SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit: Software as a Service Study Guide Book and Online Course
Notice of Rights: Copyright © The Art Of Service. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Notice of Liability: The information in this book is distributed on an “As Is” basis without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of the book, neither the author nor the publisher shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book or by the products described in it. Trademarks: Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and the publisher was aware of a trademark claim, the designations appear as requested by the owner of the trademark. All other product names and services identified throughout this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of the trademark. No such use, or the use of any trade name, is intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book. ITIL® is a Registered Community Trade Mark of OGC (Office of Government Commerce, London, UK), and is Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
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Foreword
As an education and training organization within the IT Service Management (ITSM) industry, we have watched with enthusiasm as cloud computing, Software as a Service (SaaS) and Web Applications have evolved over the years. The opportunities provided through SaaS and Web Applications have allowed for significant growth within an industry that continues to mature and develop at a rapid pace. Our primary goal is to provide the quality education and support materials needed to enable the understanding and application of SaaS and Web Applications within a wide range of contexts. This comprehensive book is designed to complement the in-depth eLearn SaaS and Web Applications Specialist program provided by The Art of Service. The interactive eLearn course uses a combination of narrated PowerPoint presentations with flat text supplements and multiple choice assessments which will ultimately prepare you for the SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level certification exam. We hope you find this book to be a useful tool in your educational library and wish you well in your IT Service Management career! The Art of Service http://www.theartofservice.com/
How does the Certification Kit work? Welcome to the Software as a Service and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit. This book is part of the series of books around Cloud Computing and managing the services that are involved in, or utilize, Cloud Computing. The certification kits are in line with the Cloud Computing Certification Scheme.
After you‟ve read this book, studied the eLearning materials and successfully passed your exam, you can continue with your qualifications through the specialist programs and work toward your Cloud Computing Executive Level Certification. In addition to the certification kits, The Art of Service has also developed a series of books on the subject of Cloud Computing. All books are available as e-book, PDF download, audio book and paperback.
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eLearn Component This certification kit comes with FREE access to the eLearning program. The following page explains how to access the program materials online.
The Software as a Service and Web Applications Specialist Level Exam Chapter 8 of this book provides more detail about the certification exam and what the requirements are to pass.
How to access the associated Software as a Service and Web Applications Special Level eLearning Program: 1. Direct your browser to: www.theartofservice.org 2. Click „login‟ (found at the top right of the page) 3. Click „Create New Account‟. If you already have an existing account, please move on to step 5. 4. Follow the instructions to create a new account. You will need a valid email address to confirm your account creation. If you do not receive the confirmation email check that it has not been automatically moved to a Junk Mail or Spam folder. 5. Once your account has been confirmed, email your User-ID for your new account to
[email protected]. 6. We will add your account to the Software as a Service and Web Applications eLearning Program and let you know how to access the program from then on.
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Minimum system requirements for accessing the eLearning Program: Processor
Pentium III (600 MHz) or higher
RAM
128MB (256MB recommended)
OS
Windows 98, NT, 2000, ME, XP, 2003, Mac OSX
Browser
Internet Explorer 5.x or higher (Cookies and JavaScript Enabled), Safari
Plug-Ins
Macromedia Flash Player 8
Other
16-bit sound card, mouse, speakers or headphones
Display Settings
1024x768 pixels
Internet Connection
Due to multimedia content of the site, a minimum connection speed of 256kbs is recommended. If you are behind a firewall and face problems accessing the course or the learning portal, please contact your network administrator for help.
If you are experiencing difficulties with the Flash Presentations within the eLearning Programs please make sure that: 1) You have the latest version of Flash Player installed, by visiting www.adobe.com and following the links. 2) You check that your security settings in your web browser don't prevent these flash modules playing. There is support for these issues on the Adobe webpage.
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Contents 1
14
INTRODUCTION
1.1
WHAT IS SAAS?
14
1.2
THE HISTORY OF SAAS
17
1.3
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES OF SAAS
19
2
COMMON TERMINOLOGY
21
3
WHAT SAAS IS AND WHAT IT IS NOT
25
3.1
SAAS VS. SOFTWARE + SERVICE
25
3.2
SAAS VS. ASP
27
4
30
BENEFITS OF SAAS
4.1
SAVING MONEY
30
4.2
SAVING TIME
31
4.3
ALLOWING A BUSINESS TO USE THEIR BUDGET MORE EFFECTIVELY
31
4.4
GIVING BUSINESSES ACCESS TO THE VERY LATEST SOFTWARE VERSIONS
32
5
34
RELATED FORMS OF CLOUD COMPUTING
5.1
CLOUD COMPUTING
34
5.2
VIRTUALIZATION
35
5.3
GRID COMPUTING
35
5.4
UTILITY COMPUTING
35
6
36
COMPANIES INVOLVED WITH SAAS
6.1
ADOBE SYSTEMS
36
6.2
AXENTIS
36
6.3
GOOGLE
37
6.4
MICROSOFT
37
6.5
NETSUITE
38
6.6
SALESFORCE
38
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6.7
7
39
SUCCESSFACTORS
41
TECHNOLOGIES THAT INCORPORATE SAAS
7.1
SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE
41
7.2
SAAS HOSTING
42
7.3
SAAS PLATFORM
44
7.4
TENANCY PARTITIONING
45
7.5
MONITORING AND METERING
45
7.6
SCALING
46
7.7
GOOGLE APPS
46
7.8
GMAIL
46
7.8.1 7.8.2 7.8.3 7.8.4
46 47 47 47
Google Talk Google Calendar Google Docs Google Sites
7.9
GOOGLE MAPS
48
7.10
WINDOWS LIVE
49 49 51 51 51 52
Windows Live Messenger Windows Live Hotmail Windows Live Calendar Windows Live Spaces Windows Live ID
7.10.1 7.10.2 7.10.3 7.10.4 7.10.5
7.11
52
MICROSOFT OFFICE LIVE SMALL BUSINESS
7.11.1 7.11.2 7.11.3 7.11.4 7.11.5 7.11.6 7.11.7 7.11.8 7.11.9 7.11.10
52 53 53 53 53 54 54 54 54 55
Web site design tool and hosting space Domain name registration and business email creation tools Contact Manager Document Manager Workspaces Project Manager Resources as well as support Store Manager E-Mail Marketing adManager
7.12
A BRIEF COMPARISON BETWEEN TECHNOLOGIES
55
7.13
INTRODUCTION REVIEW QUESTIONS
58
8
59
HOW TO ACCOMPLISH SAAS
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8.1 8.1.1 8.1.2
59
MIGRATING FROM A STANDARD SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENT TO A SAAS ONE (BEFORE AND AFTER)
59 61
Things to do and consider before migration Things to do after migration
8.2
A SIMPLE HOW TO GUIDE
62
8.3
TOP 10 THINGS TO DO AND CONSIDER WHEN IMPLEMENTING SAAS
67
8.4
TOP 10 SAAS PITFALLS
71
8.5
SOME OF THE PROBLEMS THAT YOU MAY ENCOUNTER WITH SAAS
76
9
79
MANAGING A SAAS ENVIRONMENT
9.1
SUPPORT ISSUES
79
9.2
HOW TO MEASURE CAPACITY AND PERFORMANCE
81
9.3
CONTRACTS AND AGREEMENTS SUCH AS LICENSING
82
9.4
ORGANIZATIONAL ASPECTS – SUCH AS THE ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES THAT PEOPLE HAVE IN A SAAS 83
ENVIRONMENT
10
86
INTRODUCING APPLICATIONS ON THE WEB
10.1
STARTED WITH THE INTERNET
87
10.2
HISTORY OF WORLD WIDE WEB
89
10.3
EVOLUTION OF THE WEB APPLICATIONS
91
11
93
EXPANDING ON WEB 2.0
11.1
HARNESS THE COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE OF THE COMMUNITY
95
11.2
THE ADVANCEMENT OF BLOGGING
97
11.3
A NEW CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE
98
11.4
OBTAINING DYNAMIC CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT 100
11.5
CREATING PROGRAMMING MODELS THAT ARE LIGHTWEIGHT 101
11.6
NO LONGER BOUND TO A SINGLE CUSTOMER 102
11.7
STRIVING FOR A BETTER EXPERIENCE 103
12
105
DISTINGUISHING WEB APPLICATIONS
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13
INTRODUCTION WEB APPLICATION FRAMEWORK
107
14
A NEW SUCCESS FOR WEB APPLICATIONS IN AJAX
109
15
A SURVEY OF WEB APPLICATION FRAMEWORKS
111
15.1
ACTIONSCRIPT 111
15.2
ASP.NET 112
15.3
COLDFUSION 113
15.4
COMMON LISP 114
15.5
GROOVY 115
15.6
JAVA 115
15.7
JAVASCRIPT 117
15.8
LUA 117
15.9
PERL 118
15.10
PHP 118
15.11
PYTHON 119
15.12
RUBY 120
15.13
SCHEME 120
15.14
SMALLTALK 120
15.15
CONCLUSION TO WEB APPLICATIONS FRAMEWORKS 121
16
123
INTRODUCTION TO MARKUP LANGUAGES
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16.1
SGML/HTML 123
16.2
XML/XHTML 124
16.3
CONCLUSION TO MARKUP L ANGUAGES 125
17 17.1
18 18.1 18.1.1
18.2 18.2.1
18.3 18.3.1 18.3.2
18.4 18.4.1
18.5 18.5.1 18.5.2
18.6 18.6.1
126
BENEFITS FOR WEB APPLICATIONS PROGRESS REVIEW QUESTIONS 128
129
SERVICE MANAGEMENT PROCESSES IT FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT 129 IT Financial Management and SaaS 131
INFORMATION SECURITY MANAGEMENT 132 Information Security Management and SaaS 136
RELEASE & DEPLOYMENT MANAGEMENT 137 Release and Deployment and SaaS 141 Release Management and Web Applications 141
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT 142 Knowledge Management and SaaS 146
INCIDENT MANAGEMENT 146 Incident Management and SaaS 149 Incident Management and Web Applications 149
CHANGE MANAGEMENT 150 Change Management and SaaS 158
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18.6.2
18.7 18.7.1 18.7.2
18.8 18.8.1 18.8.2
19 19.1 19.1.1
20
Change Management and Web Applications 159
CAPACITY MANAGEMENT 159 Capacity Management and SaaS 161 Capacity Management and Web Applications 162
AVAILABILITY MANAGEMENT 162 Availability Management and SaaS 164 Availability Management and Web Applications 165
IT SERVICE CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT (ITSCM) 169 IT Service Continuity Management and SaaS 170
172
APPLYING CLOUD COMPUTING TO PROJECT MANAGEMENT
20.1
BENEFITING FROM CLOUD COMPUTING 172
20.2
THE EASE OF LINKING (HYPERLINKS) 173
20.3
SUBSCRIBING TO SUCCESS (BLOGGING) 174
20.4
INTERFACING WITH THE PROJECT (MASHUPS) 176
20.5
EVERYONE IS A PROJECT MANAGER (OPEN SOURCE) 177
20.6
TREATING THE PROJECT AS PARTS, NOT THE WHOLE (REUSE) 178
20.7
TESTING THE LIMITS (PORTABILITY) 179
20.8
FINAL REVIEW QUESTIONS 181
21
165
USING THE WEB TO PROMOTE ITIL
182
ANSWERS
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INTRODUCTION REVIEW QUESTIONS 182 PROGRESS REVIEW QUESTIONS 182 FINAL REVIEW QUESTIONS 182
22 22.1
183
CERTIFICATION CLOUD COMPUTING CERTIFICATION PATHWAYS 183
ITIL® CERTIFICATION PATHWAYS 185 22.2
ISO/IEC 20000 CERTIFICATION PATHWAYS 186
23
SAAS AND WEB APPLICATIONS SPECIALIST EXAM TIPS
187
24
REFERENCES
188
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Also from Emereo Publishing and The Art of Service:
ITIL V3 Foundation Complete Certification Kit: 2009 Edition Study Guide Book and Online Course 2009 Edition ITIL V3 Foundation Certification exam prep guide, including refreshed study guide, online eLearning program, new examples, instructions, and cautionary advice.
1 Introduction 1.1
What is Saas?
SaaS (Software as a service) changes the way software applications are stored and accessed. Traditionally software applications would be installed and reside on the same host machine, where they would be accessed from. However, SaaS changes this by hosting software applications on a remote server. These software applications and services are then accessed by remote users via the Internet. A simple example of SaaS: Although most people probably don‟t realize it, SaaS is more commonly used than they actually think. One of the most common uses of SaaS is for web-based email services. Popular web-based email service providers include Microsoft, Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail and many others. These web-based email services are a good example of what SaaS basically is. Each web-based email service provider hosts all of their programs, information and data that are linked to the services they are providing (in this case web-based email access), in a remote centralized location. End-users can then remotely access these web-based email services and data which relates to them, via the World Wide Web using any normal web browser. To summarize things, there are a few basic points that are common to all SaaS implementation. 1. Software applications or services are stored remotely. 2. A user can then access these services or software applications from anywhere in the world, via the Internet. 3. In most cases, a user does not have to install anything onto their host machine, all they require is a web browser to access these services (although in some cases, a web browsers may require an additional plug-in or add-on for certain services). These simple set of points are common for all SaaS implementations, whether they are for business and enterprise use or even just for individual use. Categories of SaaS SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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Currently, there are two main categories of SaaS; these are business-orientated services and customer-orientated services. Business-orientated services This type of SaaS involves offering software solutions to companies or enterprises. The software is either sold in a traditional commerce way or it is made available to companies on a subscription basis. A number of applications and software services fall under this first category. However, in most cases they relate to business processes such as product management services or customer relations applications. Customer-orientated services Customer orientated SaaS involves offering software solutions or services to the general public. Sometimes these services are offered on a subscription basis but in a lot of cases they are offered for free. Often, advertising is what make it possible for these types of consumer orientated services, to be offered for free. Who has ownership of software in a SaaS Solution? Normally a customer will purchase software along with a license (or licenses depending on how many copies they require), by paying a one-off fee. This is similar to buying any other product, whether it is software-based or hardware-based. A customer buys a software product and once purchased, that software product then becomes the property of the buyer. The customer now has full ownership of that software solution and can effectively use the software in any way they wish, as long as they do not break any of the terms and conditions (i.e. copyright terms) or licensing terms for that software. In most cases, once a software solution has been purchased, the vendor for that software solution will still provide software support in the form of upgrades and patches. In the case of SaaS, ownership of software solutions remains in the vendor‟s hands. A customer does not buy a software solution or any licenses through a one-off fee. Instead they pay a recurring fee in the form a subscription (if the software solution is not one that is offered for free). The user then has access and permission to use that particular software solution, until either their subscription period runs out or they cancel their recurring payment.
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In a SaaS solution, ownership of software applications and services remain in the vendor‟s hands because the software is not downloaded onto a user‟s computer in any way. Instead it is accessed by a user remotely through the Internet using their web browser. This means that software vendors now have full control of their software solutions and do not have worry about consumers breaching their copyright terms or licensing terms. The main advantages of SaaS for software clients Briefly mentioned below are a few of the main advantages for of SaaS for software users. Lower costs – If a user only needed to use a software application for one month, it would be a waste of money for them to completely purchase this software application (especially for expensive software applications such as video editing, graphics, etc.). By using SaaS software solutions, consumers can save a lot of money. All they have to do is pay a subscription fee for one month or for the duration of time that they will be using an application for. This is a very cost-effective solution for users who may only use a particular software application on rare occasions. Reduced storage requirements – Some applications can take up a lot of hard drive space. By using SaaS software solutions, consumers can save a lot of hard drive space and in the long run this can save them money. Also, users do not have to worry about constantly backing up software data as this is all handled by the SaaS vendors. The main advantages of SaaS for software vendors Continuous income and greater profits – SaaS allows software vendors to profit like never before. Traditionally a client would purchase a software application, along with the number of licenses that they required and then that was it. A software vendor received very little from their clients after this initial purchase. However, SaaS now allows software vendors to receive a continuous stream of income in the form of subscriptions. In the long run, this means that software vendors are able to profit far more than they could before. A reduction in piracy and unlicensed software – By keeping ownership of software applications in their own hands, software vendors can benefit from a reduction in piracy and unlicensed copies of their software being distributed. Again, this increases their profits because the amount of money that they are losing through piracy can be greatly reduced.
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There are many more benefits to using SaaS software solutions for both clients and vendors and only a few of the main ones were mentioned above.
1.2
The History of SaaS
SaaS is a technology that first came of age during the 1990s. However, it was nearly lost in obscurity like many other new technologies that were emerging at that time, due to the dot com bubble bursting. Fortunately, SaaS was able to recover and it is now a software methodology that is widely used across the Internet. Issues that were holding SaaS back during the 90s The initial problems for SaaS during the late 90s included the fact that most software applications were never designed to be remotely accessible. Software applications would always be installed on to the same machines on which they were going to be run on. Other factors which greatly hindered the progress of SaaS, being widely implemented during the 1990s included limited bandwidth availability and Internet speeds. Many clients and potential users of SaaS accepted the subscription approach to software services and hosted delivery of software services. However, because Internet connections were so slow at the time (maximum of 56kbs for most users), SaaS just wasn‟t practical. Bandwidth was also quite expensive, which made SaaS a very expensive solution at the time. It was far quicker and cheaper for businesses and individual users to install applications onto their local machines. Finally, software vendors were just not interested in changing their pricing models. At the time, most software vendors were happy with receiving immediate up-front payment for their software applications and tended to overlook the benefits that a subscriptionbased model would have for them. The major software companies like Microsoft, Oracle, etc., also just ignored SaaS and did not take it seriously. The resurgence of SaaS in the millennium As mentioned, a lot of technologies and concepts just faded with the burst of the dot com bubble, but SaaS was not one of these. To begin with, SaaS was just used in niche markets. SaaS was being used to address specific software problems and provide specific software services, in small specialized areas of a business.
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However with time, vendors like Salesforce, NetSuite and many more, began to develop purpose-built SaaS solutions, delivering them to customers in the form of subscriptions. This meant that businesses now had access to entire software solutions and could subscribe to as many of these services or as few of these services as required. This is one of the main reasons why SaaS solutions became widely adopted in the new millennium, because of the flexibility that SaaS offered. Of course this wasn‟t the only reason why SaaS solutions became so widely adopted in the new millennium. There were a few other important reasons which are briefly detailed below. Improvements in Internet speeds and an increase in availability In the new millennium, Internet speeds rapidly increased through the use of broadband technologies. The price of bandwidth was also getting cheaper which meant businesses could now purchase more bandwidth than ever before. This meant that SaaS could not only be implemented cheaply but it could now also work efficiently, without any lag or time delays that dial-up Internet connections would have caused. Also, more and more people were now connecting to the Internet and where there might not have been a market for SaaS before (because most people worked offline); there was one now (because people started to spend more time connected to the Internet online). Seeing things from a different perspective At first, software vendors were against using a subscription-based model for their software, they were happy receiving upfront payments. However, as the demand for Internet-based services increased, software vendors decided to change their stance by offering software services to consumers using a subscription-based model. This allowed software vendors to receive a continuous stream of income and profit far more than they could have by just using their traditional software sales model. Also, consumers were much happier using a subscription-based model because they would not have to pay large amounts of money upfront and had the ability to only pay for the services that they required. A subscription model in most cases also ensured that consumers would not be locked in by any licensing terms or a software vendor‟s terms and conditions. For example, some software vendors would not offer refunds once a software application had been purchased. This meant that if a client purchased a software SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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application and it was not as it was advertised making it useless to the client, then that client would have effectively lost their money. However, using a subscription-based model, a client has the ability to pay a fraction of a software application‟s full price, without being locked in to their subscription in any way. This means that if a software application ends up being useless for a client, then they can cancel their subscription with a minimal loss of funds. SaaS is a relatively new technology when compared to other technologies, but it is now starting to be widely adopted by both businesses and home users. Advances in Internet speeds and bandwidth availability have made it both a very feasible software solution and a cheap software solution and it is now backed by major software and Internet companies such as Microsoft and Google.
1.3
Goals and Objectives of SaaS
Detailed below are some of the main reasons why SaaS was initially developed. To make the management and control of software easier Traditionally, software vendors would sell their software applications in the same way that any other product would be sold. Once a software vendor sold a copy of their software application, that was it, it was gone and the software vendor would lose control of it. Of course, by losing control of their software applications, these applications could now be easily manipulated or even illegally duplicated. By using SaaS, software vendors have complete control over their software applications. This also means that they can easily be managed and piracy can be controlled to a certain extent. To take the management strain away from consumers A lot of time and money is spent by businesses on the deployment, management and updating of their software applications. SaaS completely eliminates this on the customer‟s side, because it is now the software vendor who deals with these issues when a SaaS solution is used. This is much better for both parties because software vendors are better equipped to deal with the management issues for their software applications while customers have one less strain on them. To make software services available globally
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Because of the fact that SaaS operates across the Internet, software services can be accessed by anyone from anywhere in the world as long as they have an Internet connection. For people who travel often or constantly switch between machines that have different software applications installed onto them, this is very beneficial. To provide a single instance of a software service to multiple users The great thing about SaaS for software vendors is that multiple users can access the same instance of a software service. Each user will see their own instance of a software service and their own data, without interfering with any other user‟s data. This means that software vendors can save a lot of money and resources by running just a single instance of a software service, which can then be accessed by many users. To create flexible payment models for software services Using SaaS, there are many different ways that a client can pay for software. For example they could pay a monthly fee, they could be charged based on the features that they use or on how much they used a particular software service, i.e. using a payas-you-go model. The good thing about this flexibility in pricing models is that the needs of many different users can be accommodated for. For example, larger companies could pay bigger upfront fees to save them money in the long run, while individual users could use a pay-as-you-go payment model to save them money in the short term and avoid paying large upfront fees. These were some of the main goals and objectives for SaaS when it was initially implemented. The main aim for SaaS however, was to take the management strains of software maintenance and deployment away from consumers, while at the same time putting control of software services back into the hands of software vendors.
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2 Common Terminology Below are some of the terms that you should be familiar with and may come across when dealing with SaaS.
Term
Definition
ASP (Application Service Provider aka Application Host)
Application Service Providers control, host and manage software applications from a centralized location. ASPs can deliver software applications using either a traditional license-based model or a subscription-based model.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
CRM is a term that is often used when dealing with SaaS. Simply put, it refers to the methods or processes that a company uses, in order to communicate and remain in contact with their customers. Due to the nature of the Internet, often some kind of CRM software will be used so that businesses can efficiently manage their customers. Some of the most well known SaaS organizations offer CRM software services and CRM is quite a large niche for SaaS.
Grid Computing
Grid computing works by pooling together the resources of individual machines, allowing these resources to be combined together. These combined resources can then be used to provide massive amounts of processing power, storage capacity, etc. SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Life Initiative) is a one of the most well known examples of grid computing.
LAMP Stack
LAMP is an acronym for Linux (operating system), Apache (web server), MySQL (database) and Perl/PHP (language). The term LAMP Stack refers to a low cost or free development framework that consists of a number of open source applications, which can be used to help deliver on demand software services across the web.
Multi-Instance
This term is used to refer to an application that is running multiple „copies‟ of itself.
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These different „copies‟ of a software application can be accessed simultaneously by a number of different users. Application Servers are usually used to manage Multi-Instance Software. Net-Native
Net-Native describes software applications or services that can only be accessed via the Internet using a web browser. Unlike some other SaaS solutions, Net-Native software applications cannot be run without using a web browser or offline.
MSP (Managed Service Provider)
An MSP deals with the delivery and management of networkbased services, software applications and equipment. MSPs will usually offer a number of different software services such as telephony services, messaging services, firewall software or even security applications.
Multi-Tenant
This term refers to an application that has the ability to serve multiple different end-users at the same time.
On Demand
The term „on demand‟ can be used in a number of different phrases. However, the phrase „on demand software‟ refers to a fully integrated application, service or technology that can easily be used or accessed across the Internet, when it is required.
On-Premise Software
On-Premise Software is effectively the opposite of Software as a Service. It refers to software that is either stored or installed on a businesses or users machines, locally.
Single Instance
This refers to an application that can only be run on its own dedicated server and can only be accessed by just one end-user.
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SLA (Service Level Agreement)
This is a formal written agreement that is made between a service provider and their customer. It is used to make clear the standards that will be used, to help measure the performance of services and their delivery. The content of an SLA will differ from service to service, however all Service Level Agreements will have a set of guarantees or promises made by a service provider to their customers. If a service provider does not meet these guarantees set out in the SLA, then they will usually reimburse their customers in some way. For example, some service providers might have set out in their SLA, that they will provide 99 percent uptime of a particular service to their customers each month. Now if that software application was available for less than 99 percent in a particular month, then that service provider would usually refund the subscription amount for that month or credit their customer‟s accounts, to keep them happy and avoid losing them.
SOA (ServiceOrientated Architecture)
This term simply refers to an architecture type, where numerous services are collected together. These different services usually communicate with each other, for example by passing data between one another to complete a much larger process or to provide a much more complex service. Simply, an SOA is a collection of software services.
Web Services
Web Services are simply web-based applications that can interact with other web-based applications dynamically, using open standards such as XML (extensible markup language), UDDI (Universal Description Discovery and Integration) and so on. Web service processes are usually carried out away from a user‟s eyes, behind the scenes. For example, when one software service communicates with another software application, a user does not usually see this process occurring. Some of the major development platforms that currently support Web Services include LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP), Microsoft‟s .NET Framework and Sun‟s J2EE (Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition) platform.
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Utility Computing (Also sometimes referred to as OnDemandComputing)
This refers to a model where a MSP (Managed Service Provider), makes a number of different computer resources and services available to customers. Instead of charging their customers for all of these services, an MSP then only charges their customers based on the resources and services that they use. If a customer does not use a particular service, then they are not charged for it.
XML is a markup language that is similar to HTML (Hyper Text XML (Extensible Markup Language) Markup Language). However, the key difference between the two is that HTML deals with how elements are displayed, while XML deals with what data these elements contain. XML is an open source language and because it deals specifically with data, it is often the language used for data interchange between different web services.
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3 What SaaS is and what it is not 3.1
SaaS vs. Software + Service
SaaS (Software as a Service), involves making an application an entirely hosted one, which resides remotely outside of an organization‟s internal infrastructure. Although Software plus Service has a similar concept to SaaS, it is not quite the same. Software plus Service is something of a middle ground technology, where it provides the complete functionality of traditional software applications but also the benefits of external hosted software applications. This is achieved by installing an application in a traditional way, where they reside on a machine locally but by also complementing them with remote services, similar to the way in which a SaaS applications services are delivered. There are a number of benefits to using a Software plus Service model, instead of just using a traditional software model or Software as a Service model. The main benefits are detailed below. More feature rich applications can be provided SaaS is great because it means that businesses do not have to install any application data onto their machines; however, there are a few setbacks to this (mainly because SaaS is still in its infancy). One of these setbacks is that certain features are currently just too difficult to implement across the Internet or run within web browsers efficiently. By installing certain features locally and then complementing these features with webbased features as well, a business can receive the best of both worlds. This is a good compromise for businesses who do not want to fully change their software application model to a SaaS-based one or for businesses who want to wait until SaaS catches up to the point where software services can be delivered with the same efficiency as if they resided locally. Users can work offline With a SaaS-based software delivery model, users must be connected to the Internet whenever they want to use their software application services. Obviously this means that if a user is offline, then they are unable to access their software applications, which also means that it is very unlikely that they are able to get any work done (unless of SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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course they have local backup applications but this would defeat the purpose of using SaaS-based applications in the first place). Software plus Service on the other hand, allows users to work offline (because important application data is stored locally). Once these users connect online, their data can then automatically be synchronized with their software service provider‟s servers. This is very advantageous to users who work remotely or users who are constantly on the move, because they can complete all of their work offline. They can then connect to the Internet when it is convenient for them and synchronize their data online, so that they can receive the same collaboration benefits that SaaS provides but of course without having to be constantly connected to the Internet. Less Privacy Concerns One concern that most businesses have when switching over to a SaaS-based software delivery model, is how secure their data is. This is because when using a SaaS-based software delivery model, all of a business‟s data resides externally and it is up to the SaaS service providers to secure this data. By using the Software plus Service software delivery model, businesses have the option of controlling what data will reside locally and what data will reside externally. This means that a business could choose to keep private sensitive data stored internally, while less sensitive data could be stored on their software service provider‟s servers, to improve the efficiency of their software services. Greater Customizability Traditional software applications are more difficult to customize for a business than SaaS software applications are. Although SaaS software services offer businesses more flexibility and the ability to customize their software experience (by picking and choosing the services that they want), SaaS does not quite offer the same level of customizability as Software plus Service does. Software plus Service allows businesses to customize their in house software, while also receiving the services that they require from a third party service provider, giving them a much more unique software experience that is specifically geared towards their business. It is clear that Software plus Service offers some advantages that SaaS cannot currently offer. Software plus Service offers the benefits of being able to collaborate with a wide range of users via the Internet, while also taking advantage of more powerful PCs by running core application code locally. It is a great compromise between the traditional in house software approach and the Software as a Service approach. Software plus Service is great for businesses that want to receive similar
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benefits to having a SaaS software delivery model and for businesses that do not want to completely change their software delivery model to an outsourced external one.
3.2
SaaS vs. ASP
SaaS (Software as a Service) providers and ASP (Application Service Providers) are two terms that are often used to describe the same thing (the delivery of outsourced software applications via the Internet). Although both SaaS and ASP are very similar to one another, there are important differences between the two software delivery models. SaaS developed from ASPs and it was ASPs that first created the outsourced software delivery model. Understanding ASP The ASP software delivery model first started being widely implemented during the early 90s. It was the ASP software delivery model that created the whole idea of hosting third party client/server software applications within an ASP organizations data centers, and then delivering these software applications to their clients via the Internet. However, initially ASP was not very successful. The problem with the ASP software delivery model was that each client‟s applications or set of applications would require their own mini-data centre within an ASPs premises. This meant that ASPs would require massive data centers if they were going to host software applications for many clients. Because so many different customer specific applications were being run within an ASPs data centre, ASPs just could not provide any help or documentation for each one of their clients‟ software applications. This meant that the clients of an Application Service Provider would still require their own in-house software experts and would still need to implement their own set of troubleshooting procedures, both of which were very costly. This is one of the major reasons why many businesses decided not to use an ASP to outsource their applications and instead decided to keep their software applications inhouse. Businesses would have to pay software professionals regardless of whether they stored their software applications in-house or not, therefore instead of paying the additional cost of out-sourcing their software applications, most businesses decided to stick with their traditional software storage approach, by storing them within their own data centers.
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A lot of ASPs failed because of two main reasons: firstly, because of the reason mentioned above. Most businesses decided not to use an ASP because the savings were just not enough to justify the decision to outsource their software applications. The second reason was that ASPs did not benefit from economies of scale. The more clients that an ASP had, the more expensive things became for them, because they would have to keep enlarging their data centers to meet their client‟s needs. In most cases this would eventually lead to an ASP not profiting at all or in the worst case scenario, even going bankrupt. How SaaS resolved the problems of the ASP software delivery model SaaS software applications and services are different in the way that they are designed to be delivered, when compared to ASP software applications. Application Service Providers delivered their software applications on a one-to-one basis to their customers. However, SaaS software services and applications are designed to be delivered to multiple customers. This means that SaaS service providers can benefit from economies of scale (many clients can access the same software application, while each client is delivered their own unique software experience). Also, SaaS service providers do not need to constantly keep increasing the size of their data centers, to meet their client‟s needs, which again improves their profits. Because SaaS providers are dealing with less software applications and services, they can also provide their clients with more application-specific documentation and can maintain and manage software applications themselves, preventing their clients from having to do all this, which of course saves them money. The SaaS software delivery model also provides clients with cheaper upfront costs when compared to the ASP software delivery model. This is because when a client uses an ASP, they still have to pay the full cost for the software applications that they are going to be using, because the ASP is only hosting a single copy of these software applications for them and no other clients. However, when a SaaS software delivery model is used, service providers can provide the same set of services or software applications to many users. This means that the cost of these services can be divided up among a SaaS service provider‟s clients and they can be provided with much cheaper upfront costs. Modern day ASPs Although SaaS has effectively taken over from ASP as the dominant software delivery service, ASPs still exist today. However, the modern ASPs differ from the ASPs of the past, which failed. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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These days, ASPs either concentrate on a narrow range of software services instead of many different types of software services; ASPs offer their own set of specific software services, similar to the way in which SaaS vendors deliver their own set of software services. Most modern ASPs will function in a very similar way to SaaS service providers. This is mainly because the SaaS software delivery model has been proven to be a successful one and can provide benefits to both service providers and a service provider‟s clients. In closing, using SaaS service providers to deliver software services, in most cases, is the best choice for businesses. SaaS software applications have a quick deployment time (no need to install the applications) and are much cheaper than ASP software services (due to economies of scale). However, in some cases, using an ASP may be the only choice that a business has. For example, if a business wanted to outsource a particular software application or set of software applications but these applications were not currently offered by any SaaS service providers, then they would have to use an ASP to outsource these software applications for them.
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4 Benefits of SaaS SaaS provides clients and businesses with a number of benefits. The main benefits of SaaS include:
The potential to save money.
The potential to save time.
The ability to use your budget on business processes rather than on infrastructure-related processes.
Access to the very latest technologies for a fraction of what this would normally cost.
4.1
Saving money
SaaS allows businesses to save money in a number of different ways. Firstly there are lower IT related costs when using SaaS software solutions in place of traditional software solutions. When a business purchases software applications in the traditional way, as well as the initial costs of purchasing this software (and licenses), there are a whole host of other costs. For example a business may have to purchase additional hardware to run this software on their machines, they have to secure the machines on which these software services run on and IT professionals are required to manage or troubleshoot this new software. Installing software in a traditional way can end up costing businesses a lot of money and often these extra costs are unforeseen. SaaS can save businesses money in the area of software management and installation, because software is installed and managed by SaaS software vendors. This means that all a business has to worry about when purchasing or subscribing to SaaS services, is how much the fee for the software service is. There are no hidden costs, no extra costs and businesses do not have to worry about licensing issues.
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Multi-tenancy or using multiple-tenant software services is another way in which businesses can save money. Multi-tenant software is any software application that can be used by more than one user or multiple users. Due to the fact that multiple users can share the same software application/service, subscription levels can be offered by SaaS vendors at much lower rates than if a software application was being used by users in a 1:1 ratio. The third way in which businesses can save money using SaaS is by using a pay-asyou-go subscription model. A pay-as-you-go subscription model prevents the need for a large initial investment by clients when purchasing software services. Instead, businesses can either pay a monthly subscription fee (which they should be able to cancel at any time) or they can pay for exactly what they use. The good thing about paying for SaaS software services is that they offer flexible payment methods, meaning that businesses can choose the payment method that offers them the most benefits or the method that can save them the most money.
4.2
Saving time
Due to the fact that you do not need to install software applications yourself, you can save a lot of time. SaaS software solutions are already up and running on a SaaS vendor‟s data centre, therefore you can begin using SaaS software solutions almost instantly. However, installation is not the only area in which time is saved. Time and valuable resources are also saved in other areas. For example a business does not need to waste time on managing or updating software applications, because once more, it is the software vendor who deals with these issues. Also, traditionally when software applications had to be used on a number of different machines, they would usually have to be installed on to each one of these machines (which is a time consuming process). However, by using SaaS a business can access the same software services on multiple machines without having to install anything. This can save businesses a lot of time, resources and even money.
4.3
Allowing a business to use their budget more effectively
As mentioned before, when using SaaS, a business can save money and time on certain IT related processes or tasks (which can sometimes even be completely eliminated). A business can save money on or even completely eliminate the following procedures: SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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Purchasing Servers or additional Server hardware to support the new software services in-house.
Ensuring that the new software services are running in a secure, reliable and conflict-free stable environment.
Maintaining and updating software services.
The above-mentioned procedures often have hidden costs and consequences that are not easily spotted by businesses. For example, it can be so easy to overlook or forget about the extra costs that maintaining software services, installing software patches and troubleshooting entail. By using SaaS, all of the above problems and procedures are virtually eliminated. This means that businesses can use their budget far more effectively on business-related processes, and a business‟s workforce can concentrate fully on core business processes, rather than on software-related tasks and activities.
