Cast Iron-Amazon Deal Simplifies Path To Cloud Computing

In a move that could make cloud computing more accessible to a wider audience, Cast Iron Systems will unveil a deal Tuesday to make its data and application integration technology available through Amazon Web Services.

The Cast Iron-Amazon alliance will make it easier for solution providers and their customers to move enterprise applications to the cloud and link those applications to on-premise systems, said Chandar Pattabhiram, vice president of product marketing and channels at Cast Iron.

Integrating Software-as-a-Service applications with other on-demand software and with on-premise IT systems is widely seen as the biggest hurdle for cloud computing. In a Forrester Research survey last year of companies that were not adopting SaaS technology, 65 percent cited integration issues as their biggest concern.

Cast Iron's on-demand software is used for linking SaaS applications, such as SaaS CRM and invoicing applications, with other cloud-computing systems or with on-premise software such as ERP applications running in a company's data center.

Under the multifaceted deal, Cast Iron will offer its software through Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) cloud-computing service. Solution providers that help customers implement and manage cloud applications such as Salesforce.com or Google Apps can use the new "Cast Iron on EC2" to provide those services more quickly and at a lower cost, Pattabhiram said.

Amazon Web Services also will offer Cast Iron's application integration and data integration services to its customers as part of the deal. The two companies also plan to launch several joint sales and marketing programs targeting the EC2 customer base and will hold a Webinar on Sept. 24 on Cast Iron's offerings.

Pattabhiram said Dun & Bradstreet's Hoover's business data service is already using Cast Iron to deliver information through Amazon Web Services to companies using Oracle's Oracle OnDemand CRM and Siebel applications.

In May, Cast Iron struck a deal with Hewlett-Packard under which Cast Iron's SaaS integration tools were made available to HP's 25,000 U.S. channel partners to provide them with an entree into cloud computing.