Microsoft Unveils SaaS Incubation Centers

Published: April 18, 2007

by Alex Woodie

Microsoft this week unveiled plans to create a Software as a Service (SaaS) Incubation Center Program to help software vendors make the switch from the traditional software consumption method to the SaaS delivery model. The company also unveiled the second phase of its SaaS On-Ramp Program, which was originally launched in November.

Microsoft has a number of partners providing the facilities where its SaaS Incubation Center Program will be held. According to the plan, software vendors will visit one of these facilities, and a Microsoft partner will do the work of guiding the vendor through various sessions that will flesh out a SaaS business model and ensure that their applications are ready to get SaaS-ified.

Once software vendors are ready to make the move into SaaS, a Microsoft product called the "Solution for Windows-based Hosting for Applications" is used to do the actual SaaS conversion, complete with a new SaaS platform architecture that provides system monitoring and usage functionality, as well as sample scripts the software vendors (oops, SaaS providers) can use to host their SaaS applications.

John Zanni, director of worldwide hosting at Microsoft, says the SaaS Incubation Center Program will combine hosting partners' technical expertise running and managing a data center with business and design guidance to help ISVs move to SaaS. "The SaaS Incubation Center Program helps bring together the world-class infrastructure, consulting services, and partnerships ISVs need to be successful," he says.

Microsoft also announced phase two of the SaaS On-Ramp Program, which was launched in November and provided interested ISVs with discounted software and the technical expertise to create Windows-based SaaS applications.

With phase two, 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 allows the ISVs to focus on their core competencies, which is building applications, Microsoft says.

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