4.4
Giving businesses access to the very latest software versions
With traditional software applications, you often have to wait a while for the latest version of that software application to be released. This is because it is not efficient for software vendors to release new versions of their software applications every time they make changes. Therefore software vendors release new versions periodically or after making a certain number of changes. Of course this means that businesses have to wait for new features to be released. SaaS changes this, because software vendors can immediately offer their updated software solutions to clients online in a cost-effective and efficient way. This means that clients can benefit from software innovations on an ongoing basis, because as soon as a software vendor makes changes or offers new and improved features, their clients can begin using them right away. Sometimes, when a business installs software traditionally they face problems; for example, the latest version of a particular software application may not work as intended with their existing operating environment or with their existing infrastructure. This means that a business would have to completely upgrade their existing infrastructure or operating environment, to allow the latest version of a particular software application to function correctly. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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This is obviously very expensive and although there are other ways around this, SaaS is a great method to avoid having the problem mentioned above. By using SaaS, a business does not need to change their existing operating environment or infrastructure in any way. All incompatibility issues are dealt with on the software vendor‟s side of things and they are the ones who will ensure that the software services they are providing run stably within their data centers.
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5 Related forms of Cloud Computing
To view this picture as a moving GIF, go to http://theartofservice.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=142
5.1
Cloud Computing
Cloud computing refers to the processing and storage of data through the Internet. Computing and storage become „services‟ rather than physical resources. Files and other data can be stored in the cloud and be accessed from any Internet connection. It is a style of computing where IT-related capabilities are provided „as a service‟, allowing users to access technology-enabled services from the Internet, or cloud,
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without knowledge of, expertise with, or control over the technology infrastructure that supports them.
5.2
Virtualization
Virtualization, in its broadest sense, is the emulation of one of more workstations/servers within a single physical computer. Put simply, virtualization is the emulation of hardware within a software platform. This allows a single computer to take on the role of multiple computers. This type of virtualization is often referred to as full virtualization, allowing one physical computer to share its resources across a multitude of environments. This means that a single computer can essentially take the role of multiple computers.
5.3
Grid Computing
Cloud computing is often confused with grid computing, a form of distributed computing whereby a „super and virtual computer‟ is composed of a cluster of networked, looselycoupled computers, acting in concert to perform very large tasks. Grid computing has been used in environments where users make few but large allocation requests. For example, a lab may have a 1000 node cluster and users make allocations for all 1000, or 500, or 200, etc. So only a few of these allocations can be serviced at a time and others need to be scheduled for when resources are released. This results in sophisticated batch job scheduling algorithms of parallel computations.
5.4
Utility Computing
Many cloud computing offerings have adopted the utility computing model. Utility computing can be analogized to traditional computing such as the consummation of electricity or gas. IT computing becomes a utility, similar to power, and organizations are billed either based on usage of resources or through subscription.
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6 Companies Involved with SaaS When talking about companies that are involved with SaaS, there are a number of different companies that provide a number of different software services. Unlike other computer technology niches, SaaS does not have a clear market leader. Instead, SaaS has a number of different service providers, who each provide useful services for a number of different scenarios. Detailed below are some of the more well known SaaS companies and information about what software services they provide.
6.1
Adobe Systems
Location: San Jose, California Adobe is one of the most well known software-related companies in the entire world. Founded in 1982, Adobe‟s main foothold is in the market area of desktop publishing. However, great success has allowed Adobe to branch out into other areas and avenues of technology including SaaS. Although Adobe is not currently viewed as being a market leader in the area of SaaS, they have both the potential and the resources to lead the way. At the moment, around 10 to 15 percent of Adobe‟s resources are invested into SaaS. This is mainly through their Acrobat Connect and Adobe Document Centre Applications. However, Adobe does have plans to make available some of their most popular applications, online. Again, as mentioned above, this gives Adobe the potential to lead the way in SaaS, as they already have quite a large customer base. Adobe is in a stable position and by offering some of their most popular desktop applications online, they are sure to win over more customers. However, Adobe is being smart about things and will only offer their popular software applications online as supplements, rather than replacements to their existing software applications. This means that they can keep both traditional offline desktop-based software users, and modern online web-based software users, happy at the same time. Website: http://www.adobe.com/
6.2
Axentis
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Axentis was founded in 1999. They are a popular organization for SaaS services and provide a wide range of SaaS software services. Axentis is expected to continue growing and prospering in the future. Axentis specialize in GRC (governance, risk and compliance) software solutions. Website: http://www.axentis.com/
6.3
Google
Location: Mountain View, California Google is a major force and anyone who uses the Internet will have heard of Google at some point (if it is not already their default search engine site). Google first entered the SaaS market area in early 2006 with the introduction of Gmail (in beta form). Since then Google have not looked back. They now offer an entire SaaS suite known as Google Apps, which is available either for free (with limited features) or for a subscription fee (with full features). Google Apps offers a number of services, such as web-mail, instant messaging (IM), word processing and much more. Due to the strong position that Google are generally in, their SaaS solutions have been a success and Google will look to continue to prosper in the future, by staying one step ahead of their competitors. Website: http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html (The Google Apps web site).
6.4
Microsoft
Location: Redmond, Washington Microsoft has offered SaaS, in at least one form or another, since around 1997. In 1997, Microsoft acquired Hotmail (a web-based email service) and renamed it as MSN Hotmail. Since 1997, Hotmail has either been offered as a free service (providing a limited set of features) or as a subscription-based service (providing a full set of features). In 2005, Microsoft offered Windows Live Hotmail (which was intended to replace the existing but somewhat outdated Microsoft Hotmail web-email service), for beta testing. Microsoft Windows Live was officially made available in 2006-2007 and although it SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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offered the same basic web-based email features, it provided users with much more. For example, Windows Live offered users their own personal spaces, a calendar application and the ability to create contacts, among many other things. Although Microsoft has always had a solid footing in web-based email services, they have just recently started to expand into other SaaS based market areas. For example they now offer some of their more popular applications like Microsoft Office, online and they have also created online workspace utility that is intended to be used to share files online. Microsoft have dominated so many computer-related niches and market areas in the past, that it would be hard not to envision them taking up a large and important role in the market area of SaaS. However, they do have strong competition from Google, as well as many other SaaS-related companies. This will make things interesting and is also likely to make SaaS software solutions develop much more rapidly due to the competition. Website: http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/saas/default.mspx
6.5
NetSuite
Location: San Mateo, California NetSuite is another well known SaaS company that offers software services to its customers, while continuing to grow. The company was founded in 1998. Just like Salesforce, NetSuite offers customer relationship management tools. However, NetSuite also offers Accounting and Ecommerce-related software services. NetSuite is another SaaS company that is definitely one to look out for in the near future. One thing of great interest to clients is NetSuite's relatively new SuiteFlex offering. This tool allows customers to customize NetSuite's existing SaaS services, for example by using software add-ons or plug-ins. Although not quite as well known as SaaS companies such as Salesforce, NetSuite is still a decent SaaS company and is definitely worth considering if you are looking for a company that offers SaaS. Website: http://www.netsuite.com/
6.6
Salesforce
Location: San Francisco
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Salesforce is one company that is most often associated with SaaS. Founded in 1999 by a former Oracle executive (Marc Benioff), Salesforce deals specifically with customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Research has shown that CRM is one of the largest SaaS offerings, followed closely by content software service offerings and communications software service offerings. A few of the main CRM software services that Salesforce offer include sales services, marketing services and call centre operation services. Using these SaaS tools, businesses can streamline their customer relationship management, providing much higher levels of satisfaction for their customers. Salesforce is the one company that has the potential to dominate the SaaS market area and they are even diversifying in their approach. For example, they are working on a new approach known as platform-as-a-service. Using this approach, Salesforce have the ability to offer entire platforms of services to their clients, rather than just individual services (as they currently offer using SaaS). Website: http://www.salesforce.com/
6.7
SuccessFactors
Location: San Mateo, California SuccessFactors was a relatively quiet and „under the radar‟ SaaS company. However, with an increase in revenue by around 95 percent in between the financial years of 2006-2007, SuccessFactors are looking like they will be a force to be reckoned with in the SaaS market area. SuccessFactors deal specifically with performance and talent management software services, in other words, human resources (HR) software services. They can offer software services to a wide range of business, from the small (1-500 employees), to the very large (20,000 plus employees). Due to their impressive growth, SuccessFactors are also looking to increase their workforce from around 600 employees to 1000 employees. Human resources are usually a standalone department of a business and do not need to communicate or integrate with applications from other departments. The great thing about SuccessFactors software services (and other HR software SaaS solutions for that matter), is that they allow HR managers to easily manage their workforce, without having to purchase expensive applications that are designed to communicate with all other areas of a business. Website: http://www.successfactors.com/ SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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7 Technologies that Incorporate SaaS There are various different SaaS companies and various different SaaS services. However, each SaaS-related technology has the same basic fundamentals. Google and Microsoft are major IT companies that now provide their own SaaS solutions, while SaaS specific companies such as Salesforce provide their own services. Regardless of this, detailed below are the fundamental SaaS-related technologies that are common to most (if not all) software as a service providers.
7.1
Software as a Service
In general terms, SaaS is a software distribution model in which software applications are hosted externally by a software vendor or service provider and are then accessed by an organization, via a network (which is most commonly the Internet). SaaS is more popular than ever before and this is partly due to a shift in thinking along with the acceptance, as well as the implementation of web services and service orientated architectures. New developments such as Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) for example, have also helped SaaS to become more popular and more widely deployed. Ajax is a method for creating web-based interactive applications that can immediately process a user‟s input. As its name suggests, Ajax uses a number of different programming languages and tools making it fairly versatile. The good thing about Ajax applications is that they are independent of normal HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) requests. This means that they can dynamically and instantly process a users request but an entire web page does not have to be reloaded for this to be carried out. One of the most well known web-based applications that use Ajax is Google Maps. SaaS is also very closely linked with ASP (Application Service Provider) and on demand computing software application delivery methods. Simply put, an ASP is a company that offers software applications and services to individual users or businesses via the Internet. On demand (OD) computing is a little different. An OD software solution can either be maintained by a business from within or externally using a software service provider. Using an on demand model, software services are only made available when they are needed or „on demand‟. On demand applications are quickly becoming popular SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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because they provide businesses with the flexibility and ability to adapt and not remain static, in the way that a traditional licensed software solution would keep them. Of course, both of these service providing models are linked to SaaS and provide businesses with similar benefits such as:
Simpler administration of software applications.
Automatic software updates and easier management of software updates.
Worldwide accessibility.
Easier deployment of software services, because a single instance of a software service can be use by multiple users on multiple machines.
SaaS is a software delivery model that is here to stay and as other related technologies and methodologies (such as Ajax, on demand delivery, etc.) mature over time, SaaS can only be improved and advance over time as well.
7.2
SaaS hosting
SaaS hosting simply refers to the method in which software vendors offer their software solutions to customers in the form of a service, as opposed to a product. No one knows more about a software application than that software application‟s own vendor. Therefore it makes sense for them to host and mange their own software solutions. This also takes away the expense and stress of managing and maintaining a software application from a software vendor‟s clients, while allowing them to receive maximum benefits from that particular software application. For software vendors (especially smaller independent ones), shifting from a productorientated model, to a service-orientated model is no easy feat. Not only do software vendors have to completely change their payment models in order to support SaaS but they also have to ensure that their services can be accessed by a wide range of users all across the globe and that their software services provide 24/7 availability (or as close as possible to 24/7 availability). On top of all this, software vendors have to deal with new Service Level Agreements (SLAs), ensuring that they are delivering to their customers exactly what they paid for. If a software vendor does not measure up to these Service Level Agreements in any
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way, then a SaaS delivery model can end up costing them more than it is actually worth. For software vendors who want to avoid all of these problems but still want to change their software delivery model to a SaaS-based one, then they should consider using a SaaS hosting company. A SaaS hosting company can take a lot of the strain of away from software vendors by dealing with the migration process from a product-based delivery model to a service-based delivery model. Often SaaS hosting companies will help software vendor‟s fine tune their software applications so that they are optimized for Internet access, while also providing them with the hardware infrastructure and dedicated servers for their customers new hosted software delivery model. Using a SaaS hosting company instead of offering software solutions in the traditional way, provides software vendors with many benefits. The main benefits of using a SaaS hosting company are detailed below.
Most SaaS hosting companies will offer multi-tenant hosting or shared hosting, meaning that many users can access a single instance of a software application. This is much cheaper than traditional software product-based delivery models, where a software vendor often has to pay for storage mediums such as CDs or DVDs and packaging.
Selling software products or software services online, is much more convenient than selling software products in retail outlets. This is because online, software vendors can often allow potential clients to try out or sample their software for free. This makes them much more likely to actually purchase or subscribe to a software service. Also, it is cheaper for a business to make their software available online. Therefore they can also pass these savings on to their customers.
Marketing software services on the Internet is much cheaper and easier than marketing software applications in the traditional way. For example a software vendor can use Pay-Per-Click (PPC), Google Adwords and many other innovative web-based marketing methods. Pay-Per-Click is where a client only pays their advertiser, each time their ad is clicked. This is obviously very efficient and cost effective because clients are only paying for when someone actually clicks on their advertisement and views their software service. Google Adwords is similar to Pay-Per-Click but is Google‟s own advertising service.
Software services are hosted on a SaaS hosting companies‟ servers and centre. This means that software vendors do not have to purchase any machines or upgrade their existing infrastructure in any way, when offering software services as part of a hosted solution. Management costs are
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reduced because a business does not have to manage or maintain these servers and this means that they can concentrate fully on business-related processes. As you can see, software vendors can benefit greatly by using a SaaS hosting company. For larger companies (such as Microsoft, Google, etc.), hosting software services from within their own data centers and using their own servers is no problem, simply because of the almost limitless resources that they possess. However, for smaller software vendors, it can often be very expensive and time consuming to completely change their business model from a product-based software model to a service-based software model. It is indeed smaller businesses or even medium sized businesses that can benefit the most from using a SaaS hosting company, to host their software services and is something that they should seriously consider using.
7.3
SaaS platform
A SaaS platform is a software program (which can be thought of as a layer of software), that is used to host other software applications. It deals with all the SaaSrelated management processes such as offering software services on demand, making a software service accessible to multiple users and so on. When traditional software applications are coded, they are usually coded in such a way that they can only work or function properly when accessed by a single user. Of course when a software vendor changes their business model to a SaaS software distribution model, it is usually in their best interest to allow as many users as possible to access a single instance of a particular software application. It is the SaaS platform that takes care of this and manages a software application so that it can be accessed by multiple users across the Internet. A SaaS platform can be thought of as being similar to a traditional operating system, the only difference being that it runs and manages applications which are designed to be accessed over a network or the Internet, rather than being accessed locally. Of course, aside from making a single software service or application available to many users, a SaaS platform also has other responsibilities and carries out a number of other tasks. The main tasks that a SaaS platform carries out are detailed below.
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7.4
Tenancy Partitioning
Most SaaS platforms (if not all), will usually perform tenancy partitioning processes if they are hosting multi-tenant software services. Software applications that were coded to only serve a single user will often work in a way that conflicts with the multi-tenant way of doing things. For example, an application may store all of its user data in a single database which means that multiple users may overwrite each other‟s application data or an application could accidentally show one users data to another user. Tenancy partitioning solves this problem, because a SaaS platform will separate each individual user‟s data into separate „partitions‟. Each user is still using the same instance of a software service or application but they now have their own application database (thanks to the SaaS platform) and their data is separated from every other user‟s data, preventing conflicts.
7.5
Monitoring and Metering
A SaaS platform should be able to both monitor and measure usage of software services from a number of different standpoints and perspectives. For example a SaaS platform should be able to measure data usage, bandwidth usage, hardware usage and so on. There are two reasons why this is important. Firstly it allows a software vendor to determine if their existing hardware infrastructure can handle the load of multiple users accessing a particular software service and if so, how many users can access this service. Using the above information, a software vendor can then fine tune the efficiency of their software service delivery solutions. For example if they find out that when five users access a particular software service, the server load on which these applications reside is at fifty percent, then they can allow more users to access this single software service without a drop in performance. Secondly, by monitoring and metering the usage of software applications, a software vendor has some sort of basis which they can use to charge their clients. For example a software vendor could charge users based on how much storage capacity they use, how much bandwidth they use or even how much processing power they use. By using a SaaS platform, the process of monitoring and metering the usage of software applications becomes much easier for software vendors to carry out, because SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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a SaaS platform makes it an automated process. This saves software vendors a lot of time and resources, which they can then use more effectively elsewhere.
7.6
Scaling
Scaling involves aggregating the demand from multiple users into one physical or virtual location. This makes things much simpler to manage from a software vendor‟s point of view. Most SaaS platforms should be designed in such a way so that they can offer support for software scaling, making the whole process a simple and automated one. By doing this, SaaS platforms can offer software vendors all the benefits of scaling, without putting much effort into this area, allowing them to concentrate on more important business-related processes. These days there are a number of software vendors that offer their own SaaS platforms. For example Microsoft and Oracle, among many other software vendors, offer their very own SaaS platforms.
7.7
Google Apps
Google Apps refers to Google‟s own collection of software services. Google offers a number of different software services. Their main services are briefly mentioned below.
7.8
Gmail
This is Google‟s own web-based email service. It is a fairly recent application, having first been introduced for invitation only beta use in 2004. Initially Google provided 1 GB of storage capacity with their Gmail accounts (which at that time was much larger than other web-based email services, including Hotmail and Yahoo mail). These days, Google provide over 7 GB of free storage with their Gmail accounts and can provide more even storage for users at varying subscription rates. Gmail is Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) based and offers users the ability to quickly search through their emails, while also reducing spam.
7.8.1 Google Talk
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Google Talk is Google‟s instant messaging and VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) software solution. It was first made available in 2005 as a beta application. At first, Google talk was only available to Windows-based users and for certain handheld devices such as the Blackberry, iPhone and WinCE (Windows Embedded Compact) devices. However, recently Google Talk has been made available on the Internet and anyone who can run Adobe Flash Player on their system can access Google Talk online.
7.8.2 Google Calendar This application service is fairly self explanatory. It is Google‟s own online calendar service. Google calendar is marketed as a free contact and time management webbased application. Using Google calendar, users can integrate their existing Gmail contacts data with the Google Calendar application service.
7.8.3 Google Docs Google Docs is a complete web-based application suite that is made available to users for free. It consists of a word processor application, a spreadsheet application and a presentation application. The great thing about Google Docs is not only does it allow users to create and edit documents online for free but it also allows users to share their documents or even collaborate with other users in real time. By default Google Doc applications are saved onto Google‟s servers. However a user can save documents onto their own machine. Also, Google Docs offers support for a number of different file formats including the ISO standard ODF (OpenDocument format), the .doc (Word Document file format) and the .xls (Excel file format). Google Docs can even be accessed by users using their mobile phones. However, currently users can only view documents but not edit them. Also, at the moment mobile phone users can only view word processing documents and spreadsheets but not presentations. Of course there is a possibility that this is changed in the future, in fact the iPhone is actually able to view presentations using a specific version of Google Docs. However the iPhone is currently the only mobile phone device that can view presentations using Google Apps (accurate up until October 2008).
7.8.4 Google Sites Google Sites is Google‟s own website creation application service and it can be used to create websites or secure wikis (a shared whiteboard which users can create, add or SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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remove content from). Google Sites is a fairly recent software service and was first released as a beta application in February 2008. It directly replaces Google‟s previous webpage creation service which was known as Google Page Creator. As of October 2008, Google offered the following with their Google Sites service:
A unique address in the form of http://sites.google.com/site/username/
23 web design themes.
Limited use of HTML. At the moment CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) cannot be used to change the design or layout web pages created with Google Sites.
There are also a number of limitations but Google Sites is still in its beta testing stage, meaning that many of these limitations could be overcome once the application completes its beta testing cycle. Some of these limitations include not being able to add HTML from other sources to create your pages (only the Google Sites web page editor can currently be used). Once a site has been created it cannot easily be copied or cloned. For people to edit wikis, they must first be invited by the proprietor of the Google wiki they created. This means that users cannot just come along and edit pages if they spot any inaccuracies. However, this can also be a good thing because by requiring permission from a wikis creator to edit web pages, abuse can be eliminated or at least limited. The final limitation is the fact that all sites must currently use Google‟s own set of themes and layouts, making all pages and sites created by the Google Site application, appear similar. Currently, Google Sites offers its users up to 100Mb of storage space for free. However once again, more space is available (up to 10 GB) if required.
7.9
Google Maps
Google Maps is a web-based mapping application that is currently offered by Google for free. It provides a number of useful services for users including street maps, route planning for both cyclists (including walking pedestrians) and users in vehicles. Google Maps also allows users to find building, stores, landmarks, etc. all over the world. High resolution images are provided for most urban areas across the entire globe, allowing users to make themselves more familiar with foreign locations without having
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to even visit them. The current technology behind Google Maps includes JavaScript, as well as Ajax. Google Maps is also available on mobile devices using a Java-based application called “Google Maps for Mobile”. If a mobile device supports GPS, then users can also use the “Google Maps for Mobile” software service to provide their mobile device with mapping information in conjunction with their GPS service.
7.10 Windows Live Before Microsoft introduced their Windows Live software service solution, most of their software services such as Hotmail (for web-based email) and MSN messenger (for instant messaging) were completely separate from one another. Windows Live (which was first announced in November 2005) brings together all of Microsoft‟s core software services and integrates them into a single package. There are numerous software services that Windows Live offers to its users. A few of the most popular software services offered by Windows Live are briefly detailed below.
7.10.1 Windows Live Messenger Formerly known as MSN messenger, Windows Live Messenger is Microsoft‟s premiere instant messaging application and is a part of the Windows Live software service suite (although it is also offered as a standalone application). It is currently able to work on all of Microsoft‟s major desktop operating systems (including server editions) as well as on Windows Mobile operating systems. The current version of Windows Live Messenger (version 8.5 as of October 2008) offers its users with a number of features which complement the basic instant messaging service that is on offer. The most popular features offered by Windows Live Messenger in addition to the basic instant messaging service include, “Sharing Folders”, “Windows Live Call”, Offline messaging, as well as games and applications. Sharing Folders is as its name suggests, a way to share files and folders. In the past, Windows Live Messenger (when it was known as MSN messenger) did allow users to share files, but only single files could be transferred between users at any moment time. Because Internet speeds were relatively slow during this time period, most users were never going to send or receive more than one file at a time and therefore this was not a SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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problem. However as Internet speeds increased, the amount of data that users could send and receive at any moment in time also increased. The “Sharing Folders” feature was introduced so that users could share multiple files or entire directories in one go. Windows Live Call is a service that allows users to make calls from PC-to-PC (which older versions of MSN messenger were also capable of) and more recently PC-toPhone calls (which older versions of MSN messenger were not capable of). VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is used by Microsoft so that users are able to make inexpensive calls to both local and international telephone devices. There is no charge for PC-to-PC phone calls, however users are charged for PC-to-Phone, phone calls. Microsoft has also released a handset known as the Windows Live Messenger Phone. This device is capable of acting as an extension to the Windows Live Call service or can be used as any other normal telephone would be (by plugging into any regular telephone wall jack). Offline messaging is a relatively new feature that a lot of older versions of Microsoft‟s instant messaging software did not have. In the past, when a user was offline, instant messages could not be sent to them. However, these days‟ instant messages can still be sent to a user, even when they are offline. The user who the message was sent to, will receive the message as soon as they are online. Finally we have the games and applications service for Windows Live Messenger. Again, this service enhances a user‟s overall instant messaging experience by not only allowing them to send text based messages to one another, but by allowing them to also share applications and collaborate with each other in ways that were not made possible in the past. Using the games and applications service, users can easily offer remote assistance to one another or they can share applications with one another. For example, users can browse the web together, share a whiteboard and share other desktop-based applications with each other. The above mentioned features are available in the Windows Live Messenger, desktopbased application. A web-based instant messaging software service (which omits some of the above features) is also offered by Microsoft and is known as Windows Live Web Messenger (formerly known as MSN Web Messenger). Windows Live Messenger can be accessed by anyone who is connected to the Internet, via their web browser without having to install anything (although certain plugins may be required in order for certain features to work correctly).
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7.10.2 Windows Live Hotmail Formerly referred to as just Hotmail or MSN Hotmail, this is Microsoft‟s web-based email service and is one of the most well known web-based email services in the world today. These days, Microsoft offers up to 5GB for free, with their hotmail accounts. Microsoft also offers a number of unique features with their Windows Live Hotmail service. For example they include an integrated audio player with all accounts, allowing audio attachments to be listened to right away. They offer color schemes, which means that users can customize their web-based email accounts. A spell checker is also integrated into accounts, as well as a search feature which allows users to quickly and easily find and keep track of their emails. Users can also create their own folders to organize and archive their emails or even store photos for example. Microsoft also offer a number of security features with their web-based email service. For example each Hotmail or Windows Live account comes with its own Trend Micro virus scanner. Each time an attachment is going to be downloaded, it is automatically scanned for any viruses. Emails that may appear unsafe are also blocked until a user verifies that they are safe or were sent from a known user.
7.10.3 Windows Live Calendar This is a time management web-based application that is by default, provided with all Windows Live Hotmail accounts. It is an Ajax-based web application which means that users can add or remove calendar entries without having to reload their entire web page. Users can create multiple calendars if necessary and each calendar can have different levels of access permissions set. For example a user can privately share web based calendar with other users who can add, remove and edit entries or a user can set a view-only permission level, where only certain users can view the calendar but cannot modify it in any way. Finally a calendar can be publicly shared which means that it is available for viewing by anyone.
7.10.4 Windows Live Spaces This is Microsoft‟s own blogging and social networking service. Windows Live Spaces offers users with a number of different features. Support for blogs is offered, as well as support for photo sharing.
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Users can create their own photo albums and share photos (in a similar way to other popular social networking sites). Users also have their own personal profile, where they can provide information about themselves (by default these profiles are made nonpublic).
7.10.5 Windows Live ID Formerly known as Microsoft Passport and then .Net Passport, Windows Live ID is Microsoft‟s single sign-on service which allows users to log-on into many websites and services using one account. It is mainly Microsoft-related sites that use the Windows Live ID service (such as Hotmail, MSN, MSNBC, etc). However, there are other companies that are affiliated with Microsoft who also use the Windows Live ID service. The Windows XP operating system currently allows users to link a Windows Live ID to their desktop based account. This means that whenever a user logs-on into their desktop-based account, they are automatically logged-on into their Windows Live ID account that is associated with that particular desktop-based account (if they allow their applications and services that use Windows Live ID to log-on automatically).
7.11 Microsoft Office Live Small Business Microsoft Office Live Small Business is a suite of web-based services that are offered by Microsoft, which are specifically aimed towards small businesses. The entire suite is designed in such a way so that small businesses can easily create a solid online presence. This is achieved by providing small businesses with their own domain name and hosting space so that they can create and host their own website. By carrying out marketing so that businesses can have a constant flow of potential customers visiting their website and finally by allowing businesses to manage their business activities online by using free web based business applications. Currently Microsoft offers a core set of services for free with their Microsoft Office Live Small Business solution, along with other add-on services that users can pay for on a subscription basis or on a single payment basis. The core services that Microsoft offers with their Microsoft Office Live Small Business solution are briefly detailed below.
7.11.1 Web site design tool and hosting space
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Microsoft provides its users with access to a free online website design tool. This design tool allows users to create a website using customizable templates or by allowing users to upload their own HTML code. Currently Microsoft provides it users with 2GB of free hosting space. However, more space can be purchased if it is required.
7.11.2 Domain name registration and business email creation tools If a business does not have their own domain name, Microsoft also allows them to select and create their own domain name. The domain that a business registers is free of charge for the first 12 months after registering. However, after this period, there is a charge at the rate of $14.95 per year (as of October 2008). Alternatively, if a business does have an existing domain name, then Microsoft allows its users to direct this domain name towards their Office Live Small Business solution. Included as part of their core service, Microsoft also allows its users to create up to 100 domain based email accounts free of charge. If it is necessary, additional email accounts can be purchased.
7.11.3 Contact Manager This is a web-based service that allows small businesses to manage their customer information online. For example sales information, customer history and customer information can all be stored in a single location online, making it easier for entire organizations to access their customer or contact information using nothing but a web browser.
7.11.4 Document Manager Similar in function to contact manager, Document Manager allows documents to be stored in a single location online. Users from within an organization can then easily access these documents using just their web browsers.
7.11.5 Workspaces Workspaces allow small business to share work-related information and data with customers, employees and other businesses for example. A workspace is basically a website which a number of users can access remotely. Large work related files (for example video, images, etc.) can then be posted onto this workspace website. This is much more convenient than having to transfer large work-related files via email. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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7.11.6 Project Manager As the name suggests, this is a project management tool. Accessible online, project manager allows small businesses to track the progress of their projects monitor their projects and also easily keep track of which groups or employee‟s tasks have been allocated to.
7.11.7 Resources as well as support This is Microsoft‟s 24/7 support service that is available as part of its Office Live Small Business core service (meaning it is free). Online resources such as how to articles, community boards and FAQs (frequently asked questions) are also offered by Microsoft, free of charge. Microsoft currently offers the above mentioned web-based services for free as a part of their Office Live Small Business software solution. However, there are a few software services that users must purchase as add-ons or subscribe to, if these services are required. A few of these add-on services are briefly mentioned below.
7.11.8 Store Manager This is an e-commerce software service that allows small businesses to create a list of products on their free Office Live Small Business website. There are many different features and ways for a business to customize their products using Store Manager. For example, a business can customize the way that their products are displayed on their website, it allows businesses to create their own postage or tax terms and an online shopping cart can even be created to make it easier for customers to buy multiple products. Store Manager is also compatible with eBay which means that a business can also easily market their products on eBay, reaching a wider range of customers. Currently, store Manager is available as an add-on, at the rate of $14.95 a month. However, Microsoft do give their customers one month for free, which means that businesses can get a feel for using Store Manager before having to make any payments.
7.11.9 E-Mail Marketing
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This is a software service that makes it easy for a small business to market their website, products or services via email. Using the E-Mail Marketing tool, a business can easily create a newsletter or a promotional email for example. They can then use the Contact Manager tool, to determine which particular emails will be sent to which group of customers or clients. As well as allowing businesses to easily create marketing emails, the E-Mail Marketing tool also allows businesses to easily monitor how successful a particular email is. For example a business can keep track of the number of subscribers to a particular newsletter. They can keep track of the number of unsubscribed users to a particular newsletter and they can even keep track of the open percentage for a particular email. Using all this information, a business can then fine tune their email marketing strategies, to ensure that they are as successful as possible. Currently there are three pricing levels for the E-Mail Marketing service which consist of a standard, plus and premium subscription level.
7.11.10
adManager
This is an advertising service that allows small businesses to advertise in search engine results. A number of popular search engines are affiliated with adManager including, MSN Live Search, Ask.com, Facebook and various other search engine websites (or websites that have a search facility). Businesses can choose to pay either by setting a monthly budget, which basically means once their budget has been reached then their ads are no longer displayed in search engine results or by using a pay-per-click payment model. As you can see, Office Live Small Business is an entire suite of web-based software services that are designed in such a way, so that is easy for an offline-based business to easily migrate online or at least integrate the use of web-based technologies into their everyday business activities. The Office Live Small Business suite consists of a number of different services, some of these services may be used alone as standalone services (such as Office Live Workspaces), while other services are only made available as a part of the Office Live Business suite (for example, website design tools).
7.12 A Brief Comparison between Technologies There are many different companies that now offer a number of different software services. Most desktop-based applications that are used for everyday use (such as
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word processing applications, calendar applications, etc.) can now be made available online as a service, in one form or another. Microsoft and Google are two major companies that are involved with SaaS and they have released various different web-based software services. Some of which directly compete with each other. For example Hotmail (now known as Windows Live Hotmail) was one of the most widely used web-based email services but when Google made their Gmail service available to users (which provided a much larger storage capacity than Hotmail) many users began using Google‟s email service. Currently, Google offers 7 Gigabytes of storage space with their Gmail email service for free and allow users to send attachments of up to 20 Megabytes in size. Microsoft currently offers its users with 5 Gigabytes of storage space for free and attachment sizes of up to 10 Megabytes in size. It is obvious why Gmail is favored by many users. However, Hotmail still remains the dominant web-based email service, simply because of its popularity and history and because it provides an interface that many people are familiar with (Hotmail‟s interface is very similar to the interface that Outlook has, which is a very well known and widely used POP3 email application). Of course, web-based email is not the only software service area in which Google and Microsoft directly compete in with one another. In fact, both Google Apps Premiere (Google‟s subscription-based application suite) and Microsoft Office Live Essentials (Microsoft‟s first tier subscription level for their Office Live suite) offer similar services at around the same price. Below is a comparison between the two sets of suites. Google Apps Premiere
Microsoft Office Live Essentials
Domain Name Included
Yes
Yes
Website Design Tool Included
Yes
Yes
Email Storage Capacity
10 Gigabytes of storage capacity per user.
2 Gigabytes of storage capacity per user.
Workspace Storage Capacity
Currently no limit on document storage.
1 Gigabyte of workspace storage.
Number of Email Accounts Included
Unlimited domain based email accounts.
A limit of 50 domain-based email accounts (more can be purchased if necessary).
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Additional Services or Features
Google Docs and Spreadsheet document collaboration services.
A contact manager as well as workspaces for up to 10 users and a calendar application.
Cost
$50.00 per year, per user.
$19.95 per month for up to a maximum of 10 users (which adds up to $239.40 per year).
As you can see, both companies offer a very similar set of services with their subscription based software suites. It is once again Google that provide a much larger storage capacity for both email and workspaces, than Microsoft currently do. However, despite this, Microsoft‟s service is actually cheaper for an organization in the long run, if they consist of 5-10 employees. Google‟s service on the other hand, is only cheaper if an organization consists of less than 5 employees. Microsoft‟s Office Live Essentials software service is best utilized by businesses that do not already have a website or an online presence and want to create one in a quick, easy and cost-effective manner. It is also best utilized by businesses that use Windows-based operating systems or by businesses that primarily work in a Windowsbased operating environment. Finally, Microsoft‟s Office Live Essentials software service is best utilized by businesses that have a model based around a traditional business model, i.e. attracting customers, interacting with them and then keeping them. On the other hand, the Google Apps Premier software service is best utilized by businesses that already have an online presence or website and want to improve their web-based business through the use of email tools and workspace collaboration tools. Google‟s software service also supports a wide range of operating systems which means that the service would still work for businesses even if they primarily used Linuxbased distributions or Mac OS X operating systems, instead of Windows-based operating systems for example. Finally, if a business, for whatever reason did not use a traditional based business model and did not need to keep track of customers or customer transactions, then Google‟s software service could be an ideal service for them to use. Google and Microsoft are the major „players‟ in the SaaS market area, however there are various other independent software service vendors such as Axentis, Salesforce and NetSuite for example, that each offer their own unique set of software services. The software service vendor that a business or client chooses all depends on the software service (or set of services) that they require and on their own unique business needs.
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7.13 Introduction Review Questions 1. What service includes software on the computer, as well as additional services via the Internet? a) SaaS b) Utility Computing c) Software + Service d) ASP
TRUE or FALSE 2. SaaS is Software as a Service
3. What are the two main categories of SaaS? a) Customer and Business orientated b) Private and Business orientated c) Pay-as-you-go and Subscription d) ASP and Software + Service
4. If JavaScript and Perl are scripting languages, what is Ajax? a) A scripting language b) Object-orient programming language c) Web development technique d) Web application framework
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8 How to Accomplish SaaS When a business migrates from a traditional on-premises software application model, to Software as a Service software delivery model, there are a few changes that a business will need to make to their existing software environment, along with a few tasks and processes that they will need to carry out, to ensure that they have a smooth transition. However, these processes will be of benefit to them in the long term, because they will eliminate the unnecessary loads that on-premises software applications place on their data centers and will greatly reduce software management related issues.
8.1
Migrating from a standard software environment to a SaaS one (before and after)
The great thing about migrating from a traditional on-premises software application model, to a hosted SaaS application delivery model, is that most of the work is already done for you. In other words, software applications are already installed, secured and are up and running, ready to be used. Customers do not have to purchase additional hardware or new servers, they do not need to install operating systems onto these servers and they do not have to waste time configuring these servers. However this does not mean that a migration from a standard software environment to a SaaS-based software environment entails no work. Businesses still have to clearly define what their business processes are and get their workforce behind the new software environment, among a host of other things.
