Microsoft chooses Sitecore for SaaS initiative

Microsoft’s Development Center in Copenhagen has announced the development of the SaaS SHP Software Hosting Platform in collaboration with two IT partners, software developer Sitecore and hosting company Cohaesio. SHP is an open and freely available manual that lays out the details of optimal collaboration procedures for hosting providers, developers and suppliers working together to deliver SaaS solutions.

In the fall of 2006, the Microsoft Innovation Centre in Denmark initiated a collaboration between the Innovation Centre itself, hosting company Cohaesio and software developer Sitecore. The purpose of the common effort was to develop a framework for use in the implementation of Software as a Service-solutions in small and medium-sized companies.

Among other professionals, IT architects, technicians and designers from the three companies participated in the design work of developing SHP – SaaS Hosting Platform – a best practice for transferring a client from its own operating solution to hosting. In principle, SHP is a bundle of code and an advanced manual that describes in detail how hosting providers, developers, suppliers and their products should work together to implement and operate a SaaS solution for a given client based on the client’s wishes and needs.

SaaS is a method of distributing and handling software via the internet, by which companies pay rent for using the software – not for owning it. The client purchases a license to use a composite package with a service agreement as well as server space, applications and software put together on the basis of a large number of well-described need specifications. There are a number of advantages to this method:

"The solution is a so-called multi-tenant solution, under which several clients are hosted on the same server and draw on the same basic systems. Now we are able to service many clients with one single solution. This result in synergistic advantages on system development and maintenance, which in the end is an advantage for our clients," Kim Elsass, marketing manager at software development company Sitecore says.

Microsoft supplies the basic software, the hosting provider operates the infrastructure and distribution while the software developer supplies the specific applications and the platform that is the user’s interface with the remote systems. A SaaS solution thus means that the client never has to worry about running and maintaining an in-house IT infrastructure.

Both Sitecore and Cohaesio are pleased to be part of the collaboration:"We have come out of this collaboration with a great deal of knowledge about the distribution of software that can be implemented together with many different partners and clients," Kim Elsass from Sitecore says.

The team behind SHP has just completed a proof of concept and is now ready to start using the framework. SHP is a freely available tool usable by many different partners.

For more information contact:

Lars Floe Nielsen

E-mail: ln@sitecore.net