Inbound marketing using the web, seo an d events are proving to be the most effective tools to drive pipeline. So far no surprise. The time from lead to order has doubled from 2007 to 2008 with now being an average 222 days.

A key indicator that the ISV market moving to S+S and SaaS is clearly slowing in the economic climate, despite upbeat reports from IDC and Forrester.

This raised the question on what it would take to get ISVs to move faster? Is it by focusing on the Hosting Partners’ key competencies of infrastructure, 24/7 monitoring and availability? Or is it by helping the ISVs to generate new business from reselling other services, to bring money into the operation?

What do you think? Are you seeing the slowdown in turning leads to orders?

Back in Bellevue since Sunday. Couple of the observations of the last 2 days;

1) It’s still busy in the Bellevue Mall :-) maybe a few shops have fell over but most are still there and the Mall itself has had a nice touchup… recession????

2) My strategy of stretching night 1 after arrival from Amsterdam is working… not a lot of issues with the jet-lag

3) Tully’s vs Starbucks day 2 = 3:0, might be just because they’re in the lobby of the Hyatt

Made the bold move this week and wiped the Thinkpad T61P to do a clean install of Windows 7 x64 and have no regrets… it rocks!

The main reason for the 64-bits version is to have access to all 4 Gigs of mem, being willing to give up some apps/devices but to my surprise almost everything just works… almost everything except the sync with my HTC phone.

Not sure if that’s the lack of a x64 device driver for the phone or something else, I will dive into it later this week.

What I like:

* The toolbar – been reading some reports of people that don’t like it but for me it works to keep the desktop organized. The only thing I notice is that clicking the Outlook icon on the left starts another instance of Outlook rather than opening the already running app.

* The Device Center – great single view of the devices on my system and their status

* Network Center – way much better organized especially if you have both Wifi and LAN connections.

I’ll do some more testing this week as I’m on the road to Copenhagen to speak at the Microsoft Hosting Day for my team in Communication Sector over there.

Things I want to check are (hopefully) extended battery life, presentation mode with dual screens, access speeds of public wifi at the airports I visit …

I will be back :-)

Posting from the Office…

Move over browser-based editing … here’s the brand new Windows Live Writer!

It’s great to see how Software+Services as a vision is getting translated into new products in the Windows Live family. One of the examples is the offline Blog editor that comes with the download of the set of Live Services.

Windows Live Writer requires almost no work to get going on your blog service. It’s a so much nicer way to create, edit and publish your postings. The greatest feature: you can prep your contributions offline and push them to the server when you connect (if you need to ofcourse).

I’m going to be playing around with this for the next couple of days, but the first experience is a simple, easy deployment.

What a great morning here at the Hosting Summit.  Highlights from the presentations accross all is that SaaS or S+S is no longer just hype but a business reality. Particularly for the hosting provider business this is both a challenge as much (or maybe even more) a super opportunity.

I'm not surprised as my day to day work is all about getting the ISVs connected with the hosters. The Incubation Center program is all about that. Greg Urquhart from the MS US ISV team called out this number of 60% of the ISVs looking at hosters as the partner to move to a SaaS model. And I believe that's a number that is even bigger in some of the International markets.

Another 2 great announcements are about Softgrid 4.5 coming to SPLA in the fall, finally I want to say. I have seen many partners look at Softgrid as a tool to move apps into the hosting infrastructure without changing the core of the app.

Another announcement is related to the SQL 2008 Web Edition, at a low (very low) pricepoint this will be a definately serious alternative for smaller, start-up ISVs that will help to match the cost base with the maturity of their business. The good part here is that scaling the requirements up to a clustered, high available solution will be much more seamless than moving from a free database technology when you get out of prototyping or grow as a business into a higher SLA requirement.

Hosters need to move up the valuechain if they want to survive and increase the margins and not get hit by the 'Gorrila's' (fun pun from John Zanni's pres today calling that collective 'amazooglesoft') :-)

I noticed a lot of interest from both the hosters present, as well as the technology vendors at the event, in what Microsoft is doing with the Incubation Center program. It appears to strike some of the right chords where it comes to assiting ISVs with the business challenges of moving to SaaS.