8.1.1 Things to do and consider before migration The first thing that a business will want to do, before even weighing up whether their existing hardware infrastructure will meet the requirements of their new SaaS application services, is clearly define what their actual business processes are. Using any type of new technology or software can easily confuse a business and its employees about which business processes this new software application deals with and which employees will deal with this new software. By clearly defining each one of their processes and assigning roles to each one of their employees for their new SaaS
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infrastructure before it is actually rolled out, a business can avoid confusion at a later stage. As well as clearly defining the roles of their new SaaS applications and employees in the larger scheme of things, a business should also be able to answer a number of important questions before they actually implement SaaS within their business environment. These questions are briefly detailed below. Why are they implementing SaaS? A business should be clear about why they are implementing SaaS and they should be able to justify its implementation by listing the benefits that it will provide (by carrying out a cost benefit analysis for example). If the benefits of implementing SaaS outweigh the costs of implementing it (including upfront costs, subscription costs, costs related to changes in their own infrastructure, etc.), then a business can go ahead and implement SaaS within their business environment, if they wish. Do they know what they want to get out of implementing SaaS? It is no good implementing SaaS but then not knowing what you are going to get out of it. Businesses should have a number of aims and objectives that they want to accomplish, through the use of their new software services. For example a business may want their SaaS software applications to reduce their software management costs or to improve data collaboration between various different business sites of theirs that they may have. A business should be clear on what they want to get out of using their software applications, regardless of what this may actually be. Have they considered the true cost of implementing SaaS? Although it may not initially seem like it, when SaaS is implemented, businesses have more costs than just their upfront subscription costs. For example, they may need to consider licensing issues, depending on how many instances of a particular software service that they require and depending on how many users that a SaaS service provider allows, to access a single instance of that software service. They need to consider internal costs such as the labor costs of implementing SaaS or any costs due to a change in their infrastructure (for example they may require quicker network connections to support their SaaS services). They need to think about training costs and finally how their users are going to access these software services (for example will they require new laptops to access these services remotely), as well as storage related costs. Clearly there are various different costs that a business is faced with when implementing SaaS and they should try their best not to overlook any of these costs. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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Do their SaaS software service providers provide them with a solid SLA? Without a solid SLA (Service Level Agreement) in place, SaaS software service providers are not bound to provide customers with the service that they paid for. Yes, a software vendor will still offer their software services to their customers but the quality and availability of these software services is not guaranteed. Businesses should choose a SaaS service provider that has a solid Service Level Agreement in place, which defines the exact quality and availability of the software services that they will deliver to their clients, along with any repercussions that they will face if they fail to meet these requirements. It is clear that most of the tasks that a business carries out, before implementing SaaS as a part of their infrastructure, are planning-based tasks. A business needs to carefully plan and figure out why they are implementing SaaS. Only when their reasons justify the costs of implementing SaaS and highlight the benefits that a business will receive when SaaS is implemented, should they then actually incorporate SaaS as a part of their infrastructure.
8.1.2 Things to do after migration When implementing traditional on-premises software applications, a business first has to set up their hardware, and then install the software applications onto their hardware platforms. They then have to configure the software applications and finally secure them and test run them. Implementing SaaS is much simpler than this and is very quick. The only real trade off is that SaaS software applications currently do not offer the same level of customizability that traditional on-premises software applications do. However, most software vendors can live with this fact. Most SaaS service providers do provide their customers with „point and click‟ customizability options. Customization is the main thing that a business should do once their SaaS software services have been rolled out, so that these software application services can meet their own specific set of needs and more efficiently help a business. Lastly, the business should test these software application services. For example, testing their default Internet browser‟s compatibility, how efficiently it works on mobile devices such as laptops, and general load testing.
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8.2
A simple how to guide
The actual implementation and rollout of SaaS software applications is a relatively quick and easy process. In fact, businesses will spend more time on processes that are related to planning and determining why and whether it is worth being implemented, rather than the actual implementation. There are a number of different ways that a business can go about implementing SaaS but most methods will include the stages detailed below. 1. Justify the implementation of SaaS using a wide range of criteria There are two main software implementation models for businesses and these consist of an on-premises software implementation model and a hosted SaaS software implementation model. When a business decides that they want to implement SaaS, they should carry out extensive research, determining whether SaaS will be of benefit to them or not. Not only should a business match SaaS software services against their research criteria but they should also match traditional on-premises software applications against their research criteria. By doing this, a business can then compare and contrast both software implementation models, which will then put them in a better position to justify which will be the of the most benefit to them. Cost is an obvious research criterion, and the software implementation model with the cheapest upfront costs will be favored by most businesses. However, businesses should not just base their final selection on cost alone. Other research criteria should also be considered, including:
The flexibility that each software implementation model offers. On-premises software applications generally offer businesses with more flexibility but they usually have higher upfront costs than SaaS applications.
Potential risks that each software implementation model may pose. For example a SaaS implementation model may potentially threaten a businesses‟ privacy, because their business-related data is being transferred across the Internet, and in most cases is being stored within a software vendors data centers.
Licensing-related issues. For example, how many users can access a single instance of a particular software application if SaaS is being used, and will a SaaS service provider charge extra if more users than what are allowed use a single instance of a particular software service?
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How much storage capacity will SaaS service providers give to their customers and what are the costs for additional storage?
What kind of support is offered by the software vendor and is this support free?
Additional costs which may not be as obvious, for example, the cost of an IT professional to manage on-premises software applications, or the costs of providing training to teach employees how to connect to and use SaaS software application services.
A business should compare both software implementation models (where applicable) to the research criteria above. Once this is done, a business will be able to see more clearly, which software implementation model is best for them. Two other research criteria that a business can use (which are applicable to SaaS), is whether they will be able to easily migrate back to an on-premises software implementation model in the future, once SaaS has been implemented and what the long-term prospects of their SaaS service provider are. 2. Negotiate a contract that is right for them So a business has now justified their reason for implementing SaaS. The next step for them involves negotiating a suitable contract with their SaaS service provider. Most SaaS service providers often do not provide formal Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to their clients. The reason for this is because they do not want to take up the additional responsibility that a Service Level Agreement provides them with. Instead SaaS service providers will often have best effort delivery clauses in their contracts, but this guarantees nothing to a client and can be easily abused by a software vendor. In order to protect themselves and ensure that they get exactly what they pay for, a business should request a reasonable Service Level Agreement contract from their SaaS service provider. Businesses will also want to ensure that there are no hidden costs in their contract. For example, is there a clause which states that their subscription only includes a certain number of transactions per month and that additional transactions will incur charges? Will customer support remain free or will a business be charged after a certain number of support tickets have been used up (if a ticket-based support system is used)? Finally, a business will want to confirm what recovery and security related clauses are in their contract. For example, what backup procedures does a SaaS service provider have in place, if any? Will the service provider be liable for the breach or corruption of their client‟s data when it is stored within their own data centers (after all it should be the service providers own responsibility to secure their own data centers). SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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These are all important considerations for a business to make when they are negotiating their SaaS contract and if they are unhappy with anything then they should request the changes that they require. 3. Use best practice implementation methods Once a business has justified their reason for implementing SaaS and have negotiated a suitable contract, they can then actually implement SaaS as a part of their software infrastructure. The actual implementation of SaaS software services is a relatively straightforward process. However, businesses should still follow generalized best practice procedures that they would follow when implementing on-premises software (or any other new technology for that matter), in order to help minimize the chances of any problems occurring. Some of these best practice procedures are briefly detailed on the following page. Re-confirming the aims and objectives that the new SaaS solution will help them to achieve A business should already have a good idea right at the very beginning, about what their new SaaS software services will help them to achieve and accomplish. However, after negotiating a suitable contract, a business should once again confirm that the SaaS services will still help them in meeting their goals and objectives. If this is still the case, then a business can go ahead and implement SaaS as a part of their software infrastructure.
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Building a suitable team Once SaaS has been implemented, a business will require a number of IT professionals to manage and maintain their new software services. A business should define roles within their organization and a business should also create a team (or group of teams) that will look after their new SaaS offerings, before their SaaS software services have actually been implemented. Some of the roles within a business that has a SaaS-based software infrastructure, include a SaaS software administrator (who will look after SaaS software services), a user group committee (who will suggest changes in order to fine tune software services for a business), as well as a SaaS software developer (who will be able to make the changes that the user group committee suggests). Defining a clear timeline Even though implementing SaaS is a relatively quick and straightforward procedure, a business should still define a clear timeline for their actual implementation procedure (they could use a work break down structure in order to do this, for example). A business should clearly define milestone dates as well as dates for when important tasks should be completed, so that they can avoid being sidetracked when implementing SaaS and making the required changes to their existing infrastructure. Configuring the SaaS solution to meet their specific needs Once a business has implemented their SaaS software services, they will want to configure these software services to meet their own specific needs (just as they would configure any other new software application or technology). A business may also need to carry out configurations to their existing infrastructure before implementing the new SaaS software services. \Some of these configurations and changes might consist of hardware-based changes, network-based changes or even software-based changes. No matter what changes and configurations a business has to make to their infrastructure, both before and after the implementation of SaaS, they should always plan for these changes beforehand by carrying out research in order to avoid any unforeseen problems. Again, it is not the actual implementation of SaaS that is a challenge to businesses (the SaaS software services that they are going to use are already in place and ready to use). Instead, the challenge that a business faces, is making sure that the SaaS software services are the right software services for them and will easily integrate into SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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their existing business infrastructure. If this is not the case, then as detailed before, a business should make the necessary changes, either to their own existing infrastructure or to their new SaaS software services (using whichever method is the most practical and the most cost-effective). Adopting solid data security practices Once SaaS has been implemented, it doesn‟t mean that a business‟s work stops there. Security is the next thing that a business should be thinking about. Although the security of a business‟s software services and the data that these software services use, are in the hands of a business‟ SaaS service provider, this doesn‟t meant that a business has no power at all when it comes to security. Some of the things that a business can do to help ensure that their software services and data is secure, include ensuring that their SaaS service provider, provides them with a data protection guarantee, and also ensuring the provider complies with industry standards. Businesses should look into their SaaS service provider‟s background and find out what levels of security they have in place to protect their data centers, what backup and disaster recovery procedures they have in place, if any, and how they go about securing each one of their client‟s data. Finally a business should clearly define roles and access rights within their own organization (again this is a process that would also be carried for on-premises software solutions). For example, no users without the correct credentials should be able to access more than what they are allowed access. Workstation users may only have access to restricted versions of a software service, while administrators would have access to the full versions of these software services. Adopting a solid support structure The final task that a business wants to do when implementing SaaS is to adopt a solid support structure for their SaaS services. For example a business will want to decide how they are going to support their SaaS software services, which employees will support these SaaS software services (i.e. existing employees or additional IT professionals) and how these SaaS services will integrate with software from third-party software vendors. One mistake that businesses can easily make when adopting SaaS is to think that they no longer have to carry out software support and maintenance related procedures. This is not entirely true. Although SaaS service providers will carry out software upgrade procedures, data management procedures and support-related tasks, it is still down to the end-user of these software services, to ensure that they provide any additional
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support for these software services, in order to make sure that these software services meet their exact needs (rather than just vaguely meeting them). Finally, businesses that are implementing SaaS should always have a second or third choice SaaS service provider in their mind. This is because when changes affect their SaaS service provider, then they will also be affected by these changes. The SaaS software market is still maturing and it is very likely that a SaaS service provider could merge with another company or even be taken over. By having a second or third SaaS service provider in the wings, businesses are ready to shift service providers if any changes do occur or if their existing SaaS service provider can no longer deliver the software services.
8.3
Top 10 things to do and consider when implementing SaaS
There are a number of processes and tasks that a business must complete in order for them to successfully implement SaaS as a part of their infrastructure. Ten of these considerations and processes are detailed below. 1. Ensure that you understand exactly why you are implementing SaaS Whether it is a hardware-based technology or in this case a software service-based technology, there is always a reason (or number of reasons) exactly why a business is implementing SaaS. Some business might want to improve their efficiency by being able to concentrate more on business-related processes rather than on software management processes, while others may want to improve the collaboration of geographically separated business sites. No matter what reason a business has for wanting to implement SaaS, they should be clear about exactly what this reason is. A business should also have a very good understanding about how their existing processes and infrastructure work. This information is required so that SaaS software services can be integrated into their existing infrastructure at a later stage but with an absolute minimum of problems.
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2. Note down exactly what you need in order to know why you are implementing SaaS in the first place Once a business knows why they are implementing SaaS, they can then go about finding exactly what they need in order to accomplish this. Firstly, a business should be able to answer exactly what their SaaS software services need to be able to do. Secondly, a business should be able to answer exactly what kind of features these software services will need to have. For example if a business wanted to improve data collaboration between various business sites, they would want a SaaS software solution that could be accessed by many users. However, if a business wanted a highly efficient software solution, similar in performance to traditional on-premises software solutions, then they would probably want a SaaS software service that could only be accessed by a few users at a time (more efficient than software solutions which are offered by many different users at the same time). 3. Request a Service Level Agreement before signing any contracts The Service Level Agreement is an important agreement document because it clearly defines what a SaaS service provider is offering, and also what consequences they will face if they fail to deliver these services to the agreed standard. To avoid problems at a later time and to ensure they are getting exactly what they paid for, a business should request a Service Level Agreement before actually signing any contracts. Only when a business is happy with the terms in their Service Level Agreement, should they continue with the implementation process of SaaS. 4. Make sure that agreement clauses meet your needs and not just the software vendors needs Because SaaS software vendors can be located anywhere in the world, their customs and agreements may be differ from what a business (located elsewhere) thinks that these terms mean. For example, if a business was located in the US and their SaaS service provider was located in the UK (or any other part of the world other than the US), then there will be a time difference (among other differences) between the two organizations. This has a number of consequences when dealing with availability agreements or any other types of agreement clauses for that matter. For example, a SaaS service provider may have a clause stating that they guarantee the availability of software services during business hours. However, a business should be clear about what exactly is SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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meant by phrase „business hours‟. For example, does it mean that these software services will be available during the SaaS service provider‟s business hours or during their client‟s business hours (which may differ due to geographical differences)? Also, still using the same example above, a SaaS service provider may have a different interpretation of what the term „business hours‟ means, when compared to what their client actually needs. For example a SaaS service provider may define the term business hours meaning nine till five. However if a business operated 24/7, then obviously this clause is unsuited to them. If a SaaS service provider has any vaguely written agreement clauses, then a business should clarify exactly what these clauses mean. If they are not happy with these clauses, then they should negotiate their own agreement clauses or select another service provider that better matches their needs. 5. Consider IT support requirements Businesses should consider what level of IT professionals they will need, as well as what the expectations of their SaaS service provider actually are. For example, will a business be able to continue operating with their existing workforce once SaaS has been implemented or will they need to bring in additional IT professionals? Will a business‟ SaaS service provider expect a business to have technical geniuses on hand, or will anyone with a basic knowledge of IT be able to use their software services? The level of support that a business will have to provide for SaaS software services depends on what level of support their SaaS software vendor can provide them with. If a SaaS software vendor just delivers their software services but with very little support or documentation, then a business will need to employ a solid IT support workforce. However, if a SaaS software vendor provides clear instructions and documentation in clear English (with very little technical jargon) then a business should be able to continue operating without the need to bring in additional IT support professionals. 6. Find out if anything has to be done if your service provider fails to deliver the standard of services that they promised A business should have already negotiated the consequences that a SaaS service provider will face if they fail to deliver the standard of software services that they promised. Businesses should be clear about whether the process is an automated one or not. If it is not an automated process, then a business should be clear about exactly what action
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they have to take when their SaaS service provider fails to deliver their services up to the standard that was guaranteed by them in their Service Level Agreement contract. 7. Make sure that employees are properly trained Because implementing SaaS is such a relatively straightforward procedure, businesses can easily forget to train their staff. To avoid problems once SaaS software services have been implemented, a business should train its staff on how to access and use these new software services, during their initial setup stage. Once SaaS has been implemented, additional training should be available. 8. Consider what exit strategies you have Is a business able to leave their SaaS service provider at any time? Will they easily be able to migrate to another SaaS service provider or return back to an on-premises software infrastructure? A business should also consider the fate of their data that was stored on their SaaS service provider‟s data centers. Will they be able to easily restore this data back on to their own data centers or will some of their data remain on their SaaS service provider‟s data centers? Some SaaS service providers may choose to keep certain amounts of a client‟s data on their own data centers (for a limited period of time), should they return in the future. If a business is not happy with this policy, then they should request that all of their data is erased from their SaaS service provider‟s data centers. 9. Decrease the number of existing machines within your internal infrastructure The great thing about SaaS is that a business doesn‟t need to host their software applications. This means that a business no longer requires as many physical servers or software licenses for their on-premises software applications or operating systems as they did before. By decreasing the number of physical and licensed software operating systems or licensed software applications that a business is running within its internal infrastructure, a business can save money in the long run. Not only will they save money on buying new hardware for their servers or paying for additional software licenses but they will also save money on the administration of these machines, in power consumption and cooling requirements, as well as many other aspects.
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10. Know exactly what you will be paying With traditional software applications, businesses pay a single upfront cost for and for any licenses that they require, depending on how many instances of that particular software application they need to run. With SaaS software services, when it comes to payment, things are not as straightforward. For example, businesses may pay a monthly fee to use their SaaS service provider‟s software services or they may only pay for what they use, by using a pay-as-you-go payment model. Businesses may also have to deal with licensing-related issues if multiple users are going to access a single instance of a software application and they may also have to pay for storage space within their software vendor‟s data centers. In order to save money a business should clearly know beforehand how frequently they will be using these data services, what their data storage requirements are and what payment method would be the best for them (i.e. a monthly fixed rate or a pay-as-yougo payment model). Finally, businesses should not forget about other costs, including costs that relate to staffing requirements, training, backing up requirements and any other process that are not in their software vendors hands.
8.4
Top 10 SaaS pitfalls
Although SaaS has many advantages, just like any other technology, it is not perfect and there are a number of pitfalls that businesses can face, both before and after implementing SaaS. Detailed below are ten of the most common pitfalls that businesses can face when implementing SaaS and what they can do to avoid these problems. 1. Not knowing what they are agreeing to In most cases, SaaS service providers will provide clients with an agreement „button‟ allowing them to sign up for a SaaS service provider‟s software services with very little hassle. A SaaS service provider will provide terms and conditions to their potential customers, however most of the time, people don‟t bother reading it and usually end up clicking agree, without actually thinking about what they are agreeing to. A business that is not properly controlled and does not allow information to be easily passed on between departments could end up agreeing to something they aren‟t happy with or something that would affect them negatively in the future. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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To ensure that this does not occur, businesses should make sure that a representative from each one their affected departments reads their potential SaaS software vendor‟s terms and conditions carefully. If all of the individual departments of a business are happy with these terms and conditions and are not affected negatively by these terms and conditions in any way, then a business can agree because they now have a better idea of what they are agreeing to as a whole. 2. Paying more than they should be, for their software services One of the great things about SaaS is that a business does not have to pay massive upfront costs in order to start using software services or SaaS-based applications. Most SaaS service providers will offer various different payment plans to their clients, including monthly, quarterly or annual payment options. Although the monthly plan seems like the best option (because it gives more freedom than the other payment options), a business can actually end up paying more in the long term. If a business knows that they are going to be using a software application for a year or longer, and have the budget to pay for their software services annually, then they should select this payment option because, when compared to paying for their software services using the monthly payment option, they can save up to 15 percent per year. Sometimes businesses end up paying more than they should because they do not research enough what software service or what payment option would be the best for them. For example if a business chose a pay-as-you-go payment model but used their SaaS software services frequently, then they could be paying a lot more than if they had chosen a monthly payment option. 3. Not having a Service Level Agreement Service Level Agreements are very important to a business because they define exactly what level and quality of service is acceptable and what is not. Some software vendors will provide Service Level Agreements as a part of their main contract, while others will not. If a software vendor does not initially provide a Service Level Agreement, then the business should request a Service Level Agreement from their software vendor. If necessary, businesses should modify any clauses that they are not happy with or even create their own clauses, so that a software vendor can better meet their requirements. Businesses should also ensure that the Service Level Agreement states what penalties a SaaS service provider will face if they fail to deliver their software services to the agreed standard. Will a SaaS service provider reduce the subscription rate of their SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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client for the next month, or will they give credits their clients in some other form? If this information is not present in the Service Level Agreement document, then a business should request it. 4. Not knowing how their SaaS service provider performs and what state they are in Again this ties into the not having a Service Level Agreement with any performancerelated clauses. However, clients should also request information about their SaaS service provider‟s past levels of performance, uptime, etc. By researching into a SaaS service providers, a business can get a better idea of their service provider can provide them with (rather than just having a vague estimate). Businesses should also try to find out what state their SaaS service provider will be in, both in the short term and in the long term. For example is their SaaS service provider going to be making any investments within the next year, merging with another business anytime soon or are they going to be enhancing the software services that they currently have on offer. All of these activities could affect a SaaS service providers clients, one way or another, therefore it is important that a SaaS service providers clients know what state their service provider is in and also know what activities or tasks they will be carrying (at least one year in advance). Clients should also find out how they will be contacted if the performance or delivery of their software services is affected in any way and whether they will have to take any actions in order to receive the credits that they are entitled to. Finally a client should find out how long their SaaS service provider will have to fix any problems that do occur. For a business that needs to operate close to 24/7, a few days to fix a problem can seem like a very long time. Therefore, once again a business should ensure that their SaaS service provider can meet their needs, by fixing any service delivery problems within a few hours, rather than a few days (if they are a business that requires maximum uptime). 5. Not taking into account hidden costs Although SaaS service providers do have cheaper upfront costs, they usually make up for these cheaper costs in other ways. Businesses can end up paying more than they should have to, defeating the purpose of implementing SaaS in the first place. To avoid having to pay unforeseen costs in the future, a business should ensure that they carefully read their SaaS service provider‟s fine print, and terms and conditions. There are various hidden costs that a SaaS service provider could charge their clients. For example, some SaaS software vendors may end up charging their clients for configuring and setting up their software services. Other software vendors may charge SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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extra based on what types of device a client will access their software services from, such as a mobile device. Software vendors may also charge their clients extra if they go over their agreed storage limit and they may even charge them for technical support. When buying SaaS software services, a lot of businesses only look at the upfront subscription rate that and forget to take into account the cost of additional features or add-ons. To avoid this pitfall, businesses should make sure that they carefully research how much their SaaS software services will cost, taking into account all of their needs, as well as the purchase of any add-ons to meet these needs. 6. Not taking into account integration costs In most cases, when a business implements SaaS, they will still have some of their existing on-premises software applications running in parallel with their new SaaS software services. This means that it is very likely a business will want to integrate these two software services and applications, so that they can work together. Of course this may not be a straightforward process and can end up costing a business more then they initially thought it would (another hidden cost). Although a business‟ SaaS service provider usually can deal with integration-related issues, they charge extra for this type of work. It may be more feasible for a business to use a third-party company that can carry out this type of work. 7. Not knowing what their data rights are Whenever a business uses SaaS-based software services, at least some of their data will be stored on their SaaS service provider‟s data centers. Customers should ensure that the rights to access their own data remains with them and they should also make sure that their data can still be recovered or restored if their SaaS service provider went out of business (or if any other similar scenario occurred where a client would be at risk of losing their data). Finally, a SaaS service provider‟s clients should also confirm how their data will be secured by their service provider, from a privacy standpoint and a disaster recovery standpoint. Again, this links into the Service Level Agreement document and a client should ensure that both data security and data backup related clauses are included in their Service Level Agreement.
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8. The lack of control that businesses have over SaaS software services The great thing about SaaS is that it takes away the hassle of having to configure, maintain and upgrade software applications. However, this can also be a pitfall, because businesses no longer have the same level of control over their software applications and data, as they do with their on-premises software applications. For example a business now has to go through their SaaS service provider in order to access their data and the level of customizability for these software services also varies, depending on what their SaaS service provider allows. Businesses should make sure that they know exactly what level of customizability their SaaS service provider will allow them to have. 9. Having to rely on the Internet Due to the fact that SaaS software services are delivered over the Internet, a business has to ensure that their Internet Service Provider (ISP) provides them with an uninterrupted and high quality Internet connection. The amount of available bandwidth that ISPs have also varies depending on the time of the day. For example, during peak hours, it is a very real possibility that a business Internet connection will slow down significantly and this will obviously have an effect on the ability of a business to access their SaaS software services. To minimize Internet connection-related problems, a business should ensure that they have a high speed/high quality link in place. Businesses that use SaaS should also consider implementing a dedicated Internet connection, so that they don‟t have to share bandwidth with other users (of course this will require a larger budget). Finally, businesses should consider implementing a redundant Internet connection, so that if their initial connection does go down or has a problem, they will be able to continue operating until their initial link is restored. 10. Not taking into account exit costs This is another thing that businesses can easily overlook. Before signing their SaaS software vendor‟s contract, a business should look out for any exit costs or problems they may face if they choose to back out. For example, if they signed a contract for one year but backed out half way through, would they get a partial refund or would they lose the rest of their money for the remaining six months? Also, would they have any problems retrieving their own data SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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that is stored on their SaaS service provider‟s data centers? Some SaaS service providers have exit charges and will charge their clients before they can actually retrieve data. To avoid being stung by exit costs, once again a business should carefully check the fine print of their SaaS service provider‟s terms and conditions. Businesses should also try to keep as much control of their own data as possible and keep their data in their own hands. By doing this, if a business does stop using a SaaS service provider‟s software services at a later date, they can easily back out without losing too much data.
8.5
Some of the problems that you may encounter with SaaS
SaaS has many advantages but there are still a number of problems that a business may encounter when dealing with SaaS. Detailed below are some of the most common problems that business may face when using SaaS. An Internet connection is required at all times One of the biggest drawbacks of SaaS is that employees can no longer work offline when SaaS software services are used. For employees working from within their businesses headquarters or those who have a dedicated Internet connection at home, this is not too much of a problem. However, for employees who work from a mobile device such as a laptop or for employees who are constantly on the move, this is obviously a problem. For example, how will an employee who is constantly travelling be able to get any work done? Will they have to keep paying for single day Internet access in an Internet café or in their hotel? The costs for single day Internet access can very quickly add up and completely negate the cost saving benefits of SaaS. One way for those employees to receive the benefits of SaaS involves using Software plus Service. This is a compromise between having a complete SaaS solution and having a complete traditional on-premises software solution, and it gives businesses the best of both worlds.
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The security and control of your data is no longer in your own hands When using SaaS, some, if not all of the data of a business will be stored on their SaaS service provider‟s data centers. Although some businesses are happy not to have to deal with the management of software applications, most businesses will not like the idea of giving control of their data to someone else. A business has no idea how their SaaS service provider will secure their data and what backup procedures will be in place. The only thing that a business can go by is the word of their service provider confirming that they will ensure that their client‟s data will be well looked after. To ensure that their data is well looked after, a business must ensure that their service provider writes down exactly how their clients data will be secured in their Service Level Agreement contract. Selecting a well known SaaS vendor or a software service provider with a good reputation will also give businesses peace of mind. For example a business is much more likely to feel comfortable allowing a massively popular and well known organization like Microsoft or Google to look after their data, rather than an obscure software service provider without any history. Businesses should always try to find out as much background information about their SaaS service provider that they can before signing any contracts, to ensure that their SaaS service provider is a good, honest and reliable company. You can no longer control what version of a software application that you are going to use Although SaaS is great because software applications are constantly up-to-date, sometimes a business is better off using an older version of a software application but SaaS just does not allow this. For example businesses may wish to use an older version of a software application because this older version is stable or because it is compatible with their existing software applications but with SaaS, businesses only have access to the most current versions of an application. The general policy for many businesses when a new software application comes out is to wait a little while before installing this software application so that any bugs or „teething problems‟ can be fixed. However, with SaaS, businesses do not have this option and are stuck with the very latest version of a software application (even though this may have bugs).
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You lose your freedom and are effectively at the control of your software vendor The main problem with SaaS is the fact that businesses lose their freedom and are effectively at the will of their SaaS service provider. For example, with a traditional software application, a business pays for this software application with a single upfront payment. After this, the software application is in their control and they can do what they want with it (as long as they are not breaching their software vendor‟s terms and conditions, such as copyright, licensing, etc.). However, with SaaS software services a business must continuously keep paying their SaaS service provider in order to access the software services that they require. If they fail to pay their service provider for one month (if they are paying monthly), then they risk losing their software services. If their SaaS service provider changes its payment rate, then a business has to pay for their software services at this revised payment rate. If a SaaS service provider faces internal problems, then their clients will also be affected by these problems. SaaS is not perfect and at times it may seem that it is the service provider who benefits the most out SaaS (because they are the ones who are in control and calling all the „shots‟). However, businesses can still benefit from implementing SaaS as long as they choose a reputable SaaS service provider and have a solid Service Level Agreement contract in place. By having a solid Service Level Agreement contract in place, businesses can prevent their SaaS service provider, from abusing their position of power.
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9 Managing a SaaS Environment 9.1
Support Issues
Most of the time when a business implements SaaS, it is the SaaS service provider that deals with support-related issues. A business needs to understand what level of support their SaaS service provider will provide them with, what level of support they will have to provide themselves and how much support-related issues will cost them. These three factors are detailed below. What level of support will their service provider, provide them with Some SaaS service providers will offer little support (for free), while others will offer full support to their clients. A business should be clear about what level of support their SaaS service provider will provide them with. For example, will their service provider only provide them with support for the initial setup of their software services or continuous on-going support? Businesses should also be clear about the type of support technologies that their SaaS service provider uses, so that they can implement any of these support technologies of necessary. For example does a SaaS service provider use VOIP to deliver their support services, will they use email or even instant messaging technology? Most SaaS service providers will usually offer a basic level of email support, however other SaaS service providers (with larger budgets), will usually offer more practical support technologies such as VOIP or even remote assistance. What level of support will the business provide? Although support-related issues are mainly in the hands of a business‟ SaaS service provider, there are processes that a business can carry out on their own. These support-related processes usually involve a business modifying their own internal infrastructure so that SaaS software services can be better supported by them. For example a business may upgrade or update the software that they already have installed on their existing hardware, such as web browser software (along with the installation any plug-ins that may be required by them, in order for them to access their new SaaS software services). SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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A business may also make changes to their physical infrastructure, so that SaaS software services can be better accessed and supported by them. For example a business may choose to upgrade their existing network connections with one that provides more bandwidth, or upgrade their existing network-related devices such as their routers or switches, with ones that can better handle their new stream of SaaSrelated traffic. Although technical support will usually be offered by a business‟ SaaS service provider, some businesses may decide to develop their own internal technical support team. The advantage to this is that a business does not have to always contact their SaaS service provider whenever they face a problem. It is not always convenient for a SaaS service provider to answer the support-related queries of their clients immediately, simply due to the number of requests that they will usually receive. However, the disadvantage to a business when setting up their own support team is that in most cases, a business will have to bring in a new set of IT support professionals, and this is often expensive. How much will support related issues cost Businesses should be clear about how much support-related issues will cost them. Some SaaS service providers charge for technical support, some offer it for free. Will a business be setting up their own support team and if so, how much will this cost them? Businesses should also take into account any costs that are related to actually supporting the running of their new software services. For example, a business should take into account the costs of installing new hardware or software (if necessary), as well as the costs for making any changes to their infrastructure. Although a business may benefit from making changes to their infrastructure now, they should always take into account how this will affect them in the future. For example if a business makes changes to their physical infrastructure in order to support their new SaaS software services, how would this effect them at a later time, if they wished to revert back to a non-SaaS based software environment?
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9.2
How to measure capacity and performance
The ability for a business to easily manage and monitor the performance levels of their SaaS software applications is an important factor. It is an important factor because it allows a business to determine whether performance-related problems are caused by them or whether they are caused by their SaaS service provider (in which case a business should invoke the penalty clause in their Service Level Agreement). However, traditional network troubleshooting and software monitoring tools are not very effective at monitoring off-site SaaS software services, as they were never designed and intended to be used to monitor off-site software services. New technologies are available which can efficiently monitor the performance level of SaaS software services and these are what businesses should use. The performance of SaaS software services can be negatively affected by two things, hardware platformrelated bottlenecks and network connection-related bottlenecks. Hardware platform-related bottlenecks Hardware platform-related bottlenecks, refers to how the performance levels of SaaS software services are affected by the machines that they run on, both at the SaaS service provider‟s end and at a client‟s end. Sometimes the performance levels of a software service are negatively affected at the SaaS service provider‟s end. For example, when multiple users are trying to access the same service causing performance levels for all users to decrease significantly. At other times, the performance levels of a software service may be negatively affected at the client‟s end (due to them not having hardware that is powerful enough to support their new software services). One way a client can determine whether hardware performance-related issues are at their end or their SaaS service provider‟s is by running their software services on two separate machines (one machine being significantly more powerful than the other). If the performance levels of their SaaS software service are the same on both machines, then it is clear that the issues are due to the SaaS service provider. However, if their SaaS software service runs more smoothly and more efficiently on the more powerful test machine, than it does on the less powerful test machine, then the hardware bottleneck issue is obviously related to the client.
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Network connection-related bottlenecks The second thing that can affect the performance of a SaaS software service is the network connection that a business has (or network-related issues). A business should carry out all hardware performance related tests before testing the network. Using traditional network monitoring tools, it is hard for a business to determine whether their SaaS service provider is up and running, if they have direct connectivity to their SaaS service provider, or if they have direct connectivity to their software services and so on. However, new tools have been developed specifically for SaaS performance monitoring purpose, which allow businesses to quickly determine whether it is network related issues that are affecting the performance levels of their software services or something else. Measuring storage capacity Software vendors will usually provide some kind of indication to their clients, about how much available storage capacity they have used. However, some businesses may want more detailed information about the total storage space or the total bandwidth that they have used up, for a particular month. As mentioned above, there are tools which have specifically been designed to make the monitoring of SaaS related services easier and businesses should use these tools if they want to monitor in detail both their storage capacity usage and their bandwidth capacity usage.
9.3
Contracts and agreements such as licensing
When dealing with SaaS software services, licensing agreements (as in the traditional sense) do not really exist. Instead, software vendors provide different subscription levels and types which businesses can then choose from accordingly, based on how many users, need to access a single instance of a software service. This differs from the way in which businesses purchase traditional software applications. When a business purchases a traditional on-premises software application, they need to buy licenses depending on how many instances of a particular software application that they are going to run. However with SaaS, things are done differently and in most cases, there are no licensing agreements. SaaS service providers will usually determine in their terms and conditions for each one their subscription types, how many users will be able to access a single instance of each one of their software services. For example a SaaS service provider may only allow five users to access a single instance of their software service
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when a particular subscription type is selected, while they may allow up to ten users, when another subscription type is selected. Similar to licensing agreements for traditional software applications, subscription agreements are negotiable. For example if a business needed twenty different employees to be able to access a single instance of a software service but no contract for this existed, then a business could negotiate one with their SaaS service provider. Also, the more individuals that a business has, who need to all access the same software service, the cheaper per „head‟ their SaaS subscription rate should be. Other contract-related issues that businesses need to deal with include the control and security of their data as well as clauses which allow them to easily end their relationship with their SaaS service provider if necessary. For example, businesses should ensure that their SaaS service provider will keep their data secure and will allow them to easily leave their service provider with all of their data and without having to pay any additional cost (as long as they have met their minimum contract terms).
9.4
Organizational aspects – such as the Roles & Responsibilities that people have in a SaaS environment
The roles and responsibilities that people have in a SaaS-based environment are not that much different from the roles and responsibilities that people will have in other software-based environments. However, it is true that in most cases, businesses can reduce their workforce and the number of machines that they have running internally when SaaS is implemented. One of the major advantages of SaaS is that employees can access their software services and data related to these software services from any machine (whether it is a desktop machine, laptop machine or even a PDA type device), as long as they have a connection to the Internet. Businesses need to define how users will access these software services and who will have access to them. Will a business use business-wide access credentials where every user can access a particular software service using the same login information, or will each individual user have their own set of login credentials? It should be noted by businesses, that using business-wide access credentials is obviously less secure than using individual access credentials, because all it takes is for one person to accidentally leak their access information and an entire business‟ SaaS software services are compromised.
