OpSource Launches SaaS Incubator
The company wants ISVs to try out its infrastructure as platform for on-demand applications without cost for six months, said CEO Treb Ryan.
To qualify for the SaaS Incubator, ISVs have to have less than $1 million in annual revenue, an application that is in beta stage, and support either Windows Server 2003 or Red Hat Enterprise Linux. ISVs can apply at this OpSource site.
What ISVs get is the use of OpSource's server infrastructure, guaranteed uptime, system monitoring, and access to 24 x 7 support, according to the San Jose, Calif. company.
Pandora Networks runs its VoIP-based telephony, collaboration, and messaging solutions for SMBs on Opsource's infrastructure.
The ISV can add infrastructure as its customer base grows without having to make heavy capital investment up front, said Jon Beck, COO of the Emeryville, Calif. ISV. In its infrastructural offering, OpSource competes with such companies as Navisite, he said.
In addition, Pandora partners like Quorum Technologies, a solution provider specializing in healthcare applications, build atop Pandora's infrastructure and link their backend networks to OpSource's infrastructure.
"Opsource routes the IP traffic, has the soft switches, we tie our networks into theirs," said Binda Mangat, CEO of Quorum, Sacramento Calif. .
Quorum's practice management solution will let medical offices get the practice management capabilities that typically cost $20,000 to $100,000 per doctor at a more palatable price and format, said Mangat. He estimates a healthcare practice can get into practice management via SaaS for $500 to $800 per month all inclusive depending on size of the group and the modules they want.
"Our long-term goal is to take CT, MRI,and ultrasounds and send those images via this infrastructure," to facilitate remote analysis, Mangat said.
This model shows how layered solutions will become over time, with solution providers building and implementing the business-specific tasks on an ISV's infrastructure--in this case Pandora's VoIP, instant messaging--all of which are encrypted to suit HIPAA requirements. And that whole application stack will in turn utilize server and capacity infrastructure from Opsource or perhaps some other infrastructure partner.
Dana Gardner, principal analyst with InterArbor Solutions, a Gilford, N.H. researcher, said the incubator could lower the bar to successful implementations. It is smart for OpSource to target startups which "tend to be innovative and technically savvy," Gardner said.