November 15, 2006 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – Web Microsoft has launched a program to help software vendors and web hosts move into the Software and a Service (SaaS) market, the company announced yesterday.
The SaaS On-Ramp program is available through Microsoft's service provider licensing agreement and provides software vendors with discounted software and technical resources to help them develop and deploy their applications.
The Microsoft program features two of its software products - Widows Server and Microsoft SQL Server. After signing up to the program, costs are reduced for the first 12 months delivering around 80 percent in savings to Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). ISVs establishing new services can also receive a Windows Server license for up to eight CPUs and Microsoft SQL Server license for up to two CPUs and can license Microsoft products on a monthly basis and offer services and hosted applications to their customers.
"We work with several ISVs that are already on the SPLA program, and listening to their concerns and the things they struggle with as they move into the SaaS realm, we came up with the On-Ramp program," suggested Michael van Dijken, Lead Marketing Manager for Hosted Solutions at Microsoft's Communications. "It also mimics something we did several years ago with the ISV Royalty Program. We gave companies that were looking into developing software and writing applications special pricing on a set of licenses for the first 12 months as they kind of got into the ISV world. So, this is a very similar type of program but it goes from traditional software delivery to SaaS delivery, and hence the vehicle is the SPLA."
The SaaS On-Ramp program is currently available in North America and Europe and will be launched in Asia in February 2007.
"I think that there is little doubt that software as a service is something that is being rapidly adopted," added Mr. van Dijken. "Over the next two to three months you can expect to see more similar announcements from Microsoft with regards to Web hosts that are trying to target this segment. You can certainly look forward to more of how Microsoft will help ISVs, not just with creating and hosting their applications, but actually getting it out to market, which is a very different model for them compared to traditional software delivery, or packaged software. Microsoft has always worked very well with ISVs and our goal is to continue to help them be successful on the Microsoft platform, so this is an excellent opportunity for them."