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In most cases, businesses will assign individuals with their own software service access credentials. This is because not only is this more secure, but it also allows businesses to more easily monitor their employees data usage and it allows businesses to more practically assign roles to each one of their employees (by controlling what employees with different roles can actually access). Businesses can also assign different access rights to each one of their employees when each user has their own set of software service access credentials. For example some employees may only be allowed to access restricted versions of a software service, while other employees are allowed to access the full versions of these applications. This means that businesses can control which departments or employees, can see what data. SaaS also provides businesses with the option to reduce their workforce if they wish to. For example, employees who previously dealt with updating and keeping a business‟ traditional on-premises software applications secure would no longer be required. A business can also cut down on the number of servers and workstations they have running, when SaaS is implemented. This is simply because a business no longer needs to run as many application servers as they did before (as their software services are now being hosted externally). This means that a business can also save money, both in terms of hardware usage requirements and in terms of power usage requirements. The roles of employees and different workgroups that a business will have when implementing SaaS will be similar to the roles and workgroups that they previously had. For example, businesses will still have the same sales personnel, IT administrators, etc., but a business may also want to consider creating a new support group for their new SaaS-based services. Although most SaaS service providers will provide their clients with support, this support can often be labored and time consuming (simply due to the number of clients that most SaaS service providers have to deal with). By setting up their own onpremises SaaS support team a business can save a lot of time and hassle and quickly resolve common problems they may face from time to time. In the end, when SaaS is implemented, the roles and responsibilities that employees have within a business are not that much different from the roles and responsibilities that they had before. A problem that a business faces is whether they should lay off their employees who have been made redundant or whether they should move them to other more important business related activities. Depending on how much support that their SaaS service provider provides them with, a businesses may also want to consider setting up their own specialized SaaS support team (if they have the budget for it of course). SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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10 Introducing Applications on the Web The task of computing has to apply logic to inputs in order to provide a consistent and acceptable output. Programming code is set up to create a processing method that can be used and reused. In early days, the code may have been self-contained by individual machines, where one machine would provide processing for one task while another machine is used for another task. Eventually, programming code became selfcontained into files called applications. The advantage to computing was that multiple applications could be found on a single machine. Use of the application was derived by accessing the file that contains the desired programming code. The primary focus of applications in these early days was scientific research and statistical analysis. Networking allowed programming code to be shared by multiple users. To do this, the application sat on a single machine that was connected to each of the users. To access the application, the users simply needed to be connected to the server and access the file on the single machine, usually called a server. The machine that the user used to connect to the server was referred to as a dumb terminal. As technology progressed, many dumb terminals started to have more capacity and processing power so that applications could be loaded and accessed on the user's terminal. Most applications were created to provide greater office productivity, manage business sales and finances, though scientific research was still a priority. The 1980s brought computing into the home and, as a result, new markets for applications were instantly available. The introduction of General User Interfaces (GUIs) and eventually the Internet created even more markets for application development and use. Graphic Design, gaming, personal office and financial management, calendaring and email, and publishing became major interests for business and personal usage. There are two types of websites. The first type is used to simply publish and disseminate information in digital format, in the same manner that newspapers and magazines do the same thing using paper. In fact, many such publications have their issues presented in both paper and digital formats today. The second type of website is applications. The most familiar applications may be calendaring and email features. several key distinctions that define a web application. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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The first distinction is that a web application is located in the World Wide Web. Secondly, the user must have a resident application on their system to access the World Wide Web, called a browser. Web applications are portable, meaning they can be used by the same user from different computers that can access the World Wide Web through a browser. Web applications are scalable in that they can allow the usage to one user or multiple users concurrently.
The rising concept of cloud computing and specifically software-as-a-service has also created a platform for developing more web applications. Historically, the companies utilized the web as a marketing tool to reach users with information, products, and surveying. With the advent of cloud computing and Web 2.0, companies are now embracing the power and flexibility of the web to deliver software packages that used to be delivered through traditional means as desktop or server applications.
10.1 Started with the Internet The Internet essentially started on October 4, 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite orbiting Earth. At the time, the United States was considered the leader in every technology. As a result of Sputnik, the United States had to regain their supremacy. In February 1958, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was created. Through ARPA, the Information Processing Technology Office (IPTO) was created to continue research started by the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) program. SAGE had already networked the country's radar systems. The next step of the IPTO was to fulfill the vision of its new head, J. C. R. Lichleder, to create a universal network solution. Lichleder believed that such a network would be a potentially unifying human revolution. October 29, 1969 brought the first interconnectivity between two nodes, specifically University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) and SRI International. This interconnection eventually became known as ARPAnet. ARPAnet used packet switching as its primary method for communicating data. Before this, such communication was done through circuit switching where a dedicated circuit was tied up for the duration of the communication and that communication was only possible between two dedicated parties, or nodes. Old telephone systems used to be entirely circuit-based. Packet switching allows data to be separated in chunks of information, called packets. Each packet is labeled with an identifier and destination address and then routed through a shared network. When packets arrive at the desired destination, they are recompiled into its original form. The use of packet switching allows a single network to support multiple nodes concurrently. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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The concept of a universal network fulfilled by ARPAnet also found other solutions by other countries. Eventually, ARPAnet architects realized the continued success would require communication with these network solutions. Like human languages are different and require translations from one to another, some form of translation method was needed in order to communicate with these networks. Some form of agreement was required. Up to this time, ARPAnet was already using Network Control Program (NCP) to establish a reliable, flow-controlled communication link between two nodes. NCP provided the physical data link, and the network layers of a protocol stack allowing two nodes with a different interface and different communication specifications to connect successfully. To communicate between multiple networks, a new suite of protocols were required. On January 1, 1983, ARPAnet replaced NCP with TCP/IP. Since ARPAnet was being managed by the U.S. Defense Department, its use was highly restrictive. In the early 1980s, the U.S. National Science Foundation funded the creation of an extension to ARPAnet called the Computer Science Network, or CSNET. It had three primary components: a Phonenet mail system, a name server and a TCP/IP-over-X.25 tunnel. The purpose of CSNET was to link academic Computer Science departments together. In 1985, the National Science Foundation decided to fund the creation of five new supercomputer centers. The connection between these five centers became known as NSFNET. The purpose of NSFNET was to open access to all academic researchers, not just computer science. NSFNET eventually became the backbone for the Internet. Though the world was already becoming digitally connected in the 1970s, the introduction of TCP/IP made such connections easier to accomplish and the creation of NSFNET provided universal motive. One hundred different networks were connected by 1985. By 1987, the number of networks grew to two hundred networks. In 1989, over five hundred networks were connected using TCP-IP established by ARPAnet. By 1990, 2,218 networks were connected together according to the Defense Data Net Network Information Centre (DDN NIC). These interconnections of networks became what have been commonly referred to as the Internet. Commercial interest in the Internet began in 1988 when the US Federal Networking Council approved the connection of NSFNET to the MCI Mail system. Other commercial electronic email systems were soon connected and by the end of 1989, three commercial Internet service providers were created: UUNET, PSINET, and CERFNET. The promise for the Internet's continued presence in our modern age came August 19, 1991 when the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) announced its World Wide Web project; a project aimed at facilitating sharing information among researchers using the concept of hyper texting. Whatever their SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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intention, the World Wide Web was the primary driver of Internet usage, driving the number of connected networks from a little more than 2000 networks in 1990 to over 50,000 networks by the end of the millennium.
10.2
History of World Wide Web The emergence of the Internet provided the hardware and protocols necessary for multiple users, systems, and networks to bridge the mass physical distances of a geographical planet. Such a solution allowed two people separated by thousands of miles to communicate as if they were enjoying tea in an evening parlor. The services available to Internet users were still restrictive to today's standards. They included: E-mail provided an easy, inexpensive way to communicate between Internet users. Telnet allowed users to connect into remote systems. FTP provided a method to transfer almost every file type from one Internetconnected computer to another. Usenet managed a distributed bulletin board for news and discussion groups for thousands of topics. The use of the Internet exploded with the introduction of hyper texting from CERN's World Wide Web project in 1991. Hypertext refers a method of dynamically organizing information through links and connections called hyperlinks. Traditional text required the use of content tables, indexes, and page references to connect various topics together. Using hyperlinks, the user simply clicks on the reference and they are transferred to a new page of information; if they “hover” over the hyperlink they can have various actions occur including word definitions, the running of video clips, or even the opening of applications. Hyper texting is useless without some type of mechanism to the hyperlinks. This mechanism is fulfilled by a Web browser where the user can view web pages that contain any variety of text, images, videos, and other multimedia features. CERN introduced the World Wide Web to the public and indicated that access to the Web was free. Essentially, they created the first website as we understand the term today. As new websites were created, new standards were rapidly required to ensure consistent and reliable use of the project. The international standards for domain names and the HTML language were formed. The World Wide Web is really the brainchild of an English scientist, Sir Tim BernersLee. In the early 1980s, Sir Berners-Lee built ENQUIRE, a database of information with bidirectional hyperlinks and the ability to directly edit content from the server. In 1989, he wrote a proposal referencing ENQUIRE and describing an information SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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management system that was much more elaborate than seen before. A more formal proposal was published on November 12, 1990 to build a “hypertext project” called “Worldwide Web” or “W3.” The project was to create a web of nodes that stored data. The data would be viewed in “hypertext pages” by line-mode or full screen browsers on the computer network. The breakthrough obtained by Berners-Lee was the marriage of hypertext and the Internet. The World Wide Web project was not the first hypertext system available at the time but it had some significant differences that set it apart from the rest. Berners-Lee developed a system of unique identifiers for resources on the Web and elsewhere called the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). While other hypertext systems required bidirectional links, the Web required only unidirectional links. Such a requirement allows someone to link to a specific resource with any action needed by the owner of that resource. As a result, the difficulty of implementing additional web servers and browsers were greatly reduced. Additionally, the World Wide Web was non-proprietary which allowed servers and clients to be developed independently without any licensing restrictions. Early use of the World Wide Web consisted of pure text documents hyperlinked to each other. The introduction of the Mosaic web browser brought a new revolution to Web usage. Mosaic was a result of the efforts by the National Centre for Supercomputing Applications as led by Marc Andreessen. Mosaic introduced a graphical user interface to the environment allowing web pages to contain both text and images. Such a concept exploded the use of the World Wide Web making it the most popular Internet protocol. By October 1994, Tim Berners-Lee founded the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the European Commission.
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10.3
Evolution of the Web Applications The inclusion of graphics in the Mosaic web browser led to pages that were built and acted like a magazine. In 1995, Netscape introduced JavaScript which provided clientside scripting to add more dynamic features to simple web pages. The next year, Macromedia made available a vector animation player called Flash which allowed programmers to embed animations on web pages. The breakthrough of JavaScript and Flash was the use of a scripting language that allowed interactions at the client without the need for communication with the server. The concept of “web application” came about in 1999 with the Servlet Specification. By this time, JavaScript and XML were already in use as web scripting languages. Web applications at the start simply used the Internet as a tool to communicate with the server. The idea of “web applications” came about during the height of the dot.com rush where companies used the Internet to quickly obtain market share, or mind share, for products and services. With the crash of the dot.com bubble, the promise of the Internet was tainted and needed a fresh start. In 2004, Web 2.0 was introduced. Its introduction was the start of using the web as a platform, enhancing the creativity, communications, security, collaboration, and functionality of the web. Web 2.0 was not a new version of the World Wide Web, just a different perspective on the part of software developers and end-users for the usage of the web. The underlying paradigm of Web 2.0 was to utilize the unique features of the Internet to build applications and services. It promoted innovation and collaboration by assembling features from independently distributed developers, creating an “open source” for web features. The explanation of Web 2.0 began with a summary by Tim O'Reilly and John Battelle. Given at the first Web 2.0 conference sponsored by the O'Reilly Media Group, a hierarchy of web applications was also described: Level 3 web applications exist only on the Internet. Their effectiveness is based on the increased interactions of human through the applications. Examples of popular level 3 applications are eBay, Craiglist, Wikipedia, Skype, and AdSense. Level 2 applications can operate when offline but work better when connected to the Internet. Flickr is a level 2 application and its benefits stem from the shared photo-database and community-generated tag database available through the web. Level 1 applications operate offline and gain features when online. One of the most popular applications at this level is iTunes where users can listen and categorize their music on their computers, and can go online to purchase music, games, and books. Level 0 works equally as well online as well as offline. MapQuest and Yahoo! SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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Local are examples of Level 0 applications. Communication applications like email, instant-messaging clients, and telephony products are considered non-web applications in that they may utilize the Internet, but not the World Wide Web.
Building on the interactive facilities of the web, users could do more than retrieve information within Web 2.0. Now software applications could be run entirely through a browser and users could own and control data on the website instead of simply using the data. The growth of a web application requires the participation of its user base to succeed. This was a simple matter since Web 2.0 applications can provide a richer experience with dynamic content, metadata, standards, and scalability. Users find more freedom with Web 2.0 applications. One of the markets greatly impacted by the Web 2.0 concept is social networking websites like YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook. 2005 brought the next major milestone for web application development when the term Ajax was officially coined to describe a group of interrelated web development techniques. These techniques opened the possibility of developing websites that can mimic the features of traditional desktop applications such as word processing, spreadsheets, and slide-show presentations. The particular advantage of Ajax is the ability for web applications to retrieve data from the server asynchronously without interfering with the display and behavior of the existing page. The technology for developing web applications and the web itself is still relatively young. The possibilities for future developments are endless. Cloud computing has provided the motivation for many companies to expose the possibilities available to them by developing web applications.
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11 Expanding on Web 2.0 The introduction of Web 2.0 was a breakthrough milestone for Internet use and web applications. The concept of Web 2.0 is naturally fluid because it is not some replacement of a technology, software, or tangible items, but rather a new method of viewing the resources of the web. As a result, some attempts at defining Web 2.0 have been difficult to pin down as a solid tool for explaining the concept. The problem exists in that with the concept of Web 2.0, came an explosion of user features that were not known before, some Web 2.0 and some not. The revolution could be viewed analogously to what may have happened when Columbus found the New World, therefore changing the world view of the earth from flat to round. The mere discovery of the New World permanently changed the economy, political, and social context of the world. But for a few years after Columbus announced his discovery, many did not know what to do with the discovery. The introduction of Web 2.0 has a similar problem in that many are still attempting to identify what is really possible. Ultimately, Web 2.0 is a grouping of principles and practices that can be found in place around a core purpose, namely utilizing the web as a platform. Inside this core purpose is several competencies that make up the Web 2.0 concept, including: Cost-effective scalability by creating services, not packaged software. Data sources that are unique and difficult to recreate, but become richer as more people use them. Users as trusted co-developers. Harnessing the collective intelligence of the sites‟ participants. Leveraging customer self-service. The creation of software that is not limited by a single device. The creation of user interfaces, development models, and business models that are lightweight and easily manageable. The idea of treating the web as a platform existed before Web 2.0; in fact it was the battle cry for Netscape. The strategy of Netscape was to use their web browser as a springboard to control web standards over content and applications as well as providing a number of costly server products. The idea was to replace the desktop environment controlled by Microsoft through its Windows operating system with the “webtop” provided by the browser provided by Netscape. Unfortunately, the web browser and web servers simply became commodities. The true value of a web platform was realized as services delivered over the web, such as realized by a competing company SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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Google. Unlike Netscape, Google did not have a desktop application, but a native web application. Instead of selling server components, Google offered services that were not sold or packaged as commodities. Ultimately, Google success is derived not by owning any data, but by managing the data provided by its customers and is a prime example of one of the key principles of Web 2.0 – the value of software is proportional to the scale and dynamics of the data that it manages. In the new era of web applications brought on by Web 2.0, the need for greater data management has become a critical component. DoubleClick has a great competency for data management and was a pioneer in providing web services to its customers. However, its business model focused on publication, not participation. The company felt that the advertisers control web content and not the customers; it also considered that the size of the website was a major determiner of success. However, their efforts were ultimately found to be restrictive and other companies like Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google AdSense used the Web 2.0 concept to break open those limitations. The key was the exploitation of the “long tail.” Referenced by Chris Anderson, the long tail speaks to the power of a collection of small sites that make up the bulk of web content. The idea behind the long tail is to leverage customer selfservice and data management to reach out to the entire web, the edges of the web as well as the centre, to the long tail and not just the head on web content. The final principle behind the transformation of the web as a platform is that the service automatically gets better as more people start using it. The driver of this principle is the creation of an “architecture of participation” where each web user brings to the table their own resources for use by other users. Some users may participate more than others, while others have contributions that have greater value than their neighbors. These facts don't matter because the participants are the final decision makers on participation and contribution. As a result the application becomes a richer field of possibilities than traditional applications that are controlled and managed through the limited imagination of its developers. Websites that are designed within the concept of Web 2.0 typically include several features or techniques that set them apart. Andrew McAfee, Associate Professor of the Harvard Business School and author of Enterprise 2.0: the Dawn of Emergent Collaboration, used the acronym SLATES to refer to most of these: SEARCH: finding information easily using keywords. LINKS: provision of guides to the most important pieces of information. The best pages would be the ones most frequently visited. AUTHORING: shifting the creation of content from the few to the many, allowing a single work to become a series of interlinked work that is constantly being updated. Wikis and blogs are just two examples of Web 2.0 implementations that changed authorship rules. TAGS: the creation of simple, one-word descriptions to assist in searching and SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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the categorization of content. EXTENSIONS: the use of algorithms to match patterns or automate redundant work. SIGNALS: Notification to users of any changes to content. Usually done through RSS (Real Simple Syndication) technology which sends an email to the user.
11.1 Harness the Collective Intelligence of the Community The survival of most major websites that existed before Web 2.0 depended on reinvention to exploit the intelligence of their collective users. At the centre of this effort were hyper linking and a need to control. The unique driver of the World Wide Web by Berners-Lee was the use of hyperlinks, a method of connecting two bits of information directly without the use of indexing or external referencing. As new content and sites are added, there is also a need for users to discover the content and link to it. Like a living organism, associations created by hyperlinks become stronger through repetition and intensity. The connections grow organically because of the activity of all web users. Different companies have become the models for harnessing collective intelligence. Yahoo! may be a simple directory of links, but its existence was the combined efforts of millions of web users. Google's search breakthrough used PageRank which focuses on the link structure of the web rather than interpreting the characteristics of documents as a way to obtain better search results. EBay provides a product that is highly dependent on the collective activity of all its users. The product itself grows organically in response to user activity. All the company has to do is enable an appropriate context for the user activity. The advantage of collective intelligence for establishing market share is demonstrated very well by the success of eBay. The critical mass of buyers and sellers on eBay make the introduction of any other provider of similar services very difficult. There are several Internet companies that sell almost any form of media found, such as books, CDs, and movies, but Amazon is clearly a leader in the market. The reason for their leadership is their focus for engaging the user. Nearly every page has an invitation for the user to participate in reviewing, collecting, and providing better search results. Collaboration and trust is probably demonstrated best with the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia. An article in this website can be added to by any web user and edited by any other. Wikipedia has always been an experiment in the dictum, “with enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow, attributed to the open SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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source advocate Eric S Raymond. Taxonomy is the science of classification; in computers, it refers to classifying information. Folksonomy goes beyond taxonomy to establish and manage collaboratively created tags attached to websites. Flickr and del.icio.us are two pioneers of the folksonomy concepts. Tagging is based on the associations that are natural since they are created by the user, instead of a preset grouping of keywords created by the programmer. Cloudmark utilize the decisions of email users to determine what is considered spam and what is not. Such collaboration has allowed this spam filtering product to outperform other systems that rely on analysis of the messages to make the decision.
Collective intelligence is apparent in the success of many of the prominent Internet companies today simply because most did not advertise their products – their popularity was the result of “viral marketing” where recommendations were made from one user to the next. Additionally, much of the infrastructure of the web is a product of collective intelligence using the peer-production methods of open source. Over 100,000 open source software products can be found on the web and are listed on SourceForge.net. Any product relying on Linux, Apache, MySql, Perl, PHP, or Python could be a product of collective intelligence. For enterprises looking for the advantages of the web, the exploitation of collective intelligence is a highly prized motivator, whether the intelligence they are seeking to tap into is their internal personnel, suppliers, partners, or their customers. Many companies are already using the web to obtain invaluable information from several communities seeking market advantage. Amazon.com, which is a pioneer in cloud computing technologies, has been able to leverage the collective intelligence of their users and publishers. Their ability to exploit the knowledge found within the communities they work with has made them a key resource in the market to the point where they have added their own identification method for books and media.
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11.2
The Advancement of Blogging In the early years of the World Wide Web, web pages were static: that is, they were created once and were typically not updated for long periods of time. One of the prominent features of Web 2.0 is the creation of dynamic web pages; the ability to generate content without limits. The most common application is the weblog, or blog, which turned personal home pages into personal diaries and daily opinion columns. More importantly, blogging drives “an entirely different delivery, advertising and value chain” as noted by the distinguished computer programmer Rich Skrenta. At the centre of the blogging feature is the technology Really Simple Syndication (RSS). This technology allows a user to not just link to a web page but subscribe to it so that any time the web page changes, the user is notified of the change. Many refer this as “live web.” The importance of blogging is not the dynamics of the web page, but the links themselves. A link to a weblog is a point to a constantly changing page with permanent links available for individual entries. An RSS feed allows these links to exist with notifications made when the page the link points to is changed and as such, the feed becomes a stronger link than individual bookmarks originally found on the Internet. Because of the RSS technology, viewing web pages is not restricted to web browsers only. Desktop clients are available as well as programs on portable devices which deliver RSS notifications to the users. Personal diaries and opinion columns are not the only sites that utilize RSS: any data that is constantly changing can use the technology, such as stock quotes, weather information, news headlines, and photos. RSS is not a new technology, but Web 2.0 has built on the concept to deliver on its promise. Another significant contribution from blogging is the permanent link, or permalink. The traditional Usenet used NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) which allowed articles to be read, posted, and transferred among multiple servers. The benefits of this protocol allowed quick communication to multiple sources. Newsreaders became available to users so that they can view these articles on their desktop. Through permalinks and RSS, the benefits of NNTP are transferable to the web protocol, HTTP, creating a new equivalent of Usenet, commonly referred to as the “blogosphere.” The technology allows users to subscribe to other user‟s websites, link to individual comments on a page, use “trackbacks” to links to the page by other users, and respond to those other links. Thus the creation of two-way links within the Internet. There are two methods that these links are managed. The first method is to require acknowledgment of the return link as found in many social networking systems like Friendster, Orkut, and LinkedIn. The second method allows notification, but not necessarily approval of the return link as found in use by Flickr. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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Analogously if collective intelligence is considered the growth of a global brain, the blogosphere is the constant mental effort of the forebrain, the conscious voice of the global body. As the consciousness of man is a powerful force to the perception of daily life, the blogosphere is a powerful force for global life. Search engines use link structures to predict useful pages; bloggers establishing links have an impact on shaping results within search engines. Through the two-way linkages promoted by the blogging community, individuals essentially “amplify” their visibility and power within the blogosphere. Where PageRank analyses the value of an individual document, the collectiveness of the blogosphere creates the value of thought. Essentially blogging is another filter to harness collective intelligence, creating a condition that American journalist, James Suriowecki, calls the “wisdom of crowds.” The world of blogging has created a new competition – value is no longer decided by a few people, but by a collection of users. For enterprises, blogging technologies provide a mechanism for immediate interaction between communities. Specifically in instances where information from the enterprise needs to be pushed out into interested parties, subscriptions to relevant blogs sponsored by the enterprise can contain valuable information to those parties. This distribution can provide real-time value in relaying any level of data from any sector within the company. The feedback capabilities of a blog also open immediate reaction to any number of topics providing a solid communication path for doing business.
11.3
A New Central Intelligence The 20th century brought out the importance of information and the data that supported it. The more information available provided the opportunity for better analysis, better decision making, and greater idea of impact and value. Because of its importance, the value of a business or government entity was often attributed to amount of information “owned” by the entity. This power of information has not disseminated with the new century. Every major Internet application has proven the value of information. Each application is backed with a database managing the information, whether talking about Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, eBay, Mapquest, Napster, iTunes, or similar products. Database management is a core competency required for Web 2.0 companies. Ownership of information on the Internet can led to market control. The government initially granted Network Solutions control over the registry of domain names. This grant became a huge moneymaker for the company. MapQuest has the market on web maps since 1995, but their data originally came from NavTeq, TeleAtlas, and Digital Globe. But by licensing these data sources, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Google have been SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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able to take a bite out of MapQuest's share of the market. Sometimes, the ownership of the data isn't as important as how the data is presented. Amazon's original database was sourced by R.R. Bowker, an ISBN registry provider, who was sharing the same data with competitors, like Barnesandnoble.com. Amazon, however, enhanced the data by adding data supplied by publishers and users. After over a decade's effort, Amazon is now the go-to provider of information about books and media rather than Bowker, so much so, that they have introduced their own identifier, the ASIN. Information is so important and can be found in various sources, some web applications have been created to simply compile data from multiple sources into a single integrated tool. These applications are referred to as “mashups.” Mashups can assist in switching market share from one presenter to another presenter as in the case of Google and MapQuest. Google's software model is lightweight which allows it to be easily linked to other applications, such as housingmaps.com. This site combines Google Maps with Craiglist apartment rental and home purchase listing to create a better housing search tool. Using MapQuest to do the same thing is more complex, allowing Google to gain greater presence on the web. Also like the situation with Amazon and Bowker, the presenter of the data may gain a greater market presence than the source of the data itself. Still, the value of owning certain classes of core data such as location, identity, calendaring, product identifiers, and namespaces is clearly understood and object of competition. The competition for owning specific data can be a costly endeavor. Of course, some data, like maps, requires significant investment in simply obtaining the data. However like Amazon, information on books and media can be obtained by collecting and managing data from their user base. The winner of the competition for data is the product that reaches critical mass because of the contributions of their user base and turning that data into a demanded service. The rise of cloud computing allows companies to apply the investments that would normally be earmarked for technology maintenance and improvement to the core of the business: competitive knowledge in the industry the business resides.
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11.4
Obtaining Dynamic Continuous Improvement The advent of Web 2.0 brings the need to provide services instead of products. With every company already mentioned that has a significant Internet presence, the growth of their product is considerably dependent on the efforts of the users of that product. The growth of traditional software products is dependent on the imagination and efforts of the developers, not the users. Because web applications rely on user contribution, the offering provided these companies must transcend from product into a service for their users. This requirement forces some fundamental changes to the business model of Internet companies. The first change is the requirement for making operations a core competency. Traditionally, software companies had to have a competency in product development. Though this is important, product development must be equally managed with expertise in daily operations. The change is so prominent that there is a belief that software will cease to perform if it is not maintained daily. This belief is backed by processes of many companies who have a significant Web presence, like Google which has to crawl the web and update indexes, filtering out spam and other undesired influences, and respond appropriately to user queries in the millions. How these businesses manage their processes are their fundamental advantage in the market place. Another change brought on by the Web 2.0 model is the treatment of users as codevelopers. As products become services and growth determined by user participation, most will find themselves in “perpetual beta.” Most products on the web are being openly developed while users are using the product: the users are even becoming key developers themselves. Monitoring of user activity in real time allow companies to identify what features are being used and how those features are being used. Most web developers are deploying new features every day. If users start immediately using the feature, the new feature is transferred throughout the application; if the feature is not used, it is removed. Companies like Microsoft which provide software updates every two to three years will have difficulty competing against companies who provide updates every day. The advantages to these changes provided by Web 2.0 is the opportunity to provide true continuous improvement to the products and services found on the web. Whether the improvement is in response to providing greater functionality or in additional participation from the user base doesn't matter – it is still improvement of the overall system. Though they may still exist, the question by some whether a particular improvement can be considered to hold any quality also doesn't matter, since the value and quality of the improvement is determined by the participation of the user. All a SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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company has to be concerned with is implementing and enforcing process and procedures that establish the controls required by any regulatory agencies, including those focused on quality management. However, most of these regulations fully support the principles of open source innovation. The speed and dynamics of continuous improvement is further accelerated when companies start relying on the web for services other than the simple distribution of web applications. Simply developing and maintaining web applications in methods that have traditionally been seen supporting legacy applications, a few advantages are obtained. However, by fully exploiting the technologies and services of cloud computing, the advantages are exponentially multiplied in favor of the enterprise. A small business can obtain high shares of the market simply by applying diligent attention to the web technologies that they utilize. They have an advantage over the big enterprises of the industry; they are not encumbered by the traditional viewpoint. The apt metaphor here is the comparison of turning a large ship in the ocean to the turning of a rowboat. The rowboat will always win.
11.5 Creating Programming Models that are Lightweight The success of web development is dependent on simplicity; using services, protocols, and data that are easily deployable and interconnected. The use of RSS, Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), and Representational State Transfer (REST) are just some of the technologies that have been promoted by the concept of Web 2.0. Several points are validated in the need for simplicity. Loosely coupled systems can only be reached through the support of lightweight programming models. Corporate-sponsored web services are designed to have systems tightly coupled to manage security, confidentiality, reliability, and availability. In many cases, these designs establish controls over the entire system creating a number of complexities to maintain control while providing access that is dynamically growing. While this level of control may be necessary in many cases, establishing controls in the lower levels of a system can provide greater flexibility and adaptability to an application. Paradigms around traditional software development have to change in this era of web services. Most development was concerned with determining and controlling what the user can and cannot do. However, the power of the web provides a vehicle in which development simply needs to concentrate on getting the data into the hands of the user and providing an environment for them to do whatever they wish to do. The ability to syndicate data outwards is now the focus of most web applications and the idea is a fundamental value to the Internet itself. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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The systems found on the web and within web applications have a common theme: there is very little in place to prevent re-usability. Much of the construction of these products is in fact open source. When the construction is not open source, there is very little in intellectual property to warrant significant protection from re-use. From the beginnings of the World Wide Web, the ability to re-use each other‟s creations has been a key growth advantage: from the “View Source” option in most browsers, to RSS feeds that allow users to view information they want to see when they want to see it without any protection from the information provider. Success in the web is typically obtained by providing the greatest adaptability of the services by the user. Instead of seeing the protection phrase “all rights reserved,” the future of web services will provide more control towards the user with the accompanying phrase “some rights reserved.” The rise of Web 2.0 is providing another interesting change to business: finding innovation within the assembly of the product instead of the development of the product. Traditionally, the business model of most companies would be to create a product prototype and create same marketing around the prototype to encourage a revenue stream. The focus on innovation is found within development. Now that development is closer to the customer through open source technologies, innovation is being found in the assembly of a product instead of the development. The change is another reason why companies are being forced to change their business models in the new era of web applications.
11.6 No Longer Bound to a Single Customer For years, business and personal computer owners have been bound to the computer and operating systems they have selected to fulfill their computer needs. For home users, the choice between Windows and Apple has been an interesting feat with most users choosing Windows simply because of the number of third-party products available for the system. Businesses have had the same choice for their desktop operations, but clearly more choices for their server selections. The inclusion of Web 2.0 as a standard for creating web applications is creating a new paradigm in choices for computer ad operating system; simply put, the operations of the application is no longer bound to the operating system as the platform but the web as the platform. To be a web application naturally insinuates that there are two computer devices in operation: the device hosting the application and the device using the application through a browser. However similar to the times when applications were found on servers and operated through dumb terminals, using the web as a platform allows the ability to allowing the application to be utilized on multiple devices which have a browser. In today's technology, those devices are no longer restricted to the desktop SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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and laptops, but include PDAs, cell phones, gaming consoles, and other Internet ready devices. The web allows the user to no longer be bound to a single operating system or for the application to a single device. The greatest innovator for breaking the bounds is Apple with the introduction of iTunes. The relationship between the handheld device, iPod, the personal computer and the growing web database shows what‟s possible when the web platform is used to operate across multiple devices as well as the importance of the personal computer in the future. The personal computer used by the workhorse, but for iTunes it is simply a cache and control station for music, books, and video. The workhorse is the handheld device and, of course, the iTunes application. In 2009, Netflix will provide another great innovation. Netflix started as an online renter of movies that could be sent to a homeowner's location through the mail. Eventually, they provided a way for users to instantly view a movie on a personal computer. Their newest innovation is to enable the instant viewing of a movie directly onto a television without the need of a personal computer; though a special device that can connect to the Internet is required. ITunes and Netflix are just a couple of the innovative technologies that have been enabled by the Web 2.0 revolution; though they are not web applications, they are taking full advantage of the web platform.
11.7 Striving for a Better Experience Since the commercialization of the Internet began, the technology of the web has grown primarily to provide a better, richer, experience to the user. Active content, such as applets, were available as early as 1992 with the introduction of the Viola browser. In 1995, Java was introduced to provide the framework for delivering these applets. Soon after, JavaScript and DHTML provided lightweight programming ability on the client side. However, the web didn't produce any full scale web applications until Google introduced Gmail and Google Maps. The technologies used by Google to deliver these applications were coined AJAX by Jesse James Garrett of the web design firm Adaptive Path. Now the technologies of AJAX are being used to deliver more web applications to the user. But the wall that prevented web applications from being delivered wasn't broken down simply by the AJAX technologies. Many of the capabilities being found in web applications have been around for many years. However, the struggle between Microsoft and Netscape over web standards kept many of the capabilities from being fully realized. The dot.com bubble scared many companies and users from trusting the benefits of the web, but also showed the advantage of managing growth within the web platform. But with new technologies, greater control on the standards, and a new SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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willingness to explore what's possible, the promise of applications built to operate on the web platform is finally being realized with richer, more robust applications. The current focus is to provide a richer experience to the user while providing novel, yet practical, applications to market. Web applications may be as simple and small as managing address book contacts to providing a word processor that allows for wiki-like collaborative editing to enterprise scale applications like CRM. Web 2.0 provides an opportunity for companies to provide products that are used by their customers, as well as developed and marketed by their customers.
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12 Distinguishing Web Applications The Servlet Specification version 2.2 first introduced the concept of a web application, or webapp. The definition from this document of a web application is “a collection of servlets, html pages, classes, and other resources that can be bundled and run on multiple containers from multiple users. A web application is rooted at a specific path within a web server.” Though this may be the technical definition of a web application, the more practical definition is provided by Hagan Rivers, a pioneer in Web Application Design and a partner at Two Rivers Consulting: “web-based applications are web sites with interactivity – the user is interacting...a web application is everything a website is, and more.” Most people would suspect that web applications can only be found within the confines of a web browser and this is only partially true. Web applications do work within the framework of web browser, but do not necessarily require opening a web browser before accessing the application. A more truthful statement is that a web application uses the web as its platform, as opposed to a traditional desktop application that uses the operating system as the platform. Applications found within the web platform can be either standalone or browseroriented. Standalone applications use the web as a platform but do not require a browser to access the application. These applications typically are very simple and have all the required components needed to perform. Most require some level of communication with the web to provide or extract information from the platform and are essentially simple interfaces for providing information. Some require a constant connection to the Internet when being run. The most basic web applications are interview applications, hub and spoke applications, or hybrids of both. Interview type applications request information from the participating user which is then processed and returned as some desired output to the user. Hub and spoke applications provide the user with a hierarchy of the product. The core web page, the hub, has a list from which the user is to choose a function. The choice then goes to an area of the application for the user to attach to; the design similar to the hub and spokes of a wheel. Still some applications are a combination of both interview and hub and spoke designs. All these designs require the interaction of the user to have the application perform.
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But as the more technical definition of a web application hints at, the concept of application utilizing the web platform is a collection of resources that are designed to provide a definitive experience and result for the user. In many cases, these resources are not inherent to the application itself but are borrowed from other locations within the web. These resources are typically sharable between multiple applications, as they may range from anything like protocols, applets, APIs, or even other web applications or the results of other web applications. Some web applications are essentially a combination of two of more other applications and are commonly referred to as a “mashup.”
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13 Introduction Web Application Framework When choosing to develop a web application, the first step that an enterprise must take is choosing an appropriate web application framework. Used to create and manage web applications, a framework for web applications includes all the necessary components required to accomplish any development task. Because all the components already exist inside the framework, there is no need to procure any additional tools for developing and maintaining the application. The framework can include designing and launching web pages as well as making available any number of applications to provide web services to their customers. The software library is probably the key distinction of the web application framework. Software libraries are central repository for every type of software utilized in the creation and ongoing function of web services that can exist within the framework. These software entries may provide security to web pages, help manage the creation and maintenance of databases and provide mapping of pages. Several features are inherent in a web application framework. Security is one of the most important features for a framework to resolve any concern about the confidentiality and reliability of the information that is used and distributed by the application. Therefore, most frameworks provide proven methods for authenticating and authorizing requests, through the server providing the appropriate restrictions based on the user and the activity which the user is undertaking. Different frameworks provide different methods for securing access to data and web pages. For applications found within a cloud computing environment, the service provider of the web platform may restrict the framework used to build the application so that the controls of security are consistent between the platform and the application. Nearly all applications used on the web today have a database which needs to be connected to. In many cases, an application may need to access more than one database to fulfill their computing purpose. Like applications, databases may be found in a variety of capacities some of which may require a translation function to read and write data to the database. Fortunately, most frameworks create a unifying API which is attached to a database backend. Such an API allows applications and databases to work together without additional code changes. How a framework manages the data found on the database is a key decision maker for choosing the right framework. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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The use of resources on the web focuses the user or application to utilize specific features of the web. One of the most prevalent features is the URL. Unfortunately, most URLs are a very complex set of alphanumerical characters and symbols. Web application frameworks contain a mechanism of interpreting the URLs in the form of a mapping facility. The purpose of most mapping facilities is to translate complex URLs into easier ones that can be recognized by the application engine. Such a simplification makes the URLs easier to read and to provide search engines with better information around the structural mapping of the site. Many of the applications created on the web contain a static part composed in HTML and a dynamic part which is code that generates HTML. The code controlling the dynamic part is usually based on variables in a template. The web application framework typically houses a number of templates that can be used to ensure that information is collected and displayed in a consistent fashion. For instance, a retail store has 100 new products in for their spring sale. This influx of new products requires that 100 new pages of text be generated. This can be done by hand with much effort or by using a template within the framework, the product page simply will need to be connected to a database with the product information and the product page is automatically generated when the consumer requests to see the product information. Every application developer has to be concerned with the performance of the application and the development of web applications is no different. Most frameworks handle the caching of web documents to improve bandwidth, server load, and lags between page changes. A cache stores copies of documents passing through it, allowing future requests for the same document to be pulled from the cache under the right conditions rather than being pulled from the original source location. Some frameworks not only cache documents for have mechanisms in place to bypass some stages of a page's preparation when dealing with template interpretation or access to the database. Configuration of applications is another concern for most development projects. Therefore, the web application framework must handle some level of configuration to the application. Some frameworks actually handle such requirements by minimizing the amount of configuration necessary to get the job done. For example, Java frameworks use “hibernate” to generate a database scheme by creating business objects instead.
