Service and some Software
OpSource has reported (as commented on already by Paul Wilkinson at Extranet Evolution) the use of a US data centre by UK collaboration provider Asite. No disrespect to the PR folk of the world, but isn't it amazing how much non-news we are fed these days? A data centre gets a new client. A company starts to use a data centre. Doesn't this happen thousands of times a day?
Almost any provider of online collaboration to construction already has at least two data centers. For example, Aconex has seven spread across five countries - with an always-ready disaster recovery centre as well. Adding a new one is hardly a big step in its own right. The decision to host client data in a new geography is often driven by performance and by the end-user experience. While the internet is global, and a SaaS business can theoretically host all of its operations from a single data centre, the reality is that the world is large, the speed of light is fixed and there are many things that can slow internet traffic across large distances.
Part of the solution can be to provide a local instance closer to the end user, giving higher and more reliable speeds. When you are talking about a mission critical application (not just a website), the users do not want to wait - even half a second for each data request can add up and become frustrating. There is an additional benefit: having more than one data centre spreads the risk across locations and provides additional levels of redundancy - if it is done correctly.
But probably the most important point is that adding data centers in new geographies is not challenging. It is a fairly straightforward and mechanical thing to do. The real challenge is in properly supporting those new, distant projects with local training and real local operations (not just fly-in-fly-out support). That comes down to people and management. It is complex and expensive and far more critical than simple hosting to the success of the projects and clients that use the software.
I sometimes think that SaaS (Software as a Service) is a misnomer. Perhaps Service and some Software (SasS) would be a better name.
Labels: Technology
