2. Agenda
Speaker Introductions
» Mike Dunham
» Lincoln Ventures
» Rick Chapman
Scio Consulting - Presenter: Mike Dunham
» Software as a Service - What is it?
» SaaS & Multi-tenancy
• Why is multi-tenancy important for SaaS?
» Multi-tenancy Approaches
16 Ventures - Presenter: Lincoln Murphy
» Business implications of the tenancy models for a SaaS provider
Softletter - Presenter: Rick Chapman
» Impact of Communities and Business Intelligence in SaaS
Q&A
2 Scio Consulting International, LLC. All rights reserved.
3. Speakers
Mike Dunham –
» Principal Consultant at Scio Consulting
» mdunham@sciodev.com
» http://www.sciodev.com
Lincoln Murphy –
» Managing Director of Sixteen Ventures
» lincoln@sixteenventures.com
» http://www.sixteenventures.com
Rick Chapman
» Managing Director of Softletter & SaaS University
» rickchapman@softletter.com
» http://www.softletter.com
3 Scio Consulting International, LLC. All rights reserved.
4. Q&A
Your input and feedback makes this a
much better forum!
4 Scio Consulting International, LLC. All rights reserved.
6. What is Software-as-a-Service?
Software as a Service (SaaS) is a model of software
delivery that allows applications to be provided as a
service to customers across the Internet.
It is a Deployment/Delivery model
» Hosted and Managed by vendor
» Delivered across the Internet
It is a Service Model
» End-User support and service moves to the vendor
Usage-based pricing (vs. perpetual license model of on-
premise software)
» Per user per month
» Per transaction
» Per GB of storage per month
2 Scio Consulting International, LLC. All rights reserved.
7. SaaS Evolution
3 Scio Consulting International, LLC. All rights reserved.
8. Business View – Traditional Model
4 Scio Consulting International, LLC. All rights reserved.
9. Business View – SaaS Model
5 Scio Consulting International, LLC. All rights reserved.
10. SaaS vs ASP
ASP: Application Service Provider
» Single-tenant architecture (one customer
per instance)
» Multiple instances running (as many as
there are clients), typically hosted by
third parties
Disadvantages
» Significant management overhead
» Difficult maintenance
» No economies of scale
6 Scio Consulting International, LLC. All rights reserved.
11. Multi-Tenancy
Naïve
» Single Database & Code Structure – Serving Multiple
Customers
Split
» Single Application Database & Code Structure
• Unique DB per Tenant
• Unique Schema per Tenant
Virtualized
» Hardware and Network Abstraction
Rational
» Scalable Instances, Virtualized Infrastructure, Tuned
for Reliability Maturity
7 Scio Consulting International, LLC. All rights reserved.
12. Existing Product - Levels of “SaaSification”
“SaaSification” Levels
Characteristic Hosted (ASP Application Full SaaS
Model) Virtualization Approach
Approach
Tenancy Model Single Tenant Single Tenant Multi-tenant
with Tenant
Mgmt. Tools
Modification Minimal Minimal Moderate to
Required to Extensive
Existing App
Operations Highest Moderate Lowest
Overhead
Scalability of Lowest Low Highest
the Approach
Initial Lowest Moderate Highest
Investment
Sci 8
13. Key Technical Aspects of SaaS
Multi-tenancy Integration
Scalability Security
» Load balancing » Identity management
» Routing Usability
Availability Communication
Performance » e-mail, sms, etc.
Configuration-driven Globalization
Customization Audit and compliance
» look and feel
Backup and recovery
» Functionality
These factors influence App Architecture
as well as Infrastructure Architecture
Sci 9
31. At our SaaS University conference in Atlanta,
Patrick Fetterman, head of marketing of Plexus,
now Plex, said the following:
“We are managing 100K feature requests per
year without product managers
Not possible in his space (ERP) with a licensed
product
37. Release cycles are going away
The pace of SaaS development exceeds anything
ever seen in the industry previous
The most successful SaaS companies will structure
their operations in ways previously talked about, but
never executed
42. In a desktop and licensed world, it’s very difficult, if
not impossible
The tools available simply don’t work very well
Forums
E-mail
Screaming
Surveys
Screaming
43. SaaS is 24/7/52
SaaS is persistent across the world
SaaS IS A COMMUNITY
Inherent in the model
44. They have transformed their community into an active
marketplace of ideas that manages, in the main, itself
Requirements management driven by the community
Implementation driven by community
Innovation driven by community
46. Combined with extensive data mining of their
customer base
This combination has never been seen by the
industry before
47. Product management is fundamentally transformed
No MRDs
No “tick list” management
No acting as a stand in for the “Voice of the Customer”
No acting as a stand in for the customer in the Agile model
48. Product management is fundamentally transformed
Your PM organization flattens out
No “tick list” management
No acting as a stand in for the “Voice of the Customer”
No acting as a stand in for the customer in the Agile model
No MRDs
Requirements management goes back to development
PMs aren’t good at use cases
They’re not Rational mavens
49. Product management is fundamentally transformed
Your traditional PM role disappears
The PPM becomes the PM
Customer community advocate/maven
User of the community management system and wizard of
insights and support
Refiner of the system
PMs (and everyone else becomes accountable)
Business analysts may be needed
50. Who do you think knows more about your system,
you or your users?
51. I bet they do (collectively)
You’re an expert at building your system
Think you’re smarter?
Test and measure (and be accountable)
52. Mult-tennant
BI
Community system
Voting
Polls
Councils
Reputation management
Maven management
Peer to peer
FAQ/Wiki/Blogs
53. All tightly integrated directly into your system
I mean “into”
This approach becomes integral to your marketing,
sales, and development DNA
Once implemented, traditional PM training programs
become obsolete