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14 A New Success for Web Applications in AJAX Of all the features found in web application frameworks, one feature in particular is growing in popularity and use. Ajax is itself a framework of interconnected web development techniques that are intended to create interactive web applications. For the most part, web applications tend to be slow and tedious because every request made by the application must contact the server and the server has to think about what needs to be sent back to the application. Ajax is a method of web programming that greatly reduces the processing time that these requests take. An acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, Ajax attempts to merge data, content, and design into a collective and seamless unit. The result is nearly instant reaction to customer requests. Sometimes Ajax is referred to as a technology, but it is not. Instead, it is a new paradigm for looking at existing technologies. Therefore, developers of existing applications may be able to adapt the Ajax paradigm with very little effort. Ajax is a method of developing applications for the web that combines: XHTML and CSS standards-based presentation Interaction with data using a Document Object Model (DOM) Interchange of data with XML and XSLT Asynchronous data retrieval with XMLHttpRequest The use of JavaScript to bind everything together. Since the first introduction of the Ajax paradigm, developments in the area opened some additional technologies to be used within the Ajax framework. JavaScript can be replaced with VBScript and EGL Programming Language to implement an Ajax application. Data interchange does not require XML or XSLT in some conditions. JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is often used as a format for data interchange. The Ajax engine works inside the web browser through JavaScript and the DOM. The engine handles the customer requests to the server. To do this, most information retrieved from the server sits within the engine. Subsequent requests for information are handled asynchronously between the Ajax engine and the customer and are independent of any interaction with the server. In standard web applications, the interaction is typically synchronous so that all requests must go to the server, be processed, and return back with the results. Each step is done one right after another and repeated with the next request. With Ajax, the JavaScripting found in the loaded SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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page is handling the basic tasks required by the customer. While it is handling the display changes with the customer, data is being sent back and forth to the server without any need for action from the customer.
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15 A Survey of Web Application Frameworks The following pages are intended to identify some of the major frameworks used to create web applications. Though these descriptions may provide some distinctions between the frameworks, most distinctions are found within the technical foundations of the programming languages themselves and the following descriptions are not intended to provide too much technical information about the languages themselves. Almost all of the frameworks mentioned here are general concepts to programming. Actual implementation is typically managed through defined releases by corporations and developers looking to provide structure and control to the development process and libraries. In some instances, these implementations were critical and even encouraged by the framework because of a desire to put more power into the hands of the developer.
15.1 ActionScript Originally developed by Macromedia in 2000, ActionScript is an object-oriented programming language which is typically used when interactivity is desired in flash movies found on a website. Initially designed to control 2D vector animations in Macromedia Flash, which is now Adobe Flash. Improvements to the language allow functionality used in web-based games and Internet applications with streaming media capabilities. The programming language is free form and derived from ECMAScript. The data types found within ActionScript are considered simple or “fundamental” and are used to create other data types. The basic data types include: String – a sequence of characters including letters, numbers, and symbol. Display of the string requires the enclosure of single or double quotation marks. Number – a display of a single number. Boolean – a value that is either true or false or 1 and 0 when appropriate. Object – a collection of properties. Each property requires a name and a value which represents a Flash data type. Objects can be nested inside other objects. MovieClip – symbols that play animation inside a Flash application. This data type is the only one that refers to a graphic element in ActionScript. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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Null – represents the lack of data. Undefined – Has only one value and is automatically assigned to a variable that does not have a defined value. Void – Also has only one value and is used when a function does not return a value.
15.2 ASP.NET In January 2002, Microsoft introduced ASP.NET as a web application framework for developing dynamic web sites, web applications, and web services. The framework is built on the Common Language Runtime (CLR). Programmers can use and support .NET language to write ASP.NET code. The primary characteristic of ASP.NET is its pages, officially called “web forms”. These pages are the main constructs for developing web applications. These pages contain static (S) HTML markup, and server side web and user controls where all the required static and dynamic content for a web page is placed. Microsoft recommends building applications where the presentation and content remain separate. In this way, the interface is built so that it does not disturb the programming code of the application itself. Referred to as a “code-behind” model of programming, it provides an appropriate distinction between the code and how it‟s presented. User Controls allow programmers to create reusable components in ASP.NET. A User Control maintains the same structure as a Web Form. Within the User Control, programmers can add properties, methods, and event handlers to provide proper actions when user make a request of the application. ASP.NET supports the concept of “master pages” which are template-like pages. A web application can have more than one master page. When the template is used, the resulting page is referred to as a “child page.” ASP.NET provides for state management functionality within the applications. State management handles how the application communicates with the server. The various states for an application are defined as: Application state defines a collection of user-defined variables which are set and initialized at the first loading of the application. During a user session, another collection of user-defined session variables are in place that is commonly referred to as the session state. These variables are in place as long as the user is active with the application and may automatically be destroyed when activity discontinues. There are three modes for session variables. In Process Mode are the fastest variables but cease to exist when the SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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ASP.NET process is shut down or recycled. ASPState Mode is separate from the application and therefore impacts the performance of the application negatively, but it allows the supports of multiple ASP.NET instances on the same server as well as assists in balancing the application load across multiple servers. SqlServer Mode has variables stored on database server and remains in place even when a process instance discontinues. This mode also allows for load balancing on a server cluster. Page-level state management is available through view states. Its purpose is to maintain the state of web form controls and widgets.
Despite its ability to handle most of the demands for web application processing, there is criticism about its ability to maintain features and function across different types and even versions of web browsers. For greatest benefits derived by ASP.NET applications, Microsoft encourages the use of the latest version of Internet Explorer.
15.3 ColdFusion If a programmer is looking to connect any database to dynamic web pages, they may be looking at ColdFusion as the web application framework. The framework is based on standard HTML. The advantages of ColdFusion are its ability to create ad hoc pages based on user input, database lookups, or other criteria defined by the programmer. ColdFusion is the forerunner of Microsoft ASP.NET, JavaServer Pages, or PHP. It was first introduced by Allaire in 1996 and is now the intellectual property of Adobe. Creating applications in ColdFusion is as simple as creating a static web site. However with ColdFusion, the programmers have access to functionality not available in a static web site of even traditional client/server applications. An application built in ColdFusion is a collection of pages created with HTML tags as well as server side ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML) to control the behavior of the application, integrate server technologies, and dynamically generate content. ColdFusion provides a number of inherent features: Database access is simplified Management of client and server caching Code generation for form widgets and validation PDK and FlashPaper conversion Data retrieval form common enterprise systems File indexing and searching service Administration of GUI XML parsing, querying, validation, and transformation SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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Server clustering Task scheduling File manipulation made simple Simplified web service implementation.
ColdFusion is a Java EE application, which allows the application code to interact with Java classes so that a variety of applications can be built utilizing existing Java libraries. Recent developments in ColdFusion provide native support of .NET. Developers call a .NET assembly without any recompiling or altering of the assembly.
15.4 Common Lisp Common Lisp is a framework that standardized the various iterations of Lisp. Originally published in the ANSI standard document Information Technology – Programming Language – Common Lisp, the framework serves as a general purpose, multiple paradigm language supporting procedural, functional and object-oriented programming simultaneously. Because of its diversification, Common Lisp facilitates rapid development of efficient run-time applications. The defining advantage of Common Lisp is the object-oriented programming is the toolkit, Common Lisp Object System (CLOS). The toolkit started as an add-on originally and was adopted fully as part of the ANSI standard. CLOS is a dynamic object system with radical differences from similar facilities found in C++ and Java. The toolkit allows for multiple dispatches where methods treat multiple arguments simultaneously and multiple inheritances where programming classes can inherit behaviors and features form more than one superclass. Methods, classes, and objects can be added and changed appropriately during runtime. Common Lisp is generally referred to as a specification and not an implementation. Therefore, any implementation using Common Lisp may require additional functionality. Free Software libraries have been created to provide additional features, most notably Common-Lisp.net and the Common Lisp Open Code Project. Some of the applications using Common Lisp are the Jak and Daxter video games for Sony Playstation 2 and the low fare search engine used by Orbits, American Airlines, Continental Airlines and US Airways.
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15.5 Groovy As an alternative to Java, a programmer can use the object-oriented programming language called Groovy. It is dynamic with features similar to other languages like Python, Ruby, Perl, and Smalltalk. Groovy was first conceived by James Strachan in August 2003, but the final release of the framework did not occur until December 2007. The framework opens levels of convenience, expedience, and agility over the exactness and extensiveness required by Java. The language was created from the ground up to utilize the existing code written in Java and Java-compatible languages. The focus of Groovy is to create an agile development framework. Groovy attempts to provide a wide range of tasks and be applicable in many ways by: Removing any extensive requirements for compilation Allowing dynamic data types to exist Removing the constraints using found in the syntax Creating compatibility with existing Java and Java-compatible applications Providing an interpreter for programming shells. For developers familiar with Java or inexperienced programmers hoping to program on the Java platform, Groovy may the framework for creating new applications with relative ease and flexibility.
15.6 Java The term “Java” refers to the combination of the Java programming language, the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), and the Java platform. The language is a high level, objectoriented programming language. The JVM executes bytecodes on a computing platform: the intention is to interpret native code for the host. The platform, Java, is essentially a set of standard libraries. There are two libraries available from Sun Microsystems, the developer of Java: The Standard Edition (SE) and the Enterprise Edition (EE). Java is probably the most well known of web languages; it popularity shown through the number of programming languages that attempt to work with or emulate. It was developed in 1995 and has derived most of its syntax from C and C++ with a simpler object model. The creation was founded on five main goals: The language has to be simple, object oriented, and familiar The language has to be robust and secure The language has to be architecturally neutral and portable The language should allow high performance execution SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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The language has to be interpreted, threaded, and dynamic.
When Java was first introduced it was used to create applets within web pages, required simple bytecode interpretation, was slow in performance, and had a few die hard programmers tooting the benefits of the framework. Today, Java is used to create a variety of web applications and web services, dynamically compiles code, provides the basis for high performance, and involves a large independent open source community. The promise of Java is the ability to write the code once and run it on any supported hardware or operating system. This flexibility is obtained by compiling the code to the Java bytecode instead of the machine code. End-users can run Java applications within a web browser or on their desktop using a Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Standardized libraries provide simple access to host specific features like graphics, threading, and networking. In truth, using bytecode provides a generous porting benefit. Unfortunately, the overhead system requirements to compile the code into something useful can result into poor performance. Several advancements in optimization have allowed the performance to increase. Typically, compilation is static, or ahead-of-time (AOT), where the code bytecode is translated directly into native code like a traditional compiler. One optimization technique is called just-in-time compilation (JIT). The technique creates native code from the Java bytecode when the code is first executed and then the code is cached for future use. As Virtual Machines became more sophisticated, dynamic recompilation was accomplished where the VM monitors the behavior of the program and recompiles and optimizes only parts of the program. The result is greater performance for the overall Java application. Most applications are built to be compatible with specified operating systems and sometimes, the hardware that it sits on. As a result, developers who desire to have their products reach a larger market, must develop different versions of the same application for each operating system. This can be a very costly effort. The Java Virtual Machine provides an environment where code can run independent of the operating system and hardware. Essentially, converting code into something usable on a platform is a two step process. The first step requires the developer to compile the source into bytecode. The second step has the JVM converting the bytecode into native code for the host platform. The step performed by the JVM used to be done through interpretation: taking each instruction and converting it when needed. JIT compilers later did the compiling when the program started up. Many attempts have been made to find a language to succeed Java. Fortunately, because of tips popularity and design, many of the principles and innovations remain SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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intact; primarily the JVM, especially since a VM approach provides security, portability, interoperability, and extensibility. Since the JVM has already solved many of the problems of traditional software design effectively, many of the successors of Java still use the JVM instead of creating their own.
15.7 JavaScript Scripting languages are programming languages that have only some control over a software application. Where programs are executed independently from other applications, scripts, are normally extensions to existing applications. The script is separate from the source code of the application, usually written in a different language, and change the behavior of the application to meet the user‟s needs. A script is typically interpreted from the source code, rather than being compiled like the application they are associated with. The more well-known of scripting languages is JavaScript. Originally a dialect of the ECMAScript standard, it is a dynamic, prototypebased language with first-class functions. JavaScript was designed to look like Java, but was actually influenced by several languages. Though JavaScript can be used to extend the functionality of any application, it is best known for its prolific use in websites.
15.8 Lua Another scripting language is Lua. Because of its characteristics to be lightweight, reflective, imperative, and functional, it has become popular with the development of video games, like World of Warcraft. The language is best known for its powerful C API. The language was created as a political and cultural resolution to Brazil's national identity in 1993. For decades, the country restricted the trade of hardware and software within its borders. The motivation was the sense that Brazil could and should sustain its own technological leadership. As a result, customized software had to be developed within the country and not obtained from third-party developers outside Brazil. Added to the geographical isolation of the country, this forced three members of the Computer Graphics Technology Group (Tecgraf) of the Pontifical University in Rio De Janeiro to create a scripting language for use in customized software being created for Brazilian companies. The languages were based on Simple Object Language (SOL) and Data-Entry Language (DEL), both also developed at Tecgraf independently of each other and Lua. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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Later versions of the language gained semantics from Scheme and as a result is very similar to JavaScript. Lua is a “multi-paradigm” language that provides a small set of features that can be applied to different problem types. It is lightweight simply because it allows flexible meta-features that can be extended when needed, rather than a feature-set specification to one paradigm. The programming allows for first-class functions, garbage collection, closures, coercion and co-routines.
15.9 Perl In 1987, a system administrator for NASA created a scripting language based in Unix to make reporting easier. The result was a high-level, dynamic, general purpose programming language called Perl. The system administrator, Larry Wall, is still involved in the development of future versions of Perl. The language borrows features from several other programming languages but is most powerful at manipulating text files. Its flexibility and adaptability has encouraged its use in graphics programming, system administration, network programming and applications requiring data access and CGI on the web. The structure for Perl is borrowed from C and is procedural in design. It takes on features from shell programming. Perl takes lists from Lisp, associative arrays from AWK, and regular expressions from sed. In essence, the language is a potpourri of several languages with its own spin on things to make it practical and supportive of the developer. This may be one of the reasons that it is commonly referred to as either the “Swiss Army Chainsaw of Programming Languages” or “The Duct Tape of the Internet.” Perl is often used to tie together systems and interfaces that are not designed to interoperate and for “data munging” which processes large amounts of data for tasks like creating reports. Many high-traffic websites use Perl in their coding, including Amazon.com, Ticketmaster, IMDb, and Craigslist.
15.10PHP Though it now has the capacity to handle command line interfaces and to be used for standalone graphical applications, PHP was originally designed in 1995 to be a scripting language for creating dynamic web pages. It is a widely used suited for web development and can be embedded within any HTML code. PHP typically runs on a web server and is used to create web pages on the fly. It can be deployed on any operating system or platform.
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The scripting language acts as a filter by taking data from a file containing text or PHP instructions and creates an output in the form of another stream of data, commonly HTML. The primary context of PHP is server-side scripting and is similar to other such scripting languages like Microsoft's ASP.NET and Sun Microsystems' JavaServer Pages. Many development platforms are attracted to PHP because of its building blocks and structure that promote rapid application development. PHP can be found on many of the most popular web sites including Facebook, Wikipedia, Yahoo!, Digg, and Tagged.
15.11Python Python is a general purpose programming language that emphasizes programmer productivity and code readability. The framework minimizes its core syntax and semantics, while providing a large and comprehensive standard library. Multiple programming paradigms are supported, namely object oriented, imperative, functional. It also provides features similar to Perl, Ruby, Scheme, and Tcl-like dynamic-type systems and automatic memory management. Python was released in 1991. One can find Python being used as a scripting language for web applications. It has seen extensive use in the information security industry. Several software products embed Python into their product as a scripting language, specifically 3D animation packages. Products like Houdini, TrueSpace, Poser, Blender, Paint Shop Pro, Civilization IV, and Eve Online all use Python. Python ships as a standard component in most Linux distributions and the Mac OS X, and NetBSD and OpenBSD. Python is even used on YouTube, and by large organizations like Google, Yahoo!, CERN, and NASA. Python strives to be a readable language with an uncluttered layout visibly. By using English keywords instead of punctuation or using whitespace indentation instead of curly braces or keywords, the language delivers on its promise.
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15.12Ruby Ruby is a general purpose object-oriented programming language with a syntax inspired by Perl and features similar to those found in Smalltalk. It originally came out of Japan in the mid-1990s. The framework supports multiple programming paradigms, the primary ones being functional, object-oriented, imperative, and reflection. The creator of Ruby, Yukihiro Matsumoto, said that language was designed for programmer productivity and fun. The primary deliverer of this promise is the fulfillment of principles for a good user interface design. Therefore, the framework attempts to put the needs of the developer before the needs of the computer. It follows the principle of least surprise (POLS); translated as the language behaves so that it creates the least amount of confusion for experienced users. This POLS philosophy is not supported by the creator.
15.13Scheme Scheme is a dialect of Lisp. Though it can be used in any number of programming paradigms it is popularly used for functional programming. It was developed in the 1970s. The framework provides the minimal number of notions as possible, relying on programming libraries. Scheme is used by a number of schools for their introductory Computer Science courses. There are relatively sparse examples where Scheme is used elsewhere.
15.14SmallTalk The 1970s brought an object-oriented reflective programming language called Smalltalk out of the famed Xerox PARC. This new language was designed for constructionist learning: an educational methodology that stands on the proposal that learning is an active problem where students actively construct mental models and theories around those models. Smalltalk has influenced the world of computer programming in four main places. It was the major inspiration behind the syntax and semantics of other programming languages. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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It introduced a model of computation known as message passing. The WIMP GUI inspired the current personal computing operating systems. In fact, the first Macintosh desktop looked like the MVC windows of Smalltalk-80. The visual programming tools used today are modeled after the Smalltalk integrated development environment.
Smalltalk laid the groundwork for the commercial success of Java, as well as providing ideas and inspiration to Python, Ruby and Perl. As such, many of the computer advancements found in today's society have some roots within Smalltalk.
15.15Conclusion to Web Applications Frameworks After identifying the major web application frameworks found on the web, some common characteristics can be ascertained. The first characteristic is the level of influence from one framework to the next. Except for cases where certain restrictions originally prevented influence, such as the Brazilian creation Lua, almost every framework borrows directly or emulates properties and ideas from other programming languages. Of course, timelines and popularity also impact the level of influence provided. Smalltalk was one of the first frameworks and Java one of the most popular. As such, many of the frameworks are designed to work with the most prominent code found on the web. Fortunately, influence is not defined in one direction but is rather multi-directional, allowing influences to persist backwards to the original concept or across programming languages. The influences lend themselves to another characteristic: the motivation behind most frameworks. Essentially, most developments were completed in order to make programming and development easier for the developer or to create richer applications. Some of the frameworks were created in parallel with each other by different development groups. Others strove to comply with other frameworks as a way to ensure universal use. One of the general distinctions between the frameworks is the programming paradigms utilized. Many attempted to support multiple paradigms while others supported one or two. A programming paradigm is simple a fundamental style of programming. There is a long list of styles that a programmer may focus on; the most common are listed here: Functional – used primarily in mathematically-based applications because it emphasizes the use of functions. Also used when states needed to be avoided as well as mutable data, which is data that cannot be modified after it is created. Imperative – focuses on the management of state changes. Object-orient – uses defined classes and instances, inheritance, encapsulation, SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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polymorphism, and other specialized programming features. Reflective - a special case of meta-programming where the program modifies or extends itself.
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16 Introduction to Markup Languages Publishing companies and editors have for centuries used a specialized language to provide instructions for handling the structure and display of text and graphics. With the computer age and the World Wide Web, that language has become much more sophisticated. The same concept persists and markup languages are the foundation of every web page and site found on the web. The most well known markup language is the HyperText Markup Language, or HTML. But it was not the first.
16.1 SGML/HTML In the 1960s, IBM developed a metalanguage for computers that was referred to as General Markup Language (GML). By 1986, this creation was standardized by the International Standards Organization (ISO) and the name changed slightly to reflect the move: now being called the Standardized General Markup Language (SGML). The hook for SGML was its ability to provide an abstract syntax that can be used by several concrete syntaxes. With this implemented, many aspects of SCML can be customized by a programmer. The original use for SGML was to allow machine-readable documents to be shared in large projects in government, law and industry. Each of these business sectors requires documents to be maintained and accessible for several decades. The printing and publishing industries have also used SGML. Unfortunately, SGML is far too complex for small-scale use. SGML inspired the design of HTML, specifically in tagging. HTML is sometimes referred to as an application of SGML but critics would argue that most HTML documents are not considered proper SGML. When Tim Berners-Lee introduced the Worldwide Web project in 1991, he introduced a hypertext language. He called it HTML Tags. HTML consists of several key components: The basic structure of HTML is elements and consists of two basic properties: attributes and content. Restrictions are in place for each of the properties in order for the HTML document to be valid. An element has to have a start tag and an end tag. The attribute has to be located in the start tag and the content SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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is located between tags. Element content can consist of several data types, including IDs, names, URIs, numbers, and the like. HTML defines 252 character entity references and 1,114,050 numeric entity references which allow multiple annotations to be added to HTML documents. The document type of a HTML document is required to be declared at the beginning of the page in order to allow proper rendering on a website.
16.2 XML/XHTML When SGML was first created, its purpose was to provide a way to share large deposits of documents. At the time of its introduction the Internet was not commercialized and the World Wide Web was not existence. When the popularity of these technologies rose, SGML was faced with a problem, fuelling the need to handle documents on the Internet. To resolve the problem, The World Wide Web Consortium created a new meta markup language called Extensible Markup Language, or XML. Fortunately, adoption was easy since every XML document was also a SGML document. The language also resolved some international issues that were present with SGML. There are two correctness levels for XML documents. If a document conforms to XML syntax rules, it is considered well formed. If a document conforms to semantic rules, it is valid. The importance of these conformities provides the reliability for the XML document to be shared between information systems; therefore parsers, both conforming and validating, will disallow any processing of the document if conformity fails. XML works best in semi-structured environments where documentation and publication are the focus. However because of its balance between simplicity and flexibility, XML has been adopted for other uses including communicating data between applications. There are quite a few advantages for using XML, the least of which is its simplicity and efficiency. The language supports Unicode allowing information written in any human language to be communicated. It can represent common computer science structures, such as records, lists and trees. XML can be used for document storage and processing on and offline and is platform independent. Businesses have adopted XML in the publishing arena as a single source of creating and updating document content. The move significantly reduces the time and cost for companies that need to print the same documents that are published on the web. Governments use XML for large documentation and printing maps. Manufacturers in the airplane and car manufacturers use the technology to print maintenance booklets. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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XML has been modified to create eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) which assists in facilitating the transferral of data and reporting financial results in the financial world. When XML was adopted over SGML, HTML had to be revisited to ensure compatibility. The result was XHTML. There's not much difference between XHTML and HTML, the former is just an effort to conform to the rising interest in XML.
16.3 Conclusion to Markup Languages An essential foundation to any web-based product is the ability to display and share text, graphics, and pictures. Markup languages allow this to happen without extensive programming requirements. Additional features can be added by using scripting languages to add dynamic content to an existing web page. The combined uses of a markup language and a programming language can provide exciting new and dynamic creations for users of the Internet and even standalone web-based products.
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17 Benefits for Web Applications The world is evolving and with it a demand for greater ease, accessibility, and innovation. The Internet and World Wide Web have had a tremendous influence on personal computing. Web 2.0 and cloud computing technologies have already impacted business computing in various directions. Creating a web application within this environment has numerous benefits to the developer and the user. Scalability on the web is highly desirable. Traditionally, an application being distributed to the business organization had to have license agreements for every instance of the application in the environment. The more instances found, the more expensive the application. Additionally, in order to support a server-based application in multiple locations, a different server had to be in place that was geographically convenient. Utilizing the web, scalability is much easier. First, an additional desktop application is not required since all that is needed is a web browser which is usually already available on a machine. Second, by using a web platform as a service, the use of servers is based on use, not the entire machine; therefore, if only a tenth of the server is used, the customer only pays for a tenth of its use. Most services already handle any concerns for redundancy and duplicate instances, though some service providers will even allow a company to instruct how many primary instances and their locations should be supported. The use of a web service also covers the occasions where usage spikes appear: the service simply reroutes the additional use to free resources within the environment. Since most spikes are temporary, the impact is not tremendous; however, if the increase persists then the resources are promised to be there. The primary technology behind web implementation is virtualization; that is, an abstract rendering of the resources used. So instead of several dozen storage volumes, one large storage volume is rendered. Out of one instance of an application, several instances can be rendered. The benefit of virtualization is the reliability that it brings to the environment. Along with workload balancing, redundancies, and any other technologies, the ability to ensure that when a user wants to connect to a web application, the more likely that will happen. Security is one of the basic concerns for any business and having their applications and databases hosted on a platform as public as the Internet and World Wide Web increase the concerns. However, the Internet has not proven to be any more or less secure than traditional networks connected to the Internet. Some proponents stand by SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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claims that the Internet is actually more secure than communication inside a business network. This may be true since the majority of security threats experienced by IT departments are from internal sources, mostly unintentional. If the application is placed on the web, the application is now accessible from outside the network, thus increasing the security. Security on the web has proven the most secure of IT solutions. With the number of businesses requiring account information, financial information, and the like, the controls and protection placed into individual websites make them more secure than many of the traditional networks a decade ago. And the technology around security is only going to improve. Availability on the web is another major concern. Fortunately, the web is available at any time, in any location, with only a browser and a connection to the Internet. The system controls on web platforms provide additional assurances that the applications will remain available to the user.
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17.1 Progress Review Questions 1. In a) b) c) d)
Microsoft acquired Hotmail. 1996 1997 1998 1999
TRUE or FALSE 2. Google Sites service offers only a limited use of XML.
3. What has helped SaaS become more popular and widely developed in recent years? a) ASP b) Ajax c) OD Computing d) None of the above
4. When cloud computing is used, control may be lost over: a) Security b) Storage c) Privacy d) All of the above
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18
Service Management Processes
There are a number of service management processes from the ITIL framework that can play a role in SaaS and Web Application development, support and delivery. This chapter will explore some of those key processes. You will be familiar with some of these processes from the Cloud Computing Foundation program. The most relevant processes for SaaS and Web Applications have been selected to provide a refined overview.
18.1 IT Financial Management Objective: To provide cost-effective stewardship of the IT assets and the financial resources used in providing IT services. IT Financial Management enables an organization to fully account for the amount spent on IT Services, and to attribute these costs to the services delivered to the organization‟s customers. Using IT Financial Management to provide services with cost transparency clearly understood by the business and then rolled into the planning process for demand modeling and funding is a powerful benefit for the organization. It enables the best balance to be struck between the opportunities available for the business against the capability levels of the IT organization. Business Impact Analysis (BIA) A BIA seeks to identify a company‟s most critical business services through analysis of outage severity translated into a financial value, coupled with operational risk. This information can help shape and enhance operational performance by enabling better decision-making regarding prioritization of incident handling, problem management focus, change and release management operations, project priority, and so on. It is a beneficial tool for identifying the cost of service outage to a company, and the relative worth of a service. These two concepts are not identical. The cost of service outage is a financial value placed on a specific service, and is meant to reflect the value of lost productivity and revenue over a specific period of time. The worth of a service relative to other services in a portfolio may not result exclusively from financial characteristics. Service Value, as discussed earlier, is derived from SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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characteristics that may go beyond Financial Management, and represent aspects such as the ability to complete work or communicate with clients that may not be directly related to revenue generation. Both of these elements can be identified to a very adequate degree by the use of BIA. While this section will discuss and illustrate the approach to creating a BIA format and output, these are not the only options and alternative formats are visible throughout industry. A number of steps need to be completed while generating a BIA. Some of the highlevel activities are as follows: 1. Arrange resources from the business and IT that will work together on the analysis. 2. Identify all of the top candidate services for designation as critical, secondary or tertiary (you do not need to designate them at this point). 3. Identify the core analysis points for use in assessing risk and impact, such as: Lost sales revenue Fines Failure risk Lost productivity Lost opportunity Number of users impacted Visibility to shareholders, management, etc. Risk of service obsolescence Harm to reputation among customers, shareholders and regulatory authorities. 4. With the business, weigh the identified elements of risk and impact. 5. Score the candidate services against the weighted elements of risk and impact, and total their individual risk scores (you can utilize a FMEA for additional input here). 6. Generate a list of services in order of risk profile. 7. Decide on a universal time period with which to standardize the translation of service outage to financial cost (1minute, 1 hour, 1 day, etc.). 8. Calculate the financial impact of each service being analyzed within the BIA using agreed methods, formulas and assumptions. 9. Generate a list of services in order of financial impact. 10. Utilize the risk and financial impact data generated to create charts that illustrate the company‟s highest risk applications that also carry the greatest financial impact. A „chargeback‟ model for IT can provide accountability and transparency. However, if the operating model currently provides for a more simplistic annual replenishment of funds, then charging is often not necessary to provide accountability or transparency. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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Charging should be done to encourage behavioral changes related to steering demand for IT services. Charging must add value to the business and be in business terms, and it should have a degree of simplicity appropriate to the business culture. The most difficult and critical requirement of the model is its perceived fairness, which can be imparted if the model provides a level of predictability that the business typically desires, coupled with the mutual identification of services and service values. Chargeback models vary based on the simplicity of the calculations and the ability for the business to understand them. Some sample chargeback models and components include: Notational charging; Tiered subscription; Metered usage; Direct Plus; and Fixed or user cost. No matter which methodology is used, or none at all, it is more important to make certain that the overriding substantiation comes from providing value to the business.
18.1.1 IT Financial Management and SaaS Financial Management for IT Services is used for the following: ROI as part of the business case for the development of a Software Service From a marketing point of view you will need to be able to communicate your VOI or Value On Investment, which not only includes the monetary return but also additional benefits to the clients. Actual costing of the ongoing management and maintenance of the service Based on this you will be able to create a pricelist for your services that enables you to predict your profitability per product, region of client.
Make sure the total cost in delivering the service, including all variable costs for maintenance and unplanned events, is known. Once the pricelist is set, it can‟t be changed easily and ultimately, the business wants to make a profit.
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18.2 Information Security Management Objective: To align IT security with business security and ensure that information security is effectively managed in all service and Service Management activities. ISM needs to be considered within the overall corporate governance framework. Corporate governance is the set of responsibilities and practices exercised by the board and executive management with the goal of providing strategic direction, ensuring the objectives are achieved, ascertaining the risks are being managed appropriately and verifying that the enterprise‟s resources are used effectively. Information security is a management activity within the corporate governance framework, which provides the strategic direction for security activities and ensures objectives are achieved. It further ensures that the information security risks are appropriately managed and that enterprise information resources are used responsibly. The purpose of ISM is to provide a focus for all aspects of IT security and manage all IT security activities. The term „information‟ is used as a general term and includes data stores, databases and metadata. The objective of information security is to protect the interests of those relying on information, and the systems and communications that deliver the information, from harm resulting from failures of availability, confidentiality and integrity. For most organizations, the security objective is met when: Information is available and usable when required, and the systems that provide it can appropriately resist attacks and recover from or prevent failures (availability) Information is observed by or disclosed to only those who have the right to know (confidentiality) Information is complete, accurate and protected against unauthorized modification (integrity) Business transactions, as well as information exchanges between enterprises, or with partners, can be trusted (authenticity and non-repudiation). Prioritization of confidentiality, integrity and availability must be considered in the context of business and business process. The primary guide to defining what must be protected and the level of protection has to come from the business. To be effective, security must address entire business processes from end-to-end and cover the physical and technical aspects. Only within the context of business needs and risks can management define security. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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Policies/principles/basic concepts Prudent business practices require that IT processes and initiatives align with the business processes and objectives. This is critical when it comes to information security, which must be closely aligned with business security and business needs. Additionally all processes within the IT organization must include security considerations. Executive management is ultimately responsible for the organization‟s information and is tasked with responding to issues that affect its protection. In addition, boards of directors are expected to make information security an integral part of corporate governance. All IT service provider organizations must therefore ensure that they have a comprehensive ISM policy(s) and the necessary security controls in place to monitor and enforce the policies. The Information Security Management process and framework will generally consist of: An Information Security Policy and specific security policies that address each aspect of strategy, controls and regulation An Information Security Management System (ISMS), containing the standards, management procedures and guidelines supporting the information security policies A comprehensive security strategy, closely linked to the business objectives, strategies and plans An effective security organizational structure A set of security controls to support the policy The management of security risks Monitoring processes to ensure compliance and provide feedback on effectiveness; Communications strategy and plan for security Training and awareness strategy and plan. The Information Security Policy Information Security Management activities should be focused on and driven by an overall Information Security Policy and a set of underpinning specific security policies. The ITP should have the full support of top executive IT management and ideally the support and commitment of top executive business management. The policy should cover all areas of security, be appropriate, meet the needs of the business and should include: An overall Information Security Policy Use and misuse of IT assets policy An access control policy A password control policy SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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An email policy An Internet policy An anti-virus policy An information classification policy A document classification policy A remote access policy A policy with regard to supplier access of IT service information and components An asset disposal policy.
These policies should be widely available to all customers and users, and their compliance should be referred to in all SLRs, SLAs, contracts and agreements. The policies should be authorized by top executive management within the business and IT, and compliance to them should be endorsed on a regular basis. All security policies should be reviewed – and, where necessary, revised – on at least an annual basis. The Information Security Management Systems (ISMS) The framework or the ISMS in turn provides a basis for the development of a costeffective information security program that supports the business objectives. It will involve the Four Ps of People, Process, Products and technology as well as Partners and suppliers to ensure high levels of security are in place. ISO 27001 is the formal standard against which organizations may seek independent certification of their ISMS (meaning their frameworks to design, implement, manage, maintain and enforce information security processes and controls systematically and consistently throughout the organizations). The ISMS in the following diagram shows an approach that is widely used and is based on the advice and guidance described in many sources, including ISO 27001.
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Framework for managing IT security
18.2.1 Information Security Management and SaaS This is a very important process for SaaS delivery. Not only do systems need to be secure to ensure the guaranteed availability of the service, but the business has the responsibility for the content, the information of the clients. As an example, when you provide a CRM solution, your clients want to make sure that nobody outside of their organization has access to their clients and sales records. So you need to keep your data centers, systems and software secure enough to be able to guarantee this. This extends beyond the technical security of passwords and user IDs. This includes physical security at the data center or server room, it also includes organizational and procedural security measures. Every time before you make a major change you will need to make a snapshot of the current security measures. You need to do this to enable a rollback scenario for Release and Deployment Management.
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18.3 Release & Deployment Management Objective: To deliver, distribute and track one or more changes in a release into the live environment. Often forgotten about or ignored in many IT Service Management implementations or initiatives, Release and Deployment can be mistakenly seen as the poor cousin of Change Management, being of less importance and priority to both the business and IT organizations. Much of the confusion and misunderstanding is perpetuated by the idea that Release and Deployment only focuses on the actual distribution of changes to the live environment. While timely and accurate distribution is indeed a goal of the process, the actual scope includes all of the activities, systems and functions required to build, test and deploy a release and enable effective handover to Service Operations. In conjunction with Change Management, Release and Deployment will enhance an organization‟s capabilities to develop, compile, reuse, distribute and rollback releases in accordance with defined policies that improve efficiency and reduce business disruption. To deploy new releases into production, transition support to service operation, and enable its effective use in order to deliver value to the customer. Other objectives of Release and Deployment are: To define and agree upon release policies, and Release and Deployment plans with customers and stakeholders Ensure the integrity of constructed release packages and that they are recorded accurately in the Configuration Management System (CMS) Ensure that all release packages can be tracked, installed, verified, uninstalled or backed out if necessary Ensure the required skills and knowledge is transferred to support staff, customers, end-users, suppliers and any other relevant stakeholders There is minimal unpredicted impact on the production services, customers and service operations. Release and Deployment works closely in conjunction with the other RCV processes to enable the quality transition of services. The role played specifically by Release and Deployment is to build, package, validate and distribute authorized service changes to the target systems or users. A release is a collection of authorized changes to an IT service. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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When identifying the benefits that Release and Deployment provides, it is important to remember that it should be utilized in conjunction with the other Service Transition processes. As a result, improvements in the metrics defined for Release and Deployment may be at the expense of the other transition processes. Typical benefits seen as a result of improved Release and Deployment are: Delivering change, faster, at optimum cost and minimized risk Assuring customers and users they can use the new or changed service in a way that supports the business goals Improving consistency in implementation approach across the business change, service teams, suppliers and customers Contributing to meeting auditable requirements for traceability through Service Transition. Well planned and implemented release and deployment will make a significant difference to an organization's service costs. A poorly designed release and deployment will, at best, force IT personnel to spend significant amounts of time troubleshooting problems and managing complexity. At worst, it can cripple the environment and degrade the live services. Release Unit: A „release unit‟ describes the portion of a service or IT infrastructure that is normally released together according to the organization‟s release policy. When defining the most appropriate release unit structure, the following factors should be taken into account: The ease and amount of change necessary to release and deploy the release unit The amount of resources needed to build, test and distribute a release unit The complexity of interfaces between the proposed unit and the rest of the services and IT infrastructure The storage and resources available in the build, test, distribution and live environments. Based on these factors, it may mean that for critical applications the release unit is the complete set of application components, and for optional features or add-ons, only the single component itself.
