February 23, 2009 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – Platform-as-a-Service Provider (PaaS) provider
Coghead has closed down, a number of reports have suggested. A statement posted on the company’s website from the company’s Chairman, Paul McNamara, stated simply, “As of February 18, 2009, Coghead has discontinued its service”. The company has sold its assets to
SAP Ventures.
“Leading up to this transaction,” suggested Mr. McNamara in his statement, “we made a careful evaluation -- certainly the level of enthusiasm for Coghead was high and our business was growing fast. But faced with the most difficult economy in memory and a challenging fundraising climate, we determined that the SAP deal was the best way forward for the company”. Financial terms for SAP Ventures’ purchase were not disclosed.
Coghead’s services allowed users with limited coding knowledge to set up web applications that were hosted on a platform that provided a “quantum improvement over traditional software development methods.” The fact that SAP will only use Coghead’s platform internally, and not offer it as a product to end users has, left many of the company’s customers trying to find an alternative hosting solution. April 30 has been given as a deadline for users to extract their applications and data.
Despite the overwhelming move towards utility and “Cloud” computing, Coghead’s closure will no doubt cause many people to reconsider an approach that puts its faith in a third party’s ability to support its customers business models and ensure its own survival. Self reliance and maintaining internal capability might, after all, prove essential in periods of economic downturn. “Faced with the most difficult economy in memory and a challenging fundraising climate, we determined that the SAP deal was the best way forward for the company,” explained Mr. McNamara on the Coghead website.
