In the ISP and hosting world we know that a fairly simple two / three tier structure exists, we have the ISP, possibly the Resellers and then the end users. It is my belief that this paradigm is about to undergo a fairly traumatic shift.
I believe that we will see a new three and perhaps even four tier structure emerge as a result of the adoption of SaaS. The structure will be born out of necessity and we need to make all best effort to ensure that that birth is a pain free as possible! The necessity is that ISP’s are not able (nor should they be) to provide application specific support for the SaaS products. Supporting applications is the job of the ISV not the ISP, and so we see the new structure…
ISP | Provides the infrastructure services required to provision and manage the user base and the delivery of applications. May also provide tertiary services such as email, web hosting etc. Ideally never needs to know about the hosted applications. |
ISV | Provides the application specific knowledge and leverages the underlying technology to provision and ménage their environment. Ideally never needs to know about networks and servers. |
(Reseller) | (Provides the support and provisioning elements of the ISV and simply sells the products available to them. Ideally never needs to know how the application is written or provisioned) |
End User | Pays the money and uses the application(s) available to them. Ideally only ever cares about cost and availability! |
It is in this transfer of ownership of the end product away from the ISP that is currently causing just a little confusion! ISP’s are asking “How to I support Application X in this new model?” the answer of course is “You don’t, that’s your ISV or their appointed reseller’s job”
There are always exceptions to this, and any rule, of course. And it is usually the early players who are at the forefront of these. Early SaaS service offerings are built from the ground up and owned and operated by the ISV. They may use and ISP to host the servers but everything from the OS upwards is theirs. This is great if you are A) an ISP who wants to fill a DC with dedicated servers, B) an ISV who has the technical resource available to manage their whole environment or C) an ISV who’s application is wholly self contained and needs nothing more than a server and a network connection.
I see the majority of SaaS offering in the future however utilising a managed hosting environment where centralisation of services and administration is critical to high value, low cost services being made available to any / all.