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Release Package: A release package may be a single release unit or a structured set of release units, including the associated user or support documentation that is required. Like the definition of release units, factors such as the modularity of components, the amount of change occurring and resources required will be considered when formulating a complete Release Package. Release Identification: The unique release identification scheme which is normally defined in the Release Policy and conforms to any standards defined by Service Asset and Configuration Management. Typical identification schemes include the following examples: Major Release: Banking_System v1, v2, v3 etc. o Major roll-out of new hardware and/or software. Minor Release: Banking_System v1.1, v1.2, v1.3 etc. o A few minor improvements and fixes to Known Errors. Emergency Fix: Banking_System v1.1.1, v1.1.2 etc. o A temporary or permanent Quick Fix for a Problem or Known Error. Definitive Media Library (DML): DML is the secure library where the definitive authorized versions of all media CIs (typically software) are stored and protected. The DML should include definitive copies of purchased software (along with license documents and any controlled information) as well as software developed on site.
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The DML includes both electronic and physical copies of definitive software releases, with Release and Deployment being responsible for any additions, modifications, removals or maintenance that needs to be performed.
Definitive Spares: Physical storage of all spare IT components and assemblies maintained at the same level as within the live environment. New IT assemblies are stored here until ready for use, and additional components can be used when needed for additional systems or in the recovery from incidents. Like the DML, details of these assemblies are recorded in the CMDB, and their management and deployment the responsibility of the Release and Deployment process.
Build Management:
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The software, hardware and documentation that comprise a release unit should be assembled in a controlled manner to ensure a repeatable process. This should include automation where possible for its compilation and distribution, which for large organizations can significantly reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for the services involved.
18.3.1 Release and Deployment and SaaS Every piece of software goes through a lifecycle that is more or less predictable. Especially with SaaS services, a business continually learns from its clients who use the software within their own business processes. New patches, emergency releases, security fixes or major upgrades will have to be implemented. Release and Deployment Management in a SaaS environment is not easy, especially since clients can be spread across every time zone so there is no good time to stop the service to run an update or upgrade. Most important for the success of this process is communication. Let the customer know what is going to happen and when it is going to take place. Example from our experience on how not to do Release and Deployment Management: A SaaS provider decided to do a server upgrade over the weekend; however, they failed to communicate this to their clients. On Monday morning the boss received a phone call from the Sales Department complaining that the system was unavailable. After a phone call to the SaaS provider, it turns out that the server upgrade had failed and they were trying to roll back to the previous version. It was now after 10am on Monday morning and the sales team still didn‟t have access to the data. This incident was the start of a snowball effect that eventually resulted in cancellation of the contract with the SaaS provider. A loss of revenue that could (and should) have been avoided by proper Release and Deployment Management and proactive communication with the clients. Clients understand when things happen that are not supposed to, happen... but they don‟t understand why a business can‟t proactively manage this!
18.3.2 Release Management and Web Applications
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Release Management covers the distribution of software without limitation on platform or other methods of distribution. The discipline concerns itself with ensuring that the software is properly developed and tested before being introduced to the production environment. Release Management also manages quality control over development and implementation. For purposes already mentioned, the definition of a release is ambiguous and may not be resolved for quite some time. In reference to web applications, there might be a significant number of functional changes to the application before the recognition of a new release is even made. The trend is that new releases are announced when a new standard, such as changing from HTML-based documentation to XML-based documentation, is applied to the application code. For now, this may be the most sufficient definition for major releases. An alternate solution is the tracking of minireleases in the form of new functions and features. In this situation, releases may happen every day or once a month. However the term release is defined, the goals of release management are the same: Effectively planning the rollout of software Establishing well designed procedures for distributing and installing changes to the application, especially the core components Managing the expectations of customers effectively including appropriate communication Controlling the distribution and installation of changes to ensure the change is properly executed.
18.4 Knowledge Management Objective: To enable organizations to improve the quality of management decision making by ensuring that reliable and secure information and data is available throughout the service lifecycle. The primary purpose of Knowledge Management is to improve efficiency by reducing the need to rediscover knowledge. This requires accessible, quality and relevant data and information to be available to staff. The goals of Knowledge Management are to: Enable the service provider to be more efficient and improve quality of service, increase satisfaction and reduce the cost of service Ensure staff have a clear and common understanding of the value that their services provide to customers, and the ways on which benefits are realized for the use of those services SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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Ensure that, at a given time and location, service provider staff have adequate information on: o Who is currently using their services o The current states of consumption o Service delivery constraints o Difficulties faced by the customer in fully realizing the benefits expected from the service.
The quality of decision making within the Service Lifecycle depends on the ability and understanding of those parties involved, the understanding of the benefits and consequences of actions taken, and the analysis of any of the surrounding issues involved. All of this, in turn, depends on the availability of accurate and timely knowledge, information and data provided in a way that can be easily accessed and interpreted by the appropriate parties. Knowledge rests on the management of the information and data that underpins it. To be efficient this process requires an understanding and maintenance of the following key activities: • Establishing data and information requirements • Define the information architecture • Establishing data and information management procedures.
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Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom (DIKW)
Context
Knowledge Management is usually seen within the context of the DIKW structure seen below.
Wisdom Why? Knowledge How? Information Who, what, when, where?
Data
Understanding
Data Data is a set of discrete facts. Most organizations capture significant amounts of data every day. Knowledge Management activities seek to improve the capabilities for capturing, analyzing, synthesizing data and transforming it into information. Information Information comes from providing context to data. This usually requires capturing various sources of data and applying some meaning or relevance to the set of facts. Knowledge Management focuses on measures for capturing, finding and reusing information so that work is not duplicated. Knowledge Knowledge is composed of the experiences, ideas, insights and judgments from individuals and from their peers. This usually requires the analysis of information, and is applied in such a way to facilitate decision making.
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Wisdom The ability to ultimately discern material and having the application and contextual awareness to provide a strong common sense judgment. The use of wisdom ultimately enables an organization to direct its strategy and growth in competitive market spaces. We can use tools and databases to capture data, information and knowledge, but wisdom cannot be captured this way, as wisdom is a concept relating to abilities to use knowledge to make correct judgments and decisions. The Service Knowledge Management System (SKMS)
The SKMS describes the complete set of tools and databases that are used to manage knowledge and information, including the Configuration Management System as well as other tools and databases. The SKMS stores, manages, updates and presents all information that an IT service provider needs to manage the full lifecycle of its services. The main purpose of the SKMS is to provide quality information so that informed decisions can be made by the IT service provider. Where the CMS focuses on providing information relating to the configuration of the IT infrastructure, the SKMS has a broader scope (as implied by the diagram) which includes anything pertaining to the needs of service management, including: Experience of staff Records of peripherals SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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Supplier and partner requirements and abilities Typical and anticipated user skill levels.
18.4.1 Knowledge Management and SaaS The ITIL process of Knowledge Management plays an important role in the capturing and utilization of data, information and knowledge about systems, solutions, services, processes and resources (including people). This process helps to understand how the various IT components work together to deliver the solution or software as a service. The knowledge extends beyond the software application and covers all support and maintenance issues. Knowledge Management also extends to client data and information. What type of services do they use, why did they subscribe to it? It is important to keep a clear and complete overview of all incidents relating to the customer so the right type of customer service can be delivered. The knowledge base should ideally also be linked to your Known Error and standard solutions database. This will help with the timeliness of incident resolution and improved customer satisfaction. Based on historical data of your customer (or customer group), a business can make decisions on product development or marketing campaigns. Ultimately the integration of various sources of information (from technical data to customer satisfaction data) will give a business the opportunity to show a more human face to customers and to tailor service delivery to various client groups.
18.5 Incident Management Objective: To restore normal service operation as quickly as possible and minimize the adverse impact on business operations, thus ensuring that the best possible levels of service quality and availability are maintained. In ITIL terminology, an „incident‟ is defined as an unplanned interruption to an IT service or reduction in the quality of an IT service. Failure of a configuration item that has not yet impacted service is also an incident. Incident Management is the process for dealing with all incidents; this can include failures, questions or queries reported by the users (usually via a telephone call to the Service Desk), by technical staff, or automatically detected and reported by event monitoring tools. The value of Incident Management includes: SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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The ability to detect and resolve incidents, which results in lower downtime to the business, which in turn means higher availability of the service. This means that the business is able to exploit the functionality of the service as designed. The ability to align IT activity to real-time business priorities. This is because Incident Management includes the capability to identify business priorities and dynamically allocate resources as necessary. The ability to identify potential improvements to services. This happens as a result of understanding what constitutes an incident and also from being in contact with the activities of business operational staff. The Service Desk can, during its handling of incidents, identify additional service or training requirements found in IT or the business.
Incident Management is highly visible to the business, and it is therefore easier to demonstrate its value than most areas in Service Operation. For this reason, Incident Management is often one of the first processes to be implemented in Service Management projects. The added benefit of doing this is that Incident Management can be used to highlight other areas that need attention – thereby providing a justification for expenditure on implementing other processes. Timescales Timescales must be agreed for all incident-handling stages (these will differ depending upon the priority level of the incident) – based upon the overall incident response and resolution targets with the SLAs – and captured as targets within OLAs and Underpinning Contracts (UCs). All support groups should be made fully aware of these timescales. Service Management tools should be used to automate timescales and escalate the incident as required based on pre-defined rules. Incident Models Many incidents are not new – they involve dealing with something that has happened before and may well happen again. For this reason, many organizations will find it helpful to pre-define „standard‟ Incident Models – and apply them to appropriate incidents when they occur. An Incident Model is a way of pre-defining the steps that should be taken to handle a process (in this case a process for dealing with a particular type of incident) in an agreed way. Support tools can then be used to manage the required process. This will ensure that „standard‟ incidents are handled in a pre-defined path and within predefined timescales. Incidents which would require specialized handling can be treated in this way (for example, security-related incidents can be routed to Information Security Management SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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and capacity- or performance-related incidents that would be routed to Capacity Management). The Incident Model should include: The steps that should be taken to handle the incident The chronological order these steps should be taken in, with any dependences or co-processing defined Responsibilities; who should do what Timescales and thresholds for completion of the actions Escalation procedures; who should be contacted and when Any necessary evidence-preservation activities (particularly relevant for securityand capacity-related incidents). The models should be input to the incident-handling support tools in use and the tools should then automate the handling, management and escalation of the process. Major Incidents A separate procedure, with shorter timescales and greater urgency, must be used for „major‟ incidents. A definition of what constitutes a major incident must be agreed and ideally mapped on to the overall incident prioritization system – such that they will be dealt with through the major incident process. Note: People sometimes use loose terminology and/or confuse major incident with a problem. In reality, an incident remains an incident forever – it may grow in impact or priority to become a major incident, but an incident never „becomes‟ a problem. A problem is the underlying cause of one or more incidents and remains a separate entity always! Some lower-priority incidents may also have to be handled through this procedure – due to potential business impact – and some major incidents may not need to be handled in this way if the cause and resolutions are obvious and the normal incident process can easily cope within agreed target resolution times – provided the impact remains low! Where necessary, the major incident procedure should include the dynamic establishment of a separate major incident team under the direct leadership of the Incident Manager, formulated to concentrate on this incident alone to ensure that adequate resources and focus are provided to finding a swift resolution. If the Service Desk Manager is also fulfilling the role of Incident Manager (say in a small organization), then a separate person may need to be designated to lead the major incident investigation team – so as to avoid conflict of time or priorities - but should ultimately report back to the Incident Manager. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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If the cause of the incident needs to be investigated at the same time, then the Problem Manager would be involved as well but the Incident Manager must ensure that the service restoration and underlying cause are kept separate. Throughout, the Service Desk would ensure that all activities are recorded and users are kept fully informed of progress.
18.5.1 Incident Management and SaaS Incident Management for SaaS is an interesting process as a number of angles need to be covered: Incidents that occur in the internal organization. The IT group (both development and support) as well as the internal business process groups will have incidents (unplanned events that cause or may cause disruption or degradation of service). Processes and procedures to deal with these incidents must be in place. Incidents that occur because external clients use those software services. Both types of incidents are important to capture and manage, and you will need to design your process to cater for both groups of incidents. Also, how are external clients going to contact the business with their incidents? Is there a helpdesk number or email address for support? Or are they expected to contact their internal service desk which has access to your knowledge base?
18.5.2 Incident Management and Web Applications The purpose of Incident Management is to restore service operations to normal conditions are quickly as possible and to minimize the impact of interruptions on the business. Normal conditions are defined by the Service Level Agreements. Incidents beyond the capabilities of the Help Desk are assigned to a specialist support group to be resolved quickly. Incidents end when a resolution or a work around to the problem is in place. Incidents and problems are distinguishable from each other. Incidents are a disruption to service and are most often already associated with a known error. Because of this, resolutions can be found easily and quickly. Unfortunately, there are times when the source of the disruption is unknown and resolution is not in sight. In these situations, a bypass is identified and implemented so that the service is no longer disrupted. The use of redundant system is a simple method of bypassing incidents. Unfortunately, the SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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original problem still exists. This is where Problem Management takes over to identify the root cause of the problem and find a resolution to prevent it from recurring.
18.6 Change Management Objective: To ensure all changes are assessed, approved, implemented and reviewed in a controlled manner. The ability to control and manage changes to defined IT services and their supporting elements is viewed as fundamental to quality service management. When reviewing the typical strategic objectives defined for an IT service provider, most of these are underpinned by the requirement of effective change control. These include strategies focusing on time-to-market, increased market share or high availability and security platforms, all of which require a controlled process by which to assess, control and manage changes with varying levels of rigor. Changes arise for a number of reasons, including: Requests of the business or customers, seeking to improve services, reduce costs or increasing ease and effectiveness of delivery and support From internal IT groups looking to proactively improve services or to resolve errors and correct service disruption. The process of Change Management typically exists in order to: Optimize risk exposure (defined from both business and IT perspectives) Minimize the severity of any impact and disruption Deliver successful changes at the first attempt. To deliver these benefits it is important to consider the diverse types of changes that will be assessed and how a balance can be maintained in regards to the varying needs and potential impacts of changes. In light of this, it is important to interpret the following Change Management guidance with the understanding that is intended to be scaled to suit the organization and the size, complexity and risk of changes being assessed. To ensure that standardized methods and procedures are used for controlled, efficient and prompt handling of all changes, in order to minimize the impact of change-related incidents upon service quality, and consequently to improve the day-today operations of the organization. “Remember: Not every change is an improvement, but every improvement is a change!” SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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Change Management‟s purpose is also to ensure that: All changes to service assets and configuration items (CIs) are recorded in the Configuration Management Systems (CMS). Overall business risk is optimized. The term change is often defined in varying ways, however the best definition of a service change is: “Any alteration in the state of a Configuration Item (CI). This includes the addition, modification or removal of approved, supported or baselined hardware, network, software, application, environment, system, desktop build or associated documentation.” It is important, however, that every organization defines those changes which lie outside the scope of their service change process (such as operational or business process and policy changes).
The figure above demonstrates the typical scope of the Change Management process for an IT Service Provider and how it interfaces with the business and suppliers at strategic, tactical and operational levels. As discussed in 4.1.4, Service Portfolios provide the clear definition of all planned, current and retired services. Designing and Planning
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It is generally advised that the Change Management process should be planned in conjunction with Release & Deployment, and Service Asset & Configuration Management. These processes together will help in the evaluation of impact, needs, timings and overall risk for changes being assessed. The checklist of typical requirements when designing the Change Management process includes: Regulatory, policy or other compliance requirements Documentation requirements Identification of impact, urgency and priority codes for changes Roles and responsibilities involved Procedures required Interfaces to other Service Management processes (e.g. Problem Management) Toolset requirements to support Change Management Configuration Management interfaces. Change Management Activities The following diagram represents the typical activities involved for normal changes that have been identified. The actual steps and procedures need to be further refined depending on any specific Change Models that have been created.
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Create RFC Record the RFC
Change proposal (optional)
requested Review RFC
Change Management
Ready for evaluation
Assess and evaluate change
Ready for decision
Authorize Change proposal
Work orders
Authorize Change Change authority
authorized Plan updates
Change Management
scheduled Co-ordinate change*
Change Management
Work orders
implemented
Review and close Evaluation report
Overview of Important Steps 1. The RFC is recorded. 2. Review the RFC for classification and prioritization. 3. Assess and evaluate the change – may require involvement of CAB or ECAB. 4. Authorization or rejection of the change. 5. The change is scheduled. 6. Work orders are issued for the build of the change (but carried out by other groups). 7. Change Management coordinates the work performed. 8. The change is reviewed. 9. The change is closed.
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Update change and configuration information in CMS
Initiator
1. The RFC is recorded The change is raised by a request from the initiator. The level of information recorded for a change depends largely on the size and impact of the change. Some information is recorded initially and some information updated as the change document progresses through its lifecycle. This may be recorded directly on the RFC form and details of the change and actions may be recorded in other documents and referenced from the RFC such as business cases. For a major change with significant organizational and/or financial applications, a change proposal may be required, which will contain a full description of the change together with a business and financial justification for the proposed change. The change proposal will include sign off by appropriate levels of business management.
2. Review the RFC for classification and prioritization To ensure Change Management is using an appropriate level of control based on factors of risk, cost and complexity, an initial review should act as a filtering mechanism to apply the correct Change Model (classification), identify the relative priority of the change, and to ensure that the required details are supplied. Procedures should stipulate that, as changes are logged, Change Management reviews each change request and return any that are: Totally impractical Repeats of earlier RFCs Incomplete submissions. These requests will be returned to the initiator, together with brief details of the reason for the rejection, and the log should record this fact. There should be an opportunity to appeal, via normal management channels, and should be incorporated within the procedures.
3. Assess and evaluate the change All changes will be assessed for their relative potential impact, risk and resource requirements. Depending on the Change Model that has been applied, this assessment may require involvement from: The Change Manager and Change Owner for local authorization The Change Advisory Board (representing all key stakeholders) The IT Management (Steering) Board Business Executive Board. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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The scope of potential impacts on services for failed changes is wide, so the assessment needs to identify potential for: Impact on customer‟s business operation Effect on SLAs, baselines, service models, security etc. Impact on other services Impact on non-IT infrastructures Effect of not implementing Cost and staffing implications Current Change Schedule Ongoing resources required after implementation Impact on continuity plan, capacity plan, security plan, test environments, and any Service Operation practices. The following table describes the type of hierarchical structures that may be used for different levels of change authorization. A degree of delegated authority may also exist within an authorization level. Formal authorization is obtained for each change from a change authority that may be a role, person or a group of people. The levels of authorization for a change should be judged by: • Type • Size • Risk • Financial implications • Scope.
Level
Change Authority
1
Business Executive Board.
2
The IT Management (Steering) Board
3 4
Change Advisory Board (CAB) or Emergency CAB (ECAB) Change Manager
5
Local Authorization
Potential Impact/Risk High cost/risk change - Executive decision Change impacts multiple services/ organizational divisions Change impacts only local/ service group Change to a specific component of an IT Service Standard Change
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The 7 Rs of Change Management provides a set of guiding questions that need to be answered as part of the overall assessment for changes. These questions are: 1. Who RAISED the change? 2. What is the REASON for the change? 3. What is the RETURN required from the change? 4. What are the RISKS involved in the change? 5. What RESOURCES are required to deliver the change? 6. Who is RESPONSIBLE for the build, test and implementation of the change? 7. What is the RELATIONSHIP between this change and other changes?
4. Authorization or rejection of the change While the responsibility for authorization of changes lies with the Change Manager, they in turn will ensure they have the approval of three main areas. Financial Approval - What‟s it going to cost? And what‟s the cost of not doing it? Business Approval - What are the consequences to the business? And not doing it? Technology Approval - What are the consequences to the infrastructure? And not doing it? When authorizing changes, it is important to consider both the implications of performing the change, as well as the impacts of NOT implementing the change. This also requires empowering the Change Manager with an appropriate level of authority, as their primary role is to protect the integrity of the IT infrastructure and the services provided to customers.
5. The Change is scheduled The assessment of the change will have provided an estimation of the resource requirements for delivering a successful change. Change Management will need to coordinate with Release and Deployment Management so that any activities required for the build, test or implementation of the change will be scheduled when resources are available and when they least impact on live services or business critical times. The timing of events and eventual implementation will be communicated via the Change Schedule, and visible to the appropriate IT staff members, customers and endusers. Any service disruption is documented in with the Projected Service Outage (PSO). This details any revised Service Level Agreement and service availability targets because of the events in the Change Schedule, in addition to any planned downtime from other causes such as planned maintenance and data backups. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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6. Work orders are issued for the build of the change (but carried out by other groups) Change Management will coordinate with Release and Deployment to identify the groups or individuals responsible for the implementation of the various elements making up the change. This will be greatly influenced by the availability of staff and any Release policies defining how and when changes are released to the live environment.
7. Change Management coordinates the work performed Change Management plays a co-ordination role as implementation is the responsibility of others (under the direction of Release and Deployment management or from Project Management groups). This is an oversight role to ensure that all changes that can be and are thoroughly tested. Special care needs to be taken during implementation in all cases involving changes that have not been fully tested. Remediation Planning is a critical element during the coordination of changes. Ideally, no change should be approved without having explicitly addressed the question of what to do if it is not successful. There should be a back-out plan that will restore the organization to its initial situation, through reloading a baselined set of Configuration Items. Only by considering what remediation options are available before instigating a change, and by establishing that the remediation is viable, can the risk of the proposed change be determined and the appropriate actions taken.
8. The change is reviewed On completion of the change, the results should be reported for evaluation to those responsible for managing changes, and then presented as a completed change for stakeholder agreement. Major changes will require more customer and stakeholder input throughout the entire process. The review should confirm that the change has met the defined objectives, the initiator and stakeholders are happy with the results and there have been no unexpected sideeffects. Lessons learned should be embedded into future changes as part of continuous improvement. This includes whether the request should be developed as a standard change or whether another Change Model is more appropriate for future management of similar requests. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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Two types of reviews are performed for normal changes: The review of a service change – immediately visible to the customer and scheduled for discussion at the next service level management review meeting An infrastructure change – concerned with how IT delivers rather that what IT delivers, which will be (almost) invisible to the customer. Change Management must review new or changed services after a predefined period has elapsed. This process will involve Change Advisory Board (CAB) members, since change reviews are a standard CAB agenda item. When a change has not achieved its objectives, Change Management (or CAB) will decide what follow-up action is required.
9. The change is closed If the change review was satisfactory or the original change is abandoned (e.g. the needs for the change is decreased or disappears) the RFC should be formally closed in the logging system. These records will be kept for a period of time based on business, compliance, archiving or other policy requirements that have been defined.
18.6.1 Change Management and SaaS Change Management is one of the most important processes for a SaaS provider. All changes must be managed with a global audience in mind. For example, a supplier based in Europe might roll out their changes and releases over night, not taking into consideration that overnight in Europe is during business hours in Australia. During the Change Management process, client representatives should be consulted to assess the risk to service continuity when the change is going ahead. The Change Management process doesn‟t only cover changes to the source code of the application, but also to critical documents like SLAs, Disaster Recovery Plans, and the Service Catalogue. The process also covers changes to the delivery process as this may impact the user experience. With implementing Change Management, experience shows that it is important to put a lot of emphasis on the early stages of the process – the information gathering and decision making part of the process. Once the authorization criteria are crystal clear and the early stages of the processes flow, attention can move towards the coordination role of the process and the improved interaction with Release and Deployment Management, Evaluation and Knowledge Management. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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These processes together will ultimately deliver a positive experience for the clients and end-users and encourage positive feedback. This supports the viral marketing efforts which most SaaS providers utilize... and ultimately benefits the entire company!
18.6.2 Change Management and Web Applications The purpose of change management is to ensure standardized methods and procedures are used to handle changes effectively and efficiently. A change is defined as any event that results in a new status of one or more configuration items. Change Management is focused on: Minimal disruption of services Reduction in any activities requiring backing out of change Efficient utilization of resources during the change.
18.7 Capacity Management Objective: The goal of the Capacity Management process is to ensure that costjustifiable IT capacity in all areas of IT always exists and is matched to the current and future agreed needs of the business, in a timely manner. Capacity Management is an extremely technical, complex and demanding process, and in order to achieve results, it requires three supporting sub-processes. One of the key activities of Capacity Management is to produce a plan that documents the current levels of resource utilization and service performance and, after consideration of the Service Strategy and plans, forecasts the future requirements for new IT resources to support the IT services that underpin the business activities. The plan should indicate clearly any assumptions made. It should also include any recommendations quantified in terms of resource required, cost, benefits, impact, etc. The production and maintenance of a Capacity Plan should occur at pre-defined intervals. It is, essentially, an investment plan and should therefore be published annually, in line with the business or budget lifecycle, and completed before the start of negotiations on future budgets. A quarterly re-issue of the updated plan may be necessary to take into account changes in service plans, to report on the accuracy of forecasts and to make or refine recommendations. This takes extra effort but, if it is regularly updated, the Capacity Plan is more likely to be accurate and to reflect the changing business need.
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Business Capacity Management This sub-process translates business needs and plans into requirements for service and IT infrastructure, ensuring that the future business requirements for IT services are quantified, designed, planned and implemented in a timely fashion. This can be achieved by using the existing data on the current resource utilization by the various services and resources to trend, forecast, model or predict future requirements. These future requirements come from the Service Strategy and Service Portfolio detailing new processes and service requirements, changes, improvements, and also the growth in the existing services. Service Capacity Management The focus of this sub-process is the management, control and prediction of the end-toend performance and capacity of the live, operational IT service usage and workloads. It ensures that the performance of all services, as detailed in the service targets within SLAs and SLRs, is monitored and measured, and the collected data is recorded and analyzed and reported. Wherever necessary, proactive and reactive action should be instigated, to ensure that the performance of all services meets their agreed business targets. This is performed by staff with knowledge of all the areas of technology used in the delivery of end-to-end service, and often involves seeking advice from the specialists involved in Component Capacity Management. Wherever possible, automated thresholds should be used to manage all operational services, to ensure that situations where service targets are breached or threatened are rapidly identified and cost-effective actions to reduce or avoid their potential impact implemented. Component Capacity Management The focus in this sub-process is the management, control and prediction of the performance, utilization and capacity of individual IT technology components. It ensures that all components within the IT infrastructure that have finite resource are monitored and measured, and that the collected data is recorded, analyzed and reported. Again, wherever possible, automated thresholds should be implemented to manage all components, to ensure that situations where service targets are breached or threatened by component usage or performance are rapidly identified, and costeffective actions to reduce or avoid their potential impact are implemented.
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Capacity Management sub-processes diagram
18.7.1 Capacity Management and SaaS This process can make or break a SaaS organization. When a business doesn‟t proactively forecast and manage the capacity requirements for a software service, it will run the risk that customers will be unhappy with the services. The program might be too slow, time out, or drop out. Especially when dealing with a global client base, load balancing needs to take place over a 24 hour period, as there is no downtime. Also when internal organizations use the evening and night for batch processing, clients are using the system 24 hours per day. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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The connection between Demand Management – where the client demand is managed at a strategic level – and Capacity Management is very important. Regular meetings with the sales and customer teams need to be held to identify where the capacity demand will come from and what the absolute need is going to be. Your capacity planning should include the capacity needs for the disaster recovery site.
18.7.2 Capacity Management and Web Applications For ensuring that resources are properly optimized and provisioned according to the organization‟s requirements in a manner that provide a high level of performance and is cost-effective, the process of Capacity Management is used. The high level activities define how applications are sized, workloads are managed, capacity is planned, and resources are managed, as well as performance.
18.8 Availability Management Objectives: The goal of Availability Management process is to ensure that the level of service availability delivered in all services is matched to or exceeds the current and future agreed needs of the business, in a cost-effective manner. The Availability Management process is continually trying to ensure that all operational services meet their agreed availability targets, and that new or changed services are designed appropriately to meet their intended targets, without compromising the performance of existing services. In order to achieve this, Availability Management should perform the reactive and proactive activities. The reactive activities of Availability Management consist of monitoring, measuring, analyzing, reporting and reviewing all aspects of component and service availability. This is to ensure that all agreed service targets are measured and achieved. Wherever deviations or breaches are detected, these are investigated and remedial action instigated. Most of these activities are conducted within the Operations stage of the lifecycle and are linked into the monitoring and control activities, Event and Incident Management processes. The proactive activities consist of producing recommendations, plans and documents on design guidelines and criteria for new and changed services, and the continual improvement of service and reduction of risk in existing services wherever it can be cost-justified. These are key aspects to be considered within Service Design activities. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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An effective Availability Management process, consisting of both the reactive and proactive activities, can make a big difference and will be recognized as such by the business, if the deployment of Availability Management within an IT organization has a strong emphasis on the needs of the business and customers. To reinforce this emphasis, there are several guiding principles that should underpin the Availability Management process and its focus: Service availability is at the core of customer satisfaction and business success: there is a direct correlation in most organizations between the service availability and customer and user satisfaction, where poor service performance is defined as being unavailable. Recognizing that when services fail, it is still possible to achieve business, customer and user satisfaction and recognition: the way a service provider reacts in a failure situation has a major influence on customer and user perception and expectation. Improving availability can only begin after understanding how the IT services support the operation of the business. Service availability is only as good as the weakest link on the chain: it can be greatly increased by the elimination of Single Points of Failure (SPoFs) or an unreliable or weak component. Availability is not just a reactive process; the more proactive the process, the better service availability will be. Availability should not purely react to service and component failure. The more events and failures are predicted, pre-empted and prevented, the higher the level of service availability. It is cheaper to design the right level of service availability into a service from the start rather than try and „bolt it on‟ subsequently. Adding resilience into a service or component is invariably more expensive than designing it in from the start. Also, once a service gets a name for unreliability, it becomes very difficult to change the image. Resilience is a key consideration if ITSCM, and this should be considered at the same time. The scope of Availability Management covers the design, implementation, measurement and management of IT service and infrastructure availability. The Availability Management process has two key elements: 1. Reactive activities: the reactive aspect of Availability Management involves the monitoring, measuring, analysis and management of all events, incidents and problems involving unavailability. These activities are principally involved with within operational roles. 2. Proactive activities: the proactive activities of Availability Management involve the proactive planning, design and improvement of availability. These activities are principally involved within design and planning roles. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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The Availability Management process diagram
18.8.1 Availability Management and SaaS When somebody purchases SaaS services, there is the unwritten expectation that the software will be available 24x7. Most SaaS organizations don‟t proactively market or communicate realistic availability targets or achievements. Use this process for the clarification of definitions, terminology and understanding. Make sure everybody is „on the same page‟ when it comes to Availability Management. Where does a business‟ accountability stop, and where does the ISP take over? With SaaS a business is always at the mercy of an Internet connection... in some countries this is very reliable, in others it is not!
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As discussed with Information Security Management, the security policies are within the process of Availability Management. This is when security boundaries and limits are created. How can ID/password policies be implemented in such a way that customers feel that a business is doing the right thing? What redundancy policies are in place? Especially when dealing with a virtualization model, fail-over systems may need to be considered. It is never acceptable to lose a customer‟s data, and this scenario needs to be covered in your SLAs or OLAs that are in place to safeguard agreements and promises made to customers. The required reliability and resilience of a business‟ technical infrastructure must be considered, as well as the quality of the internal (maintenance) processes and qualifications / skill levels of IT staff members. All of these components work towards high levels of availability in a complex SaaS environment.
18.8.2 Availability Management and Web Applications Availability Management is concerned with the delivery of the highest level of systems availability at a justifiable cost. In particular, the process attempts to ensure that an IT component performs at a specific level over a period of time as agreed between customer and supplier. To maintain availability, the IT department needs to monitor the following points: Reliability – how well does the component function under normal and described conditions? Maintainability – how well can the component remain in or be restored to its operational state? Serviceability – how well can a component be maintained by an external supplier under a third party contract? Resilience – how well can the component resist operational failure? Security – how well can the component maintain confidentiality, integrity, and availability?
19 Using the Web to Promote ITIL The technology of the web is very conducive for implementing and monitoring the disciplines of ITIL. Three types of applications can be built to support the processes: Monitoring SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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Workflow Documentation Libraries.
ITIL is a standard which manages the IT environment effectively and efficiently. Being evaluated for ITIL compliance adds a certain assurance that the disciplines will be properly implemented. As a standard, some guarantees are in place. The first guarantee is that data is available to show how the different aspects of the IT solution are working to meet the service requirements placed on them. The second guarantee is that the processes and its components are clearly defined, including roles and responsibilities and cross process relationships. The third guarantee is that the required databases are in place to support the IT service. These guarantees all mention the existence of the components that make up the requirement framework for effective ITIL implementation, but their existence does not guarantee that the components are being used effectively. Fortunately, with these guarantees in place, the foundation for creating a web application around ITIL is also in place. The first type of application possible is monitoring the services required by the customer. One of the web technologies for applications is the mashup. With this technology, three possibilities can be fulfilled: the ability to monitor two or more distinct functions in parallel; the ability to combine the data for two or more distinct functions together to do trend analysis, for instance, combining measurements for availability and capacity to identify the relationship between the two; and the ability to combine the data of two of more distinct functions in a cause and effect relationship, for instance the number of changes that are the result of problems. The advantage of the mashup for monitoring the IT infrastructure lies in the user interface. In mashups, the user defines what they want to see in the interface and, ultimately, the interface can be different for each user. This promotes supporting the diverse responsibilities in business. For instance, a system administrator will want to see more detail in what they are monitoring than the overview statistics appropriate to an executive manager. It the same comparison, the system administrator is wants to map data to ensure that the operation is intact, while the executive is looking to map the data to finances. For each user, how the information is interpreted is just as important as having the information available and the ability to build their own interface only serves to have the data interpreted in the desire way. Additionally, if the mashup component that allows the data to be interpreted in the desired way does not exist, the development of such a component is made simpler using web technologies. Even if the system from which the data is retrieved is a traditional non-web implementation, the technologies of the web hold the keys for tapping into these applications and retrieving the data necessary for monitoring. And SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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the web technologies do not stop there. If they can be used to retrieve information, they can also be used to enter information into the system. One of the problems faced in any IT organization is the diverse range of applications in place to ensure that operations are maintained. These applications are diverse in the languages they use, their handling of data, and their functional purposes. Previously, to have two or more of these applications communicating with each other required a bridge that was extensively developed and acted as a third application. Web development can create this bridge as an add-on to both applications or even all applications used within the environment. In creating these “bridges,” the possibility of creating applications that contribute to workflow management is realized. Workflow management specifically focuses on moving work through several processes and in doing so identifying bottlenecks for work and improvements to the support infrastructure or processes. For IT support, workflow opportunities are everywhere. For instance, when an incident happens, a “ticket” is created and routed to the first level of support. If a resolution cannot be applied at this level, the ticket is routed to the next level of support. This routing usually involves moving the ticket from one support team's queue to the next. Depending on the context of the incident and its severity, further notification may be required. Furthermore, if the incident is caused by a known error, the resolution may be attached to the ticket for purposes of understanding how often a particular resolution is utilized. If the incident is not caused by a known error, then the resolution or workaround will be placed in the ticket when it is found, allowing the database holding all known errors and resolutions to be populated with the new information. But the workflow doesn't necessarily end at this point. If an incident is unresolved, it is now taken over by the problem management process where the problem is diagnosed and a resolution sought out. Once a resolution is found, the change management process is now initiated to implement the resolution accordingly. Since all changes are essentially changes to one or more configuration items, the configuration management process is not evoked to complete the change. The work can continue depending on the impact of the problem and resolution, but this short description will suffice. Essentially, a single ticket can move through the incident management, the problem management, the change management, and the configuration processes. Unfortunately since the processes are different, the likelihood exists that the databases supporting the processes are different and may not communicate between each other. Using web technologies, a ticket can be created, and based on sufficient checkpoints, be automatically routed through the processes, updating the appropriate databases along the way.
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Every ticket has specific information that can act as triggers for how it should be handled. Severity, which describes the potential impact on the business from critical to minor, will require that ticket be handled as a major event, even a disaster, if the severity is considered critical. The normal processes for handling incidents are not bypassed, but additional processes are invoked that run parallel. In a critical disruption of service, the technical support teams are still attempting to resolve the incident and potential problem and, at the same time, business management is attempting to minimize the impact of the disruption. Tracking the activities of both groups may be necessary for ensuring that everything is communicated and the results can be analyzed at a later time. Web applications have already shown some success in build components that allow successful collaboration. Finally, a number of databases exist within the IT support environment with the goal of supporting the processes. Each of these databases serves a specific purpose and is typically assigned to a specific process. For instance, the Configuration Management Database is assigned to the process called configuration management. Change records are housed in a change management database that is assigned to Change Management. Known errors are stored in their own database and assign to both the incident management and problem management processes. These databases usually consist of information that is similar and as such have relationships that are not usually exploited by a service organization. Web application development can create a solution that can assist in establishing their relationships, retrieving the information from several databases to compile into a single record and updating the databases when new information is created. However, simply connecting databases and displaying the results is not the only advantage to using the web for documentation purposes. First of all, the web has always been a documentation-centric technology, using hyperlinks as a way to holistically apply relationships inherent with information. With the advent of Web 2.0 technologies, the area of document management is advanced with blogs and wikis. A combination of the two provides a method to distribute technical support information through subscriptions and encourage obtaining technical information from every person supporting IT. What if change management was essentially a blog with forms and the reviewers and approvers could cater their subscriptions to allow only different types of changes? What if the Known Error database was a wiki that fed the problem management database and vice versa; so that resolutions would be readily available depending on the problem description or the wiki could be updated and refined where no resolution was found? The benefits attributed to any web application are present with applications designed to promote ITIL. Tapping into the collective intelligence of the entire technical support group provides the foundation for collaboration during and in between incidents. In SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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traditional support architectures, the different levels of support are distinct and often uncommunicative. This is typically due to the skill set difference and the organization of the department. Tapping into the collective intelligence provides an opportunity to not only communicate information but seek out information when knowledge is not known or published. The objective is to create a richer set of support knowledge to understand the application and the customer better.
19.1 IT Service Continuity Management (ITSCM) Objective: The goal of ITSCM is to support the overall Business Continuity Management process by ensuring that the required IT technical and service facilities (including computer systems, networks, applications, data repositories, telecommunications, environment, technical support and Service Desk) can be resumed within required, and agreed, business timescales. A lifecycle approach should be adopted to the setting up and operation of an ITSCM process. ITSCM is a cyclic process through the lifecycle to ensure that once service continuity and recovery plans have been developed they are kept aligned with the Business Continuity Plans (BCPs) and business priorities. Initiation and requirements stages are principally BCM activities. ITSCM should only be involved in these stages to support the BCM activities and to understand the relationship between the business processes and the impacts caused on them by loss of IT service. As a result of these initial BIA and Risk Analysis activities, BCM should produce a Business Continuity Strategy, and the first real ITSCM task is to produce an ITSCM strategy that underpins the BCM strategy and its needs. The Business Continuity Strategy should principally focus on business processes and associated issues (e.g. business process continuity, staff continuity, buildings continuity). Once the Business Continuity Strategy has been produced, and the role that IT services has to provide within the strategy has been determined, an ITSCM strategy can be produced that supports and enables the Business Continuity Strategy. This ensures that cost-effective decisions can be made, considering all the „resources‟ to deliver a business process. Failure to do this tends to encourage ITSCM options that are faster, more elaborate and expensive than are actually needed. The activities to be considered during initiation depend on the extent to which continuity facilities have been applied within the organization. Some parts of the business may have established individual Business Continuity Plans based around manual workarounds, and IT may have developed continuity plans for systems perceived to be SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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critical. This is a good input to the process. However, effective ITSCM depends on supporting critical business functions. The only way of implementing effective ITSCM is through the identification of critical business processes and the analysis and coordination of the required technology and supporting IT services. The situation may be even more complicated in outsourcing situations where an ITSCM process within an external service provider or outsourcer organization has to meet the needs not only of the customer‟s BCM process and strategy, but also of the outsourcer‟s own BCM process and strategy. These needs may be in conflict of with one another, or may conflict with the BCM needs of one of the other outsourcing organization‟s customers. However, in many organizations BCM is absent or has very little focus, and often ITSCM is required to fulfill many of the requirements and activities of BCM. The rest of this section has assumed that ITSCM has had to perform many of the activities required by BCM. Where a BCM process is established with Business Continuity Strategies and Plans in place, these documents should provide the focus and drive for establishing ITSCM.
IT Service Management diagram
19.1.1 IT Service Continuity Management and SaaS
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In theory everybody understands that there are situations that are unusual and out of a business‟ control. However, when these situations take place, your customers are not as understanding as they could be. And that‟s their right. They subscribe to a business‟ software services because they trust that it‟s doing the right things. They don‟t want to carry the cost and risk of managing & operating the software in-house – that‟s why they pay the premium for the service. But this doesn‟t mean that they will accept everything! SaaS clients are usually locked into a „pay as you go‟ contract or another relatively short-term contract. So when the service is below par, it is easy for them to go elsewhere. This needs to be considered when designing and implementing the ITSCM processes, plans and policies. And don‟t forget that communication steps need to be built into the process. The client is often the first to find out that something is wrong, so they must be given the courtesy of proactive communication to let them know what is happening and how long it is going to repair. The only way this can be achieved is by testing the procedures on a regular basis.
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20 Applying Cloud Computing to Project Management 20.1 Benefiting from Cloud Computing The benefits of cloud computing include quicker implementations and lower costs while providing greater scalability, adaptability, and reliability to the environment. Especially in terms of web applications, a solution can be available at any time, in any location, by any person. As use of the application increases or decreases, the cloud solution adjusts accordingly. The previous pages attempted to show the benefits of project management applied to cloud computing. The following pages will explore the benefits of cloud computing to project management. Some of the ideas explored here have solutions found within the cloud environment, especially in Independent Software Environments (IDEs) used for software development. Cloud computing solutions exploit a number of distinct technologies. Virtualization is a technique used to create an abstract rendering of a physical component. For instance, storage volumes can be virtualized. With a virtual volume, the storage capacity can be increased, partitioned without partitioning the physical drive, or merging the volume with other storage devices to create a single large volume. Virtualization allows for increased scalability, reliability, and portability to occur. Web 2.0 is a perspective change for how to use the web. Often referred to as a technology, Web 2.0 provides a number of options that make web applications just as rich as desktop applications. Open source is a concept supporting total collaboration between developer and user. Often attributed to application development, the concept is also applicable to any number of solutions where user knowledge is utilized extensively to generate the product that the user is concurrently using. The idea ultimately encourages development in production. Seven benefits are available to project management when adapting cloud computing capabilities: The ability to interlink distinct components together as a complete whole. For instance, linking activity with cost, time, risks, quality, and resources. Many project management solutions already do this to some extent; however, with cloud computing the options can be expanded to include historical information, SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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feedback, and particular notes. To support communication specifically with stakeholders requiring performance reports, the use of subscription services allow distribution of information to have greater potential and customizable by the stakeholders themselves. Many aspects of project management can be present at any given time and with an application, the possibility of an interface that allows each aspect to deliver is highly probable with web applications. One of the risks to project management is ensuring that all the right players are involved in the project to ensure that everything that needs to be done on the project has been planned. With cloud computing, participation by all parties is possible. The core tenet of cloud computing is the ability to focus on components as parts of the whole allowing an individual component to be added, removed, expanded, and reused without impact the whole. The capabilities of the web allow portability. First of all, a web application can be accessed anywhere, at anytime, by anyone with only a browser and a connection to the Internet. Second, with the business logic of the application on an Internet server, nothing is lost between multiple users. A main drive of web applications and cloud computing is improved, richer user experience. Improving the experience of individuals on a project will encourage communication, productivity, and morale.
20.2 The Ease of Linking (Hyperlinks) Looking at the construction of the web, one will see a series of documents in place, basically organized through the URL hierarchy, and with some programming scripts to provide some interest. Though all of these components make up an effective website and web application, the one construct that makes the web, the web has always been the ability to hyperlink. Hyperlinks are connections from an original page to a source document. By clinking on a hyperlink, a user can be moved from one page to another. By hovering over the link, information can be made available to the user. Through searches, multiple hyperlinks can be generated on a single page based on relevancy for users to peruse. Hyperlinks can be used to transform basic pieces of data into rich volumes of information by creating relationships. A database is usually found in the back end of an application that holds data and created relationships, such as a person's name and their job position. Using the web and hyperlinks, relationships can be expanded to incorporate multiple databases. So in addition to a name and a job position, the person's personal profile and the job description for the position can be connected. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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This connection can be presented as links in a single page or the full or partial renderings of the sources can be presented. There are several perspectives that are prevalent in project management, each with some level of importance to the users. But the perspectives all rely on the need to understand the relationships with different pieces of data. Most project management solutions handle the basic relationships, such as the relationship between activity, cost, schedule, and resources. Some solutions even provide notes for referencing. However with hyper linking, any document or parts of a document can be referenced allowing risks and risk responses. Contractual terms, historical information, procurement proposals and supplier information, quality requirements and the like can be linked to a single activity. By having the activity show all related information pertaining to it, all participants on the project can better understand and manage the work expected. The greatest aspect of this solution is that the information can exist in multiple databases and separate locations. Even connections with existing and past projects can be made. In situations where similar project are performed, like building a house with similar designs, connections can be made very easily. Why make these connections? Each constructed building can have its unique attributes: location, features, options, even contractors can be different. Using the designs as the starting point, a construction company can identify and compare the differences between buildings using the same design. The opportunities available are to assist in understanding requirements, risks, and unplanned threats to a particular project. For instance by referencing contractors familiar with the design, a replacement contractor can be found quickly if the original supplier is unable to do the job. What is linked and to what extent the linkages are made is left only to the imagination of the performing organization.
20.3 Subscribing to Success (Blogging) Imagine compiling information into the next status report, categorizing it and posting it out to the web. Without any extra effort, a notification of the report is sent to every stakeholder interested in the project. Within minutes, responses to the report start to show up in the next day, all the responses are compiled for the project team meeting to review and answer. The situation just provided is just one of the ways blogs can assist in project management. Blogs utilize a subscription web service to ensure that people, who want to be informed, are. Used by many columnists, professional and amateur, on the web, a blog is a mechanism used to post information; with logic to identify who is SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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interested in the information for a notice to be sent. The identity of interested parties was provided by the people themselves when they “subscribed” to the blog. Since a blog is basically a web page, the format of the report can include anything that a typical web page can include. Imagine again that the project is going along nicely. Coming into work early, the computer is turned on, and waiting for you is a list of all the project activities that are currently being performed, the ones that were completed the previous day, and the ones that are late are highlighted. As a project manager, the list includes all the activities of the project. As a project team member, the list includes only those which are assigned to them or have a dependency on. The mechanism used to compile this information from a project plan is the same used by blogs. At the heart of the blogging feature is the RSS technology. Really Simple Syndication (RSS) allow a person to subscribe to a web page so that when it changes, they are notified. The technology is not attached to the webpage though, but to the link between the user and the web page. A RSS feed allows these links to exist. Aside from blogging, the RSS technology has made another significant contribution: permalinks, or permanent links. With the permalink feature, users can link to other user‟s websites, link to individual comments on a page, use “trackbacks” to other links to the page by other others, or respond to those other links, thus creating a two-way link. In project management, permalinks can provided a variety of associations between items. For instance, dependencies within a project can use permalinks to make two way associations possible, so that the project team can identify the activities and their dependencies, both dependent upon as well as depended for. Hyperlinks provided a way to show one way relationships between two items. RSS has allowed two way associations to be made. The use of RSS in blogging solutions has provided a new platform for gaining information within business. For project management, it‟s a simple way of keeping stakeholders informed of what is going on with the project.
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20.4 Interfacing with the Project (Mashups) During project management, the number of items to be monitored and controlled is considerable. For the project manager, the concerns include: Is the scope of the project intact? What are the current issues impacting scope? Are we on schedule? What's late? What is about to start? What is about to finish? What issues are impacting the schedule? Are we in budget? Where are we about to go over? What threats are present impacting project costs? Who is supposed to be performing activities on the project today? Are all the equipment and materials required available? What issues do we have against resources? What is the next milestone? How close are we? When the next meeting? What information needs to be communicated? What risks are important to monitor today? This is just a sampling of what the project manager is looking at for the day, or the week. And they are not alone. Though the focus of the information may be different, the project team members and the stakeholders are looking at similar information. Unfortunately, the information that any person is looking at is typically located in several locations. In order to get the information, the source needs to be retrieved and scanned to find the information. Using a project management engine as a web application, the information from these multiple sources can be retrieved, compiled, and presented to the user in a single interface. The technique used to make this possible is commonly referred to as “mashups.” They are web applications designed to allow the user to customize their web interface to allow multiple sources of information to be presented at the same time. With the ability to customize the interface, the user can determine what information needs to be displayed at any given time. Each user could have a different interface to the project, one specifically designed by them to meet their information concerns. To allow mashups to work, the application developer simply needs to link the source of the information to the application. Some translation may be required to build relationships and associations, but once the information is readable and the criteria is set for how it is read it is ready. At that point, the source becomes a component in the list of components available for the user, like a catalogue. The developer can also create relationships between multiple sets of data; for instance, mapping the project plans to the risk responses to change requests. Each piece of data is found in different sources, but is combined to show in the user's interface of the project.
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20.5 Everyone is a Project Manager (Open Source) One of the constraints of the tools used for project management is that they are built for use by project managers. Though nothing is wrong in this, it does alienate other people who are not familiar with project management needs and concerns. In some cases, these people are simply involved to provide resources to the project. Unfortunately, they are being asked to use these tools. And even with project managers, one characteristic starts coming into play: the behaviors of the individual start to change to accommodate the tool. This characteristic always becomes a problem. Extreme adversity towards changing behaviors will result in the tool not being used at all. Modest adversity often leads to not using it to its fullest capabilities or incorrectly. Though the initial focus is on a project management tool, the same characteristic can be found inside a project. Many projects claim to fail because of lack of teamwork, communication, and understanding. Though these reasons are valid, the more likely source of failed projects is forced behavior changes. When an individual or group is forced to behave contrary to their nature or experience, resistance starts to appear. If the resistance is coming from one or two individuals on a project because they are new to project management, concerns with project failure will not come up, though a risk may be present. When the entire team are being asked to change their behavior, the probability of failure increases. An easy solution to this problem is readily available: encouraged participation in every aspect of the project and the project management tool. The philosophy behind this solution is “open sourcing” the project or tool. How is this done? Starting with the project, it means making the project plan a truly living project. In many project management situations, the individual contributions to the project plan are made and compiled by the project manager. The organization of the project plan is completed by the project manager and reviewed with the project team during a meeting when the plan is distributed. Collaboration is controlled and input to the plan before, during, and after. This is the traditional method of project planning. However, what if the project plan is located in a central location that everyone updates? As people update, feedback is provided on specific entries detailing requirements, dependencies, risks, or questions. The critical components of the plan are quickly identified and agreed upon by the team. The organization of the plan may be directed by the project manager, but everyone has a say in its construction. And when the plan is complete, the collaboration continues with change controls in place. Eventually, the project plan will be complete and have a richer quality to them than available through traditional means. And the trend of open sources has shown that the work is done in far less time than the traditional method because the collaborative component has improved. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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The same method can be applied to the project management tool. By allowing users to input their needs into the project management tool, eventually a tool is available for use by all users, not just project managers. The core of the tool or the project does not change, but the behavior changes to match that of the project management team. Such changes to behavior characteristics within an application required extensive budgets to build and maintain customized applications, some of which were never fully used by the users. In the cloud, the application is developed as it‟s being used as and at a far less investment than traditionally required. The underlining theme behind open sourcing is collaboration, at any time, for anything. The theme continues during project execution. Traditionally, when a problem arises during the performance of an activity, the performing party notifies the project manager and the two may attempt to find a resolution. Other team members may get involved at the request of the performing party or the project manager, but the group looking at the problem is still restricted. In a collaborative environment, everyone has the opportunity to be involved. In most cases, the problem will be resolved faster with a better, more creative solution and in project management; the risks involved are minimized to the greatest extent. Some people may claim that the old adage “too many cooks in the kitchen...” but the truth is, in the largest, most prestigious kitchens of the world, there are always more than one cook.
20.6 Treating the Project as Parts, not the Whole (Reuse) With mashups, different components could be used to create a user interface. The constructs of these components had to be designed and developed, but once done could be used by anyone. Variables set in the components could be changed by the user to allow for further focus on the information retrieved. With blogs and other RSS feeds, users can identify the parts of the project that they want to be regularly informed. The number of feeds available may reach the hundreds, but the user only wants one or two that suit their needs. The concept of reusing predefined components is prevalent in web design and cloud computing. It provides the development of a particular product to be completed much quicker, at far less cost, and fewer risks. Especially for organizations that perform projects of a similar nature repeatedly, such as building a house, or application, or a prototype, the concept of reusing project plans is an attractive notion. PMBOK even encourages the use of historical information and templates to create the necessary documentation on a project. But every project is unique, so some care has to be made to ensure that adoption of historical information is not made blindly. This does not mean that reuse capabilities cannot be encouraged.
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By separating a project into its core deliverables, a project can be split into components. Each component will have its basic relationships, requirements, dependencies, and risks defined. These interactions will exist internally to the components as well as the external interactions identified. By having multiple components available, a project team can identify the components that are required for the project and add it. Changes to the component for a specific project can be noted and used as historical data for the next project without changing the core component. Thinking of the project as a product, the ability to reuse components provides a cheaper, quicker product to market than recreation from scratch. By breaking projects down into reusable components, the technique is now more scalable, flexible, and reliable than traditional methods. How does cloud computing support this endeavor? By using links, entire components can be added to a project plan with the click of a mouse. In minutes, the majority of a project can be created with all the relationships and pertinent information intact. At this time, cloud computing solutions allow business applications to be built in a matter of minutes using components already available. The concept is the same, using the project as the basis for the application. Referring to the relationships is not restricted to the relationships between information, and also the processes of project management. The different components can include the various tools used by project management, like a change control system, or risk response system, or project monitoring systems, or performance reporting. Normally these systems are not interrelated. In web applications, the business logic can stay where it exists, however the presentation layer can show information, workflow, and indicators to be used actively by the project team and stakeholders.
20.7 Testing the Limits (Portability) Portability is a great advantage to any endeavor. Using the web as the basis for building, monitoring, and executing a project, portability is automatically provided. Using a browser and a connection to the Internet, a user can access a project from any location in the world, at any time. In many situations, the performing party is executing several tasks defined by a project at any given time. Many tasks, especially in manufacturing and construction, require not being readily accessible to the project plan to update the situation. So the performing party waits to the end of the day to update the project plan and any related materials. This is particularly valid when the software used to update the project plan is sitting on the computer at the office. However if the performing party had a hand held device able to connect to the Internet like a phone, they could make an update to the project plan on the spot.
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The concept of portability is a simple one. More importantly are the benefits that appear by using a web-based project management. Many project management programs are very expensive and providing a license to every member of a project management team may not be a cost-effective solution. Many project managers have filled the gap by taking status updates from members and updating the plan themselves. However, everyone typically has access to a browser allowing them to update the plan as members of the project team. This potentially reduces the administrative work performed by the project manager while also significantly reducing the cost of licensing of the tools. In cloud computing solutions, the usage is typically monitored and charged, so a company may have several full time project members with a couple of dozen part time members. Traditionally, everyone had one full license despite the usage. With a cloud solution, the usage of the members can be added up and charged, so inactive members would not prove to be an additional cost to license for the company.
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20.8 Final Review Questions 1. Ensuring that cost-justifiable IT capacity in all areas of IT always exists and is matched to the current and future agreed needs of the business, in a timely manner is the goal of . a) ITSCM b) Financial Management c) Capacity Management d) Availability Management
TRUE or FALSE 2. Cloud costs are driven by processors and utilization of disk storage.
3. A Business Impact Analysis is performed during which process? a) b) c) d)
Capacity Management IT Service Continuity Management Service Level Management IT Financial Management
4. Which of the following programming paradigms focuses on the management of state changes? a) Functional b) Object-orient c) Reflective d) Imperative
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21 Answers Introduction Review Questions ANSWERS 1c, 2T, 3a, 4c
Progress Review Questions ANSWERS 1a, 2F, 3b, 4d
Final Review Questions ANSWERS 1c, 2T, 3d, 4d
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22 Certification 22.1 Cloud Computing Certification Pathways IT professionals need to know a whole lot more about the various ways of delivering services to the customers and end-users. It is no longer sufficient just to know the differences between Windows-based or Linux-based architecture. These days, most services will utilize some form of cloud computing, be it virtualization or SaaS offerings. So with the change in computing and IT Service Delivery comes a whole new series of qualifications and certification. The Cloud Computing Certification Scheme has been created to support the IT Professional who needs to be a „niche generalist‟, especially in a rapidly changing area like cloud computing.
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How does the certification pathway work? First, you need to create the foundation – The Cloud Computing Foundation Program focuses on the fundamentals, general knowledge, terminology and BASIC concepts used in cloud computing. This program earns you 2 points toward your Cloud Computing Executive Level Certificate. After this come the Cloud Computing Specialization options. The prerequisite for these programs is that you have the Cloud Computing Foundation certificate. We appreciate that you don‟t need to know everything about each area of the IT organization so this is where the programs become more specialized: Virtualization Software as a Service and Web Applications Platform and Storage Management Each program in this series earns 3 points towards the Cloud Computing Executive Certificate. The next level is „Managing Services in the Cloud‟ and this program is specifically aimed at Service Managers and IT Service Delivery Managers who wish to add cloud computing as an option in their organization‟s delivery model. The program is worth 5 points. How do I achieve my Executive level? You must have a minimum of 16 points to achieve your executive certification. The Foundation level, all Specialist level programs and Managing services in the cloud must be completed in order to gain Executive level certification. Each course provides preparation for the exam and successful candidates receive a certificate results sheet.
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ITIL® Certification Pathways There are many pathway options that are available to you once you have acquired your ITIL® Foundation Certification. Below illustrates the possible pathways that are available to you. Currently it is intended that the highest certification is the ITIL® V3 Expert, considered to be equal to that of Diploma Status.
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22.2 ISO/IEC 20000 Certification Pathways ISO/IEC 20000 Standard is becoming a basic requirement for IT Service Providers and is fast becoming the most recognized symbol of quality regarding IT Service Management processes. ISO/IEC 20000 programs aim to assist IT professionals to master and understand the standard and the issues relating to earning actual standard compliance.
For more information on certification and available programs please visit our website http://www.artofservice.com.au
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23 SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Exam Tips Exam Details
20 multiple-choice questions The correct answer is only one of the four 30 minutes duration 16 out of 20 is a pass Closed-book No notes.
Practical Suggestions
Read the question CAREFULLY.
At this level of exam the obvious answer is often the correct answer (if you have read the question carefully!!).
Beware of being misled by the preliminary text for the question.
If you think there should be another choice that would be the right answer, then you have to choose the “most right”.
Use strategies such as “What comes first?” or “What doesn’t belong?” to help with the more difficult questions.
Organizing your Exam The Art of Service facilitates the SaaS and Web Applications Specialist exam. Please contact us on +61 (7) 3252 2055 or email mail to:
[email protected] to arrange your examination. Make sure that you prepare adequately in the lead up to your exam by reviewing your notes, reading any available material and attempting the sample exams. We wish you luck in your exam and future cloud computing, SaaS and Web Applications career! SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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24 References SaaS http://www.csc.com/mms/saas/en/mcs/mcs1924/index.jsp http://networks.silicon.com/webwatch/0,39024667,39167326,00.htm http://sqi-inc.com/ic/Glossary/SaaS#headda2efc9170ea2f5cf604fdd5331e00779bab4fb8 http://www.crn.com/software/18831096 http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/saas/default.mspx http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/entdev/article.php/3729966/The+Top+Five+Vendor s+Using+SaaS.htm http://www.deitel.com/ResourceCenters/Web20/SoftwareasaServiceSaaS/Softwareasa ServiceSaaSGoogleAppsPremier/tabid/1673/Default.aspx http://www.connectria.com/saas.html http://www.intrahost.co.uk/saas-hosting.html http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/saas/services.mspx http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2008/02/11/office-live-small-businessgets-a-revamp-and-loses-price-tag http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/oct06/10-312007OfficeLivePR.mspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/architecture/aa699384.aspx http://ent.smallbusinessnewz.com/2008/1029.html http://thinkitservices.blogspot.com/2008/10/securing-and-managing-saas-apps.html http://www.redmonk.com/cote/2007/03/20/saas-it-management/ http://buildingsaas.typepad.com/blog/2006/08/software_suppor.html http://seekingalpha.com/article/66151-the-complexities-of-selling-saas
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http://searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com/tip/0,,sid183_gci1318991,00.html# http://articles.bplans.com/index.php/business-articles/starting-a-business/top-10-tips-toknow-before-you-buy-software-as-a-service-or-saas/244 http://www.extranetevolution.com/extranet_evolution/2008/10/a-saas-code-ofconduct.html http://www.worldtrademag.com/Articles/Software_and_Technology/BNP_GUID_9-52006_A_10000000000000327137 http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId= 9042620 http://www.aspnews.com/news/weekly/article.php/3693571 http://www.saasblogs.com/2007/10/16/saas-101-the-drawbacks/ http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId= 9117322 http://wsuccess.typepad.com/webinarblog/2006/09/the_problem_wit.html http://blogs.technet.com/matt_deacon/archive/2007/02/06/2-saas-licensing.aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa905332.aspx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki (Various pages)
Web Applications Group, Butler. Rich Web Applications: the business benefits of Web-enabled application development. Software World: November 2007. http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/172560689.html Winer, Dave. What is a Web Application? March 12, 2000. http://www.scripting.com/davenet/2000/03/12/whatIsAWebApplication.html Indiana University Information Technology Services. What is the Internet? http://kb.iu.edu/data/aasa.html. O'Reilly, Tim. What is Web 2.0?: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of the Software. September 30, 2005. http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html?page=1 SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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Porter, Joshua. UIConf: Web Application Types: Interview, Hub & Spoke, Hybrid. http://bokardo.com/archives/uiconf-web-application-types/ Perfetti, Christine. Deconstructing Web Applications. August 11, 2005; User Interface Engineering. http://www.uie.com/articles/deconstructing_web_applications/ Adamson, Chris. What is Java ? March, 08, 2006. http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2006/03/08/what-is-java.html?page=1 Proto. Mashups: Understanding Mashup Building Platforms for Business Applications. June 2007. www.protosw.com/static/pdf/proto-mashup-whitepaper.pdf JackBe Corporation. Introduction to Enterprise Mashups. June 2007. http://www.jackbe.com/downloads/An%20Introduction%20to%20Enterprise%20Mashups.pdf wiseGeek. What is a Web Application Framework? http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-aweb-application-framework.htm Smith, Michael. What is ColdFusion? http://www.fusionauthority.com/cfintro.cfm Glover, Andrew. Feeling Groovy: Introducing a new standard language for the Java platform. http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-alj08034.html Collins, Chris. Adapting ITIL to Distributed Web Applications. December 6, 2007. http://ccollins.wordpress.com/2007/12/06/adapting-itil-to-distributed-web-applications/ Wily Technology. How to Adapt ITIL to Distributed Web Applications. May 1, 2006. http://securitypark.bitpipe.com/detail/RES/1154707956_630.html Wikipedia. Packet Switching. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_switching Wikipedia. Web Application Framework. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_application_framework Wikipedia. ARPANET. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET Wikipedia. Network Control Program. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Control_Program Wikipedia. Space Race. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide
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Wikipedia. CSNET. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSNET Wikipedia. NSFNET. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSFNET Wikipedia. CERN. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERN Wikipedia. Hypertext. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertext Wikipedia. World Wide Web. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web Wikipedia. Dot-com bubble. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot-com_bubble Wikipedia. Web 2.0. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0 Wikipedia. Web Application. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_application Wikipedia. AJAX. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AJAX Wikipedia. ITIL. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITIL
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INDEX* 66151-the-complexities-of-selling-saas
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A access SaaS 85 Accomplish SaaS 58 account 2, 4, 50-1, 72-3, 79, 128, 136 desktop-based 51 accountability 129 Acrobat Connect and Adobe Document Centre Applications 36 ActionScript 110 activities, proactive 160-1 Adapt ITIL to Distributed Web Applications 188 Adapting ITIL to Distributed Web Applications 188 add-ons 14, 53, 73, 113, 136, 165 adManager 7, 54 Adobe 36, 112 Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) 86 Ajax 8, 40-1, 45, 48, 57, 91, 102, 108, 127, 189 Ajax applications 40, 108 Ajax-based web application 50 Ajax engine 108 Ajax paradigm 108 AJAX technologies 102 allocations 35 Amazon 2, 94, 97-8 ANSI 113 answer, correct 185 Apache 21, 23, 95 APIs 105-6, 116 Apple 101-2 applets 102, 105, 115 application code 113, 140 running core 26 application components 136 application data 25-6 other‟s 44 application database 44 application developer 107, 174 application development 85, 170 rapid 118 application engine 107 Application Host 21 application load 112 application servers 22, 83 application service 46 website creation 46 Application Service Providers 21, 27-8, 40 applications 15-16, 21-2, 25, 27-9, 43-5, 47-8, 85, 90-3, 97-108, 111-13, 115-17, 125-6, 163-7, 170-1, 176-7, 188-9 [17] beta 46-7 building 111 client‟s 27 common 96 customer relations 15 customized 176 default Google Doc 46 demand 40 desktop-based 49
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developing 108 efficient run-time 113 enterprise scale 103 expensive 39 financial 152 graphical 117 highest risk 129 install 17 integrated 22 interview 104 iTunes 102 legacy 100 local backup 25 manages 43 mathematically-based 120 multiple 85, 105 new 114 non-web 91 open source 21 popular 36, 38, 90 presentation 46 resident 85 robust 103 server 86 server-based 125 share 49 spreadsheet 46 subscription-based 55 third 165 traditional 93 traditional client/server 112 web-based interactive 40 web-based mapping 47 word processing 55 word processor 46 Communication 90 applications service 49 ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) 86 ARPAnet 86-7 Art of Service 3, 185 ASP software applications 28 ASP software delivery model 27-8 ASP software services 29 ASP.NET 9, 111 ASP.NET applications 112 ASPs 6, 21, 27-9, 40, 57, 127 aspx 186-7 assemblies 101, 113, 138 assessment 152-4 associations 94-5, 173-4 attributes 122, 128 authorization 151, 153-4 automated process 45, 68 availability 18, 41, 60, 67, 100, 126, 131, 141, 144-5, 155, 161, 163-4 Availability Management 11, 160-3, 179 Availability Management and SaaS 11, 162 Availability Management and Web Applications 11, 163 Availability Management process 160-1, 163 Axentis 6, 36-7, 56 B bandwidth
17-18, 44, 74, 79, 107
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Banking 137 BCM 167-8 BCM activities 167-8 BCM process 168 customer‟s 168 BCPs (Business Continuity Plans) 167 belief 99 benefits 2, 10, 13, 16-17, 25-32, 41-3, 45, 58-61, 77, 79, 96, 125, 136, 140-1, 157, 170 [8] Benefits for Web Applications 125 Benefits of SaaS 30 BENEFITS of SAAS 6 Berners-Lee 89, 94 beta 37, 47 BIA (Business Impact Analysis) 128-9, 179 blogging 8, 11, 50, 96-7, 172-3 blogosphere 96-7 blogs 50, 93, 96-7, 166, 172-3, 176 boards 131-2, 153 board business executive 152 Bowker 98 Brazil 116 bridge 88, 165 browser 4-5, 86, 89, 91-2, 101, 104, 126, 171, 177-8 budget 6, 30-2, 54, 71, 74, 78, 83, 157, 174, 176 bugs 76, 94 building 47, 64, 91, 172, 176-7 business activities 145, 157 everyday 54 business applications 177, 188 based 51 business benefits 187 business can‟t 139 Business Capacity Management 158 business cases 152 business change 136 Business Continuity Management process 167 Business Continuity Plans (BCPs) 167 Business Continuity Strategies and Plans 168 Business Continuity Strategy 167 business core service 53 business culture 130 business disruption 135 business doesn‟t 69, 159 business environment 59 Business Executive Board 153 business faces 64, 83 business functions 168 business goals Improving consistency 136 business hours 67, 156 business hours‟ 67-8 business impact, potential 146 Business Impact Analysis, see BIA business infrastructure 64 business installs software 32 business Internet connection 74 business logic 171, 177 business management 152, 166 executive 132 business models 43, 92-3, 99, 101, 187 traditional 56 traditional based 56 business network 125
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business objectives 132-3 business objects 107 business operations 144 business organization 125 business priorities 145, 167 real-time 145 business process continuity 167 business processes 15, 30, 58, 131-2, 139, 149, 167-8 core 32 business purchases 81 business registers 52 business-related data 61 business-related processes 32, 43, 45, 66 business requirements 158 business risk 149 business sales 85 business sectors 122 business security 131-2 business sites 59, 67 separated 66 business solution 51-2 business success 161 business targets 158 business terms 130 business timescales 167 business website 53 business-wide access credentials 82 businesses 6-7, 17-19, 21-2, 25-7, 29-33, 39-43, 51-4, 56-83, 97-9, 101, 125-6, 128-35, 144-5, 147-9, 156-8, 160-4 [9] changing 157 context of 131 example 76 most 26-7, 61, 76 offline-based 54 save 31 sized 43 small 51-4, 100 unique 56 web-based 56 businesses access 6, 32 businesses headquarters 75 businesses lose 77 businesses peace 76 businesses purchase 81 businesses‟ privacy 61 business‟ 83, 163 business‟ accountability stop 162 business‟s data 26 business‟s work stops 65 bytecodes 114-15 C CAB (Change Advisory Board) 151-3, 156 calendar 50 calendar applications 37, 55-6 calendaring 85, 98 California 36-9 capabilities 102, 142, 145, 147, 171 capacity 85, 106, 117, 146, 157-8, 160, 164, 179 Capacity Management 11, 146, 157, 160, 179 Capacity Management and SaaS 11, 159 Capacity Management and Web Applications 11, 160
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Capacity Management process 157, 160 capacity plan 153, 157 catalogue 2, 174 Categories of SaaS SaaS and Web Applications Specialist 14 centre 93-4, 96 CERN 87-8, 118, 189 certification 12, 181, 184 certification kits 3-4 Certification Pathways 12, 183-4 CFML (ColdFusion Markup Language) 112 Change Advisory Board, see CAB change authority 151, 153 Change Management 10, 135, 148, 151-2, 154-7, 165-6 Change Management and SaaS 10, 156 Change Management and Web Applications 10, 157 Change Management process 148-50, 156, 165 Change Manager 153-4 Change Models 150, 152, 155 change proposal 151-2 Change Schedule 154 charge 24, 44, 49, 52-3, 62, 72-3, 75 Chris 188 CI, see Configuration Item CIs (configuration items) 149, 155, 157, 165 classification 94, 151-2 clauses 62, 67-8, 71, 73, 82 agreement 67-8 clients 16-20, 27-8, 30-2, 38-9, 42, 44, 54, 56, 62, 70-3, 77-81, 83, 89-90, 129-30, 134, 139 [7] service provider‟s 29 software vendor‟s 41 client‟s 28 client‟s business hours 68 client‟s data 62, 65, 69, 76 CLOS (Common Lisp Object System) 113 cloud 34, 170, 176, 182 cloud computing 3, 6, 11, 34-5, 86, 91, 98, 100, 127, 170-1, 176, 181-2, 185 benefits of 170 cloud computing solutions 177-8 CLR (Common Language Runtime) 111 CMS (Configuration Management System) 135, 143, 149, 151 code 52, 85, 107, 111, 114-15, 117, 120 native 114-15 programming 85, 111 ColdFusion 112-13, 188 ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML) 112 collaboration 66, 90, 95, 166, 175-6 collective intelligence 8, 92, 94-5, 97, 166-7 product of 95 Columbus 92 command 187 commodities 92-3 Common Language Runtime (CLR) 111 Common Lisp 9, 113 Common Lisp Object System (CLOS) 113 communication 86-7, 90, 96, 104, 125, 131, 139-40, 171, 175 communications software service offerings 38 communities 95, 97 companies 6, 13, 15, 20, 36, 38-40, 42-3, 51, 54-6, 66, 86, 90-1, 93-5, 97-9, 101-3, 178 [4] software-related 36 company‟s 128-9 competencies 92-3, 99 competition 38, 97-8
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complementing 25 complexity 100, 136, 148, 152 compliance 37, 132-3, 156 Component Capacity Management 158 components 93, 106, 130, 137-8, 153, 158, 160-1, 163-4, 166, 171, 174-7 components work 144, 163 compromise 25-6, 75 computers 57, 86, 90, 94, 101, 119, 122, 173, 177 personal 102 single 35 computing 34-5, 40, 85, 181 grid 6, 21, 35 impacted business 125 concept 17, 25, 86-7, 89-93, 96, 100, 104, 110-11, 120, 122, 128, 143, 170, 176-8 Conclusion to Web Applications Frameworks 120 conditions 15, 18, 70-2, 75, 77, 81, 97, 108 normal 147 confidentiality 100, 106, 131, 163 Configuration Item (CI) 149, 155, 157, 165 configuration items (CIs) 149, 155, 157, 165 Configuration Management System, see CMS Configuration of applications 107 configurations 64, 107, 143 configure 60, 64, 74 conflict 44, 146, 168 conformities 123 conjunction 48, 135-6, 150 connect 26, 62, 85, 87-8, 102, 112, 125, 177 connections 20, 82, 87-8, 94, 126, 160, 171-2, 177 connectivity, direct 81 consequences 32, 67-8, 141, 154 consider 7-8, 42-3, 58-9, 66, 68-9, 74, 83, 148, 154 constraints, service delivery 141 construction 100-1, 171, 175, 177 consumers 15-16, 18-20 contact 5, 21, 37, 79, 108, 145, 147, 185 contact information 52 contact manager 7, 52, 54, 56 content 23, 47, 92-4, 96, 108, 111-12, 122, 134 content software service offerings 38 context 94, 142, 165 continuous improvement 99-100, 155 contracts 8, 62-3, 67, 71, 74, 76, 81-2, 133, 139 solid Service Level Agreement 77 contributions 93, 96, 98, 173, 175 control 16, 19-20, 34, 74-7, 82-3, 94, 99-102, 110, 112, 116, 126-7, 132-3, 148, 152, 158, 188 business‟ 169 copies‟ 21 Corporate-sponsored web services 100 cost-effective actions 158 costs 27-8, 30, 42, 56, 59-62, 70, 72-3, 75, 78-9, 82, 123, 128, 140, 154, 169-70, 178 [4] exit 74-5 extra 30, 32 hidden 30, 32, 62, 72-3 countries 87, 116, 162 Creating applications in ColdFusion 112 creation 87, 92-3, 96, 106, 114, 122 creator 119 credits 23, 71-2 CRM (customer relationship management) 21, 38-9, 103 CRM software services 39 CRM software services and CRM 21
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CSNET 87, 188 customer group 54, 144 customer relationship management, see CRM customers 15, 21, 23-4, 38-9, 41-2, 52-4, 56-8, 60-1, 93, 108-9, 135-6, 139-41, 144, 154-6, 161, 163-4 [17] potential 51, 70 customer‟s business operation xf0b7 Effect 153 customizability 26, 60, 74 customize 26, 50, 53, 174 D DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) 89 data, collected 158 Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom (DIKW) 142 data centers 27-8, 33, 43, 58, 62, 65, 69, 134 Data-Entry Language (DEL) 116 data interchange 24, 108 data management 93 data services 70 data types 110, 122 databases 21, 88, 97-8, 106-7, 112, 125, 131, 143, 165-6, 171 multiple 171-2 days, early 85 Deconstructing Web Applications 188 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) 89 Defense Data Net Network Information Centre 87 definition, technical 104 Definitive Media Library, see DML degree 129-30, 153 DEL (Data-Entry Language) 116 delivery 22-3, 27, 72, 96, 128, 148, 158, 163 tailor service 144 departments 39, 70-1, 83, 126, 163, 167 dependencies 173, 175, 177 deploy 135-6 deployment 10, 19-20, 41, 135-6, 138-9, 155, 161 Deployment Management 134, 139, 154-6 design 47, 100, 104, 108, 115, 117, 122, 133, 147, 161, 172 Design Patterns and Business Models 187 designations 13, 129 desktop applications 92, 125, 170 traditional 91, 104 developers 93, 99, 108, 110, 114-15, 117, 119-20, 125, 170, 174 devices 46, 49, 72, 101-2, 177 handheld 46, 102 mobile 48, 60, 73, 75 multiple 101-2 DIKW (Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom) 142 direction, strategic 131 disciplines 140, 163-4 discovery 92 display 91, 110, 122, 124 disruption 147, 166 Distinguishing Web Applications 8, 104 distribute 135-6, 166 distribution 97, 100, 135-6, 139-40, 171 DML (Definitive Media Library) 137-8 Document Manager 7, 52 Document Object Model (DOM) 108 documentation 27-8, 68, 123, 139, 176 documents 46, 52, 94, 97, 104, 107, 122-3, 152, 156-7, 160, 168, 171-2 doesn‟t 65, 169
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DOM (Document Object Model) domain 52 don‟t 14, 74, 139, 169, 182 dot 17 dynamic part 107
108
E E-Mail Marketing 7, 54 E-Mail Marketing SaaS and Web Applications Specialist 53 eBay 53, 90, 94, 97 eBook 2 ECAB (Emergency CAB) 151, 153 EE (Enterprise Edition) 114 eLearning Programs 5 Emergency CAB (ECAB) 151, 153 employees 39, 52, 56, 58-9, 65, 69, 75, 82-3 emulation 35 end-users 14, 22, 65, 90, 115, 135, 154, 157, 181 engine 108 Enterprise Edition (EE) 114 enterprises 15, 93, 95, 97, 100, 106, 131 ent.smallbusinessnewz.com 186 environment 8, 35, 89, 100, 115, 125, 136, 149, 164-5, 167, 170 live 135-6, 138, 155 operating 32-3 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web 188-9 errors, known 137, 144, 147, 165-6 Establishing data 141 Europe 156 evaluation 150-1, 155 Event and Incident Management processes 160 exam 3, 182, 185 experience 8, 91, 102-3, 139, 142, 156, 171, 175 exploit 94-5, 145 eXtensible Business Reporting Language 123 F failures 131, 144, 161, 167, 175 fee, one-off 15 files 34, 48, 52, 85, 117 Final Review Questions 11-12, 179-80 financial impact 129 Financial Management 10, 85, 128, 130, 179 Financial Management and SaaS 10, 130 Flash 90 Flash application 110 flexibility 18, 20, 26, 41, 61, 86, 100, 114-15, 117, 123 Flickr 90, 95-6 forecasts 157-9 format, digital 85 foundation 122, 124, 164, 166, 182 frameworks 102, 104, 106-8, 110-15, 118-20, 132-4, 188 corporate governance 131 most 106-7, 120 freedom 71, 77, 91 function 29, 32, 43, 52, 104, 106, 111-12, 120, 135, 140 distinct 164 first-class 116-17 functionality 90, 110, 112-13, 116, 145 G games
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General Markup Language (GML) 122 General User Interfaces (GUIs) 85, 112 Gigabytes of storage capacity 55 Gigabytes of storage space 55 Gmail 7, 14, 37, 45, 55 Gmail accounts 45 Gmail email service 55 Gmail service 55 GML (General Markup Language) 122 Goals and Objectives of SaaS 19 Google 6, 19, 37-8, 40, 43, 45-7, 55-6, 76, 92, 97-9, 102, 118 Google Adwords 42 Google Apps 7, 37, 45-6 Google Apps Premiere 55 Google Calendar application service 46 Google Docs 7, 46 Google Docs and Spreadsheet document collaboration services 56 Google Maps 7, 40, 47-8, 98 Google SaaS and Web Applications Specialist 92 Google Site application 47 Google Sites 7, 46-7, 127 Google Talk SaaS and Web Applications Specialist 45 Google's software model 98 Google‟s 42, 45-7, 55 Google‟s email service 55 Google‟s service 56 Google‟s software service 56 governance, corporate 131-2 government 97, 122-3 GPS service 48 graphics 16, 90, 115, 122, 124 Groovy 9, 114, 188 groups 53, 64, 88, 91, 147-8, 151, 153, 155, 166, 175-6, 187 business process 147 growth 91, 97, 99, 143, 158 guarantees 23, 67, 134, 164 GUIs (General User Interfaces) 85, 112 H hardware 30, 35, 58, 60, 69, 78-80, 88, 115-16, 137, 139 Harvard Business School 93 History of SaaS 17 HISTORY of SAAS 6 host 21, 30, 41, 43, 51, 58, 69, 114-15 host machine 14 Hotmail 14, 37, 48, 50-1, 55 HR (human resources) 39 HR software SaaS solutions 39 hub 104, 187 human resources (HR) 39 hyper texting 87-8 hyperlinks 11, 88, 94, 166, 171, 173 hypertext 88-9, 189 I IM (instant messaging) 37, 48 images 52, 88-9, 161 impacting project costs 174 Imperative SaaS and Web Applications Specialist 179 implementation 40, 59, 93, 110, 113, 140, 154-5, 161 actual 61, 63-4, 110 service management 135
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implementing 59, 64, 74, 99, 145, 153-4, 163, 169 implementing SaaS 59-67, 69-70, 72, 77, 83 Implementing Saas 8 Implementing SaaS 60 Incident Management 10, 144-5, 147, 165-6 Incident Management and SaaS 10, 147 Incident Management and Web Applications 10, 147 Incident Management for SaaS 147 incident management processes 160 Incident Manager 146-7 Incident Models 145-6 incident process 146 normal 146 incidents 138-9, 144-7, 161, 165-6 major 146 Indiana University Information Technology Services 187 individuals 82, 97, 142, 155, 171, 175 industry 98, 100, 122, 129 information 13-14, 36, 44, 51, 54, 86, 88, 93-5, 97-8, 106-8, 131, 140-4, 152, 164-7, 171-4, 1767 [10] background 76 compiling 172 configuration 151 controlled 137 customer 52 disseminate 85 example sales 52 extract 104 financial 126 historical 170, 172, 176 invaluable 95 login 82 mapping 48 organization‟s 132 pertinent 177 post 172 product 107 retrieve 91, 165 reusing 142 sharing 87 supplier 172 technical support 166 weather 96 work-related 52 information architecture 141 information exchanges 131 information gathering 156 information management procedures 141 information management system 88 Information Processing Technology Office (IPTO) 86 information provider 101 information security 131-2 information security industry 118 Information Security Management 10, 131, 163 Information Security Management activities 132 Information Security Management and SaaS 10, 134 Information Security Management process 132 Information Security Management SaaS and Web Applications Specialist 145 Information Security Management System, see ISMS Information Security Management Systems 132-3 information security policies 132 Information Security Policy 132
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information security processes 133 information security risks 131 information‟ 131 infrastructure 25, 33, 59-60, 64-6, 69, 78-9, 95, 136, 143, 154, 158, 164 existing 32, 42, 64, 66 physical 78-9 initiation 167 initiator 151-2, 155 innovation 101-2, 115, 125 input 85, 129, 146, 168, 175-6 install 14, 25, 29, 31, 49, 58, 60 installation 30-1, 78, 140 instances 20, 44, 59, 70, 81, 97, 107, 110, 120, 125, 164-6, 170, 172-4 instant messaging (IM) 37, 48 integrity 131, 135, 154, 163 intelligence 8, 94-5 interfaces 55, 87, 104, 111, 117, 136, 149-50, 164, 171, 174 International Standards Organization (ISO) 46, 122, 133 Internet 8, 14, 16-19, 21-2, 25-7, 34, 37, 40, 42-3, 46, 74, 85-92, 96-7, 99-102, 123-6, 177 [8] Internet access, single day 75 Internet and World Wide Web 125 Internet applications 97, 110 Internet-based services 18 Internet companies 19, 94-5, 99 Internet connection 17, 34, 75, 162 dedicated 74-5 Internet Explorer 5, 112 Internet SaaS and Web Applications Specialist 19 Internet Service Provider (ISPs) 74, 162 Internet speeds 17-19, 48-9 Internet users 88 introduction 37, 85, 87-90, 94, 102, 108, 123 Introduction Web Application 106 Introduction Web Application Framework 8 investments 72, 98, 130 iPhone 46 IPTO (Information Processing Technology Office) 86 ISM 131 ISMS (Information Security Management System) 132-3 ISO (International Standards Organization) 46, 122, 133 ISO/IEC 12, 184 ISPs (Internet Service Provider) 74, 162 IT SERVICE CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT, see ITSCM ITIL 11-12, 163-4, 166, 183, 189 ITSCM (IT SERVICE CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT) 11, 161, 167-8, 179 ITSCM processes 167-9 ITSCM strategy 167 iTunes 90, 97, 102 J Java 9, 23, 102, 113-16, 120, 188 Java applications 115 Java-based application 48 Java bytecode 115 Java-compatible applications Providing Java EE application 113 Java platform 114, 188 Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 115 Java Virtual Machine, see JVM JavaScript 48, 57, 90, 102, 108, 116 JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) 108 job position 171
114
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JRE (Java Runtime Environment) 115 JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) 108 judgments 142-3 JVM (Java Virtual Machine) 114-16 K keywords knowledge Knowledge Knowledge
93, 95, 118 34, 95, 135, 141-4, 158, 167, 182 Management 10, 140, 142, 144, 156 Management and SaaS 10, 144
L language 21, 24, 88, 110, 114-19, 122-3, 165 laptops 59-60, 75, 101 leverage customer self-service 93 liability 13 licenses 15-16, 30, 70, 81, 178 licensing agreements 81-2 Lichleder 86 lightweight 8, 92, 98, 100, 116-17 limitations 47, 93, 140 links 2, 5, 51, 73, 87-9, 94, 96, 171, 173-4, 177 permanent 96, 173 return 96 Linux 21, 23, 95 Lisp 113, 117, 119 list 53, 104, 173-4 location 36-9, 98, 105, 125-6, 141, 170, 172, 174-5, 177 log-on 51 Lua 9, 116 M machines 17, 20-1, 25, 30-1, 42, 46, 69, 80, 82, 85, 125 maintenance 65, 106, 130, 138, 141, 157, 163 Managed Service Provider 22, 24 management 19, 22, 41, 76, 129-32, 138, 141, 146, 152-3, 155, 158, 161, 170 customer relationship 21, 38-9 executive 131-3 workflow 165 management strains 19-20 Managing Services 182 mapping facilities 107 MapQuest 90, 97-8 market 18, 53-4, 85, 91, 94-5, 97-8, 100, 103, 115, 162, 177 markup languages 9-10, 24, 122, 124 extensible 23-4, 123 mashups 11, 98, 105, 164, 174, 176, 188 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 89 matter 39, 63-4, 66-7, 91, 93, 99, 130, 177 mechanism 88, 97, 107, 172-3 media 94-5, 98 meeting 63, 65, 136, 174-5 service level management review 156 Megabytes 55 members 116, 156, 178 Microsoft 6, 14, 17, 19, 37-8, 40, 43, 48-53, 55-6, 76, 92, 97, 99, 102, 111-12, 127 Microsoft Office Live Essentials 55 Microsoft‟s 23, 48, 50-1, 53, 55 Microsoft‟s core software services 48 Microsoft‟s instant messaging software 49 Microsoft‟s Office Live Essentials 56 Microsoft‟s premiere instant messaging application 48
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Microsoft‟s service 56 migrating 7, 58 migration 7-8, 58, 60 millennium 17-18, 88 Minimal disruption of services Reduction 157 MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 89 Mobile 48 mobile phone users 46 models 24, 41, 56, 94, 99, 119, 130, 146, 158 hosted SaaS application delivery 58 pay-as-you-go payment 20, 70-1 product-based delivery 42 product-based software 43 service-based delivery 42 service-based software 43 service-orientated 41 subscription-based 17-19, 21 modes 111-12 Monday morning 139 money 16, 18-20, 28, 30-1, 74 save businesses 30 monitor 44, 54, 80-2, 132, 163-4, 174 monitoring 7, 44, 81, 160-1, 163-4, 177 Mosaic 89 Mosaic web browser 89-90 Most applications 85, 115 Most desktop-based applications 54 Most SaaS 42, 44-5, 60, 62, 71, 78 Most SaaS organizations don‟t 162 movies 94, 102 MSN messenger 48 older versions of 49 MSP 22, 24 mspx 38, 186 multiple computers, role of 35 multiple users 20, 30, 41, 43-5, 70, 80, 85-6, 88, 104, 171 multiple users accessing 44 N name, domain 51-2, 55, 88, 97 National Centre for Supercomputing Applications National Science Foundation 87 NCP (Network Control Program) 87, 188 Net-Native 22 Net-Native software applications 22 Netflix 102 Netscape 90, 92, 102 NetSuite 17, 38, 56 network connections 79, 81 Network Control Program (NCP) 87, 188 networks 40, 43, 80-1, 86-8, 126, 149, 167 hundred 87 traditional 125-6 New Success for Web Applications in AJAX 108 New World 92 newsletter 54 NNTP 96 nodes 86-7, 89 non-SaaS 79 notification 94, 96, 165, 172 NSFNET 87, 189
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O objectives 20, 59, 63, 131-2, 135, 156, 160 Objectives of SaaS 19 OBJECTIVES of SAAS 6 objects 98, 110, 113-14, 118 OD, see On demand Office Live Business 54 offline 18, 22, 25, 49, 90, 123 offline messaging 48-9 On demand (OD) 21-2, 40-1, 43 On-Premise Software 22 online 2, 36, 38, 42, 49, 55-6, 90 business activities 51 customer information 52 popular desktop applications 36 popular software applications 36 single location 52 users connect 26 open source software products 95 operating systems 21, 48, 51, 56, 58, 69, 92, 101, 104, 115, 117, 119 operations 99, 101, 148, 161, 164-5, 167 organizations 35, 40, 52, 56, 64-5, 67, 76, 128, 131-5, 140, 142-3, 145-9, 155, 161, 167, 175-6 [2] organization's service costs 136 organization‟s customers 128 outsourcing 168 outsource 27, 29 ownership 15 Ownership of information 97 ownership SaaS 97 owning 93, 98 P packets 86 pages 4, 47, 63, 88, 90-1, 94, 96-7, 104, 106-7, 110-12, 123, 170-1, 173, 187-8 master 111 single 171 participation 91, 93, 99, 171 particular software application 16, 29, 32, 41, 43, 61, 70, 81 parties 19, 97, 141, 171-2 partners 95, 104, 131, 133 party, performing 176-7 Pay-Per-Click (PPC) 42 paying 15, 27, 31, 42, 69-72, 75, 77 payment options 71 monthly 71 performance 8, 39, 44, 67, 72, 80-1, 107, 111, 115, 158, 160, 176-7 performance levels 80-1 performance SaaS 170 Perl 9, 57, 95, 114, 117-20 permalinks 96, 173 permission 13, 15, 47 person 13, 82, 146, 153, 166, 170-1, 173-4 personal diaries 96 perspectives 18, 44, 90, 148, 172 phone calls 49, 139 photos 50, 96 PHP 9, 95, 112, 117-18 phrase 22, 67, 101 pioneer 93, 95, 104 piracy 16, 19 pitfalls 70, 73-4
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Planning SaaS and Web Applications Specialist 149 plans 36, 60, 64, 132, 157-8, 160, 168-9, 175, 178 platform 23, 39, 86, 90, 92-3, 101, 104, 106, 114-15, 117, 123, 125, 140, 173 platform-as-a-service 39 platform-related bottlenecks 80 policies 69, 76, 132-3, 150, 169 policy , information classification 133 POP3 email application 55 Popular web-based email service providers 14 popularity 55, 95, 108, 114, 120, 123 portability 11, 115, 170-1, 177-8 power 35, 65, 77, 86, 93, 97, 100, 110 PPC (Pay-Per-Click) 42 prediction 158 presentations 46, 91, 111 presenter 98 price 18-19, 55 pricelist 130 prioritization 128, 151-2 priority 85, 135, 146 problem management 148, 150, 165 problem management processes 165-6 problems 5, 8, 27-8, 32, 42-4, 63-4, 66-7, 69-70, 72, 74-5, 77, 92, 123, 146-8, 164-5, 175-6 [7] common 75, 83 processes 21, 23, 31, 40, 44-5, 58, 61, 65-6, 99, 128, 132-3, 139, 144-7, 155-9, 161-6, 168-9 [9] controlled 148 important 134, 156 straightforward 63, 73 support-related 78 processing power 21, 44, 85 productivity, lost 128-9 products 13, 15, 19, 41, 53-4, 86, 90-1, 94-5, 97-9, 101, 103-4, 107, 115, 118, 130, 176-7 [2] web-based 124 professionals 30, 64-5, 68, 181, 184 profits 16, 18, 28, 130 programmer productivity 118-19 programmers 90, 95, 111-12, 114, 120, 122 programming 110-11, 117, 120 object-oriented 113 programming languages 40, 110, 113-14, 116-17, 119-20, 124 object-oriented 110, 114, 119 programming paradigms 119-20, 179 multiple 118-19 programs 4, 14, 86, 96, 114-16, 159, 182, 184, 188 cost-effective information security 133 Progress Review Questions 10, 12, 127, 180 project 11, 53, 87-9, 170-7 project management 11, 155, 170-7 project management team 176, 178 project management tool 53, 175-6 project manager 7, 11, 53, 173-6, 178 project plan 173-5, 177 project team 173, 175, 177-8 project team members 173-4 Projected Service Outage (PSO) 154 promise 23, 87, 90, 96, 103, 115, 118-19, 163 properties 15, 110-11, 122 proposal 88-9, 119 protection 101, 126, 131-2 protocols 87-8, 96, 100, 105 providers 27, 60, 62, 71, 75, 78, 94 commercial Internet service 87
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external service 168 shift service 66 third party service 26 Prudent business practices 132 PSO (Projected Service Outage) 154 publishers 13, 95, 98 purpose, core 92 purpose programming language 117-18 Python 9, 95, 114, 118, 120 Q quality 60, 99, 140-1, 144, 163, 170, 175, 184 quality service management 148 R Really Simple Syndication, see RSS reason 18, 27, 56, 62-3, 66, 94, 101, 145, 152, 154 recommendations 95, 157 reduction 16, 144, 160 redundancies 125 rejection 151-2, 154 relationships 82, 102, 154, 164, 166-7, 171-2, 174, 177 release 32, 135-6, 140, 156 Release and Deployment 135-6, 138, 155 Release and Deployment and SaaS 10, 139 Release and Deployment Management 134, 139, 154, 156 Release Management 140 Release Management and Web Applications 10 Release Management and Web Applications SaaS 139 release packages 135, 137 release units 136-7, 139 reliability 100, 106, 123, 125, 170 request information 72 interview type applications 104 research, scientific 85 research criteria 61-2 resilience 161, 163 resistance 175 resolution 146-8, 165-6, 176 resource requirements 152, 154 resource utilization 157-8 resources 7, 20-1, 24, 31, 35-6, 45, 89, 92-3, 104-6, 125, 136-7, 144-6, 153-4, 157-8, 160, 174-5 [4] enterprise information 131 human 39 resources SaaS 104 responsibilities 43, 62, 82-3, 131, 134, 138, 150, 154-5, 164 restore service operations 147 restrictions 106, 120, 122 results 35, 85-6, 89, 92-3, 95, 104-5, 108, 115-17, 124, 128, 136, 145, 155, 157, 164, 166-7 [1] return 69, 108, 111, 152, 154 review 2, 151-2, 155-6, 172 RFC 151-2, 156 risks 37, 73, 77, 129, 131, 148, 150, 152-6, 159-60, 169-72, 174-7 roles 38, 59, 64-5, 82-3, 128, 135, 144, 146, 153, 155, 164, 167 rowboat 100 RSS (Really Simple Syndication) 94, 96, 100-1, 173, 176 RSS technology 96, 173 Ruby 9, 114, 118-20 S Saas
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SaaS 14-21, 25-8, 30, 32, 36-8, 40-1, 55, 57-71, 73-8, 81-3, 102, 112, 162, 186 SAAS 6-8, 12 benefits of 30, 75 classifying 94 connection-related bottlenecks 80 eLearn Component 3 email policy 132 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSNET 188 formal 88 guide 60 helped 40, 127 hosting space 51 ignored 17 multiple users 30 orientated 15 popular 40 redundant 93 server 108 telephony 90 using 19, 31-2, 39, 75-6 www.artofservice.com.au 184 Monitoring 163 SaaS and Web Application development 128 SaaS and Web Applications 128, 185 SaaS and Web Applications Specialist 4-13, 15-18, 20-7, 31-4, 41-4, 46-50, 68-73, 75-9, 81-4, 98101, 113-31, 133-8, 141-4, 150-62, 171-8, 180-9 [18] SaaS application services 58 SaaS applications 59, 61 SaaS applications services 25 SaaS-based applications 25, 71 SaaS-based environment 82 SaaS-based services 83 SaaS-based software delivery model 25-6 SaaS-based software environment 58 SaaS-based software infrastructure 64 SaaS-based software services 73 SaaS changes 14, 32 SaaS clients 169 SaaS companies 36, 38 decent 38 radar‟ 39 SaaS contract 63 SaaS delivery 134 SaaS delivery model 42 Saas Environment 8 SaaS environment 82, 139 SaaS Environment 78 SaaS environment, complex 163 SaaS hosting 41 SAAS HOSTING 7 SaaS hosting companies‟ servers 42 SaaS hosting company 42-3 SaaS implementation model 61 SaaS implementations 14, 61, 64 SaaS infrastructure 58 SaaS market area 37-9, 56 SaaS offerings 64, 181 largest 38 SaaS organizations 21, 159 SaaS performance monitoring purpose 81 SaaS pitfalls 70 SAAS PITFALLS 8
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SaaS platform 43-5 SAAS PLATFORM 7 SaaS provider 28, 139, 156-7 SaaS SaaS and Web Applications Specialist 35, 168 SaaS service provider 26, 28-9, 59-62, 65-74, 76-83 business‟ 65, 68, 73, 78-9 reputable 77 third 66 third choice 66 SaaS service provider changes 77 SaaS service provider charge 61 SaaS service provider faces 77 SaaS service providers charge 79 SaaS service providers clients 72 SaaS service provider‟s 72, 80 SaaS service provider‟s background 65 SaaS service provider‟s business hours 68 SaaS service provider‟s clients 28, 73 SaaS service provider‟s data centers 69, 73-4, 76 SaaS service provider‟s software services 70, 75 SaaS service provider‟s terms 75 SaaS service SaaS and Web Applications Specialist 74 SaaS services 30, 36, 38, 59, 63, 65, 139 purchases 162 SaaS software administrator 64 SaaS software application services 62 SaaS software applications 26, 28-9, 59-61, 80 SaaS software delivery model 26, 28-9 SaaS software developer 64 SaaS software distribution model 43 SaaS software market 66 SaaS software service providers 59-60 SaaS software services 26, 28, 31, 36, 60, 63-71, 73-5, 77-8, 80-1 business match 61 business‟ 82 monitoring off-site 80 new 63-5, 73, 78-9 SaaS software solutions 31, 38, 67 SaaS software vendors 30, 67-8, 72 SaaS software vendor‟s contract 74 SaaS Solution 15 SaaS solutions 15, 17-19, 22, 37, 40, 63-4 complete 75 SaaS subscription rate 82 SaaS tools 39 SaaS vendors 16, 28, 31, 76 SaaS vendor‟s data centre 31 SaaS.htm 186
[email protected] 4 SAGE (Semi Automatic Ground Environment) 86 Salesforce 6, 17, 38-40, 56 San Mateo 38-9 save 16, 20, 31, 71, 83 save money 30-1, 69-70, 83 scalability 91, 125 scale, economies of 27-9 scale web applications 102 scaling 7, 45 schedule 172, 174 Scheme 116, 118-19 scope 135, 143, 149, 153, 161, 174 scripting languages 57, 90, 116-18, 124
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scripts 116 SE (Standard Edition) 114 search engine results 54 search engines 97, 107, 113 searching service Administration 112 security 62, 65, 76, 82, 90, 100, 106, 115, 125-7, 131-4, 139, 146, 153 security activities 131 security applications 22 security controls 106, 132 security policies 132-3, 163 semantics 116, 118-19 Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) 86 server upgrade 139 servers 31, 43, 58, 69, 83, 85, 88-91, 101, 106, 108, 111-12, 125 Service and Web Applications 4, 182 Service and Web Applications Special Level 4 Service and Web Applications Specialist 3 Service and Web Applications Specialist Level Exam 4 service approach 26 Service Asset 149 Service Asset & Configuration Management 150 Service Asset and Configuration Management 137 service availability 160-1 service availability targets 154 Service Capacity Management 158 Service Catalogue 156 service change 149, 156 service change process 149 service changes, authorized 135 service continuity 156, 167 Service Continuity Management 167 Service Delivery 181 Service Delivery Managers 182 service delivery problems 72 Service Design activities 160 Service Desk 144-5, 147, 167 Service Desk Manager 146 service disruption 154 correct 148 service facilities 167 service group 153 service information 133 Service Knowledge Management System (SKMS) 143 Service Level Agreement 23, 41, 60, 62, 67-8, 71-3, 76, 80, 147 formal 62 revised 154 solid 60 Service Level Agreement document 72-3 Service Level Agreement states 71 Service Level Agreements, see SLAs Service Level Management 179 service lifecycle 140-1 Service Management 143, 145, 168 service management activities 131 service management processes 10, 128, 150, 184 Service Managers 182 Service model 25, 153 service obsolescence Harm 129 service operation practices 153 service operations 135, 145 normal 144 service organization 166
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Service-Orientated Architecture 23 service outage 129 cost of 128 service performance 23, 157, 161 service plans 157 Service Portfolios 149 service provider 23, 28-9, 36, 40, 62, 68, 72-3, 76-8, 82, 106, 125, 140, 143, 148-9, 161, 184 service provider organizations 132 service provider staff 141 service quality 71, 140, 144, 148 service requirements 158, 164 service restoration 147 service software delivery model 26, 58 service solution 48 Service Strategy 157 Service Strategy and Service Portfolio 158 service targets 158, 160 service teams 136 Service Transition processes 136 service usage 158 Service Value 128, 130 service 130 services 13-15, 22-9, 39-41, 47-9, 51, 53-7, 92-4, 99-101, 128, 130-1, 134-6, 139-41, 143-5, 1478, 157-61, 166-9 [17] add-on 51, 53 advertising 42, 54 basic instant messaging 48 business-orientated 15 business‟ software 169 business‟s software 65 call centre operation 39 candidate 129 changed 136, 156, 160 complex 23 core 51-2 critical business 128 customer 144 customer-orientated 15 demanded 98 dominant software delivery 28 e-commerce software 53 end-to-end 158 free 37 hosting multi-tenant software 44 hosting software 43 ideal 56 impacted 144 list of 129 live 136, 154 maintaining software 32 management software 39 marketing 39 messaging 22 monitor off-site software 80 multiple 153 multiple-tenant software 30 network-based 22 new software 32, 59, 64, 69, 79-80 online calendar 46 operational 158, 160 orientated 15 outdated Microsoft Hotmail web-email 37
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particular software 20, 44, 59, 61, 82 popular software 48 product management 15 production 135 remote 25 retired 149 right software 64 sales 39 single sign-on 51 single software 43-4 social networking 50 software application 25, 60 standalone 54 subscription 171 subscription-based 37 technology-enabled 34 telephony 22 tune software 64 updating software 32 web-based 51-3 web-based instant messaging software 49 web-based software 54-5 webpage creation 47 Marketing software 42 Software 42 services SaaS 140 services support 161 services Reduction 157 services‟ 34 service‟ 34 set 14, 23, 27-9, 37, 47, 50, 55-6, 60, 79, 82-3, 85, 89, 93, 111, 130-2, 142 [5] setbacks 25 severity 148, 165-6 SGML (Standardized General Markup Language) 122-4 share files 48 shareholders 129 Sharing Folders 48 signing 67, 74, 76 Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) 100 Simple Object Language (SOL) 116 simplicity 100, 123, 130 Simplified web service implementation 113 Single Customer 8, 101 single instance 20, 22, 41-3, 59, 61, 70, 81-2 single machine 85 Single Points of Failure (SPoFs) 161 sites 5, 37, 47, 51, 93-4, 96, 98, 107, 122, 137 static web 112 situations 98, 140, 147, 158, 168-9, 172, 177 SKMS (Service Knowledge Management System) 143 SLAs (Service Level Agreements) 23, 41, 62, 71, 133, 145, 147, 153, 156, 158, 163 SLAs, solid 59-60 Smalltalk 9, 114, 119-20 SOA 23 SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) 100 software 3-4, 6-7, 14-15, 18-20, 22, 25-7, 30, 40, 42-3, 57-8, 65-6, 78-9, 92-3, 137, 139-40, 1867 [9] software application model 25 traditional on-premises 58 software application/service 31 software applications 14, 16-23, 25, 27-32, 36, 40-4, 58-60, 64, 69-71, 74, 76-7, 91, 116, 144 business purchases 30
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clients‟ 27 expensive 16 external hosted 25 host 27 hosting 14 implementing traditional on-premises 60 install 31 licensed 69 marketing 42 on-premises 61-2, 69, 73-4 outsourced 27 ownership of 15-16 third party client/server 27 traditional 25-6, 32, 43, 70, 77, 81-2 traditional on-premises 60-1, 81, 83 updating 31 upgrade 74 usage of 44 software applications in-house 27 software application‟s 19, 41 software-as-a-service 86 software clients 16 software companies 17, 99 software delivery model 26-7, 41-2 software environment 58 standard 7, 58 software experience, unique 26, 28 software implementation models 61-2 hosted SaaS 61 on-premises 61-2 software infrastructure 63 software libraries 106 software licenses 69 software management 30, 58 software management costs 59 software management processes 66 software problems 17 software products 15, 118 selling 42 traditional 99 Selling 42 software SaaS 28, 67 software service access credentials 82-3 software service area 55 software service provider 40, 76 obscure 76 software service provider‟s servers 26 software service vendor 56 software services 15, 17-20, 22-3, 25-6, 28-31, 33, 36, 38-45, 47-8, 53-4, 56, 59-60, 64-8, 71-4, 77-8, 80-3 [3] software services in-house 31 software services online 42 software solutions 15-17, 19, 37, 41-2, 46, 67 software support 15, 65 software updates 41, 99 software users 16 desktop-based 36 web-based 36 software vendors 16-20, 31-2, 40-5, 60, 62, 67, 71-3, 77, 81 software vendor‟s terms 18, 77 potential SaaS 71 SoftwareasaServiceSaaS/Softwareasa ServiceSaaSGoogleAppsPremier/tabid 186
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SOL (Simple Object Language) 116 solutions 53, 87-8, 126, 140, 144, 164, 166, 170, 172, 175 software service delivery 44 source code 116, 156 sources 47, 98, 115, 126, 133, 142, 144, 147, 171, 174 multiple 96, 98, 174 open 11, 90, 94-5, 101, 170, 175 sourcing, open 175-6 space, hard drive 16 Specialist level programs and Managing services 182 SPoFs (Single Points of Failure) 161 sqi-inc.com/ic/Glossary/SaaS 186 staff 69, 140, 143, 155, 158 stages, early 156 stakeholders 135, 155, 170-4, 177 Standalone applications 48, 104 Standard Edition (SE) 114 Standardized General Markup Language, see SGML standards 23, 88, 91, 102, 132, 137 start 71, 90, 139, 157, 161, 174-5 start tag 122 storage 34, 45, 59, 61, 127, 136 storage capacity 21, 44-5, 55-6, 61, 81, 170 storage space 47, 55, 70 Store Manager 7, 53 structure 64, 110-11, 117-18, 122 solid support 65 subject 3 subscribe 17, 42, 53, 96, 144, 169, 173 subscription basis 15, 51 subscription types 81 subscription web service 172 subscriptions 15-17, 19, 35, 56-7, 62, 97, 166 success 11, 36-7, 87, 93-5, 100-1, 139, 166, 172 SuccessFactors 39 SuccessFactors software services 39 suppliers 95, 133, 135-6, 149, 156, 163, 172 support 5, 7, 31, 45-6, 50, 53, 62, 65, 68, 78-80, 83, 100, 132, 147-8, 163-5, 167 [9] little 68, 78 technical 73, 79, 167 support groups 83, 145 support professionals 68, 79 support-related issues 78-9 support SaaS 41 support services 53, 78 support team 79 on-premises SaaS 83 specialized SaaS 83 support technologies 78 support Web Services 23 Survey of Web Application 110 SURVEY of WEB APPLICATION FRAMEWORKS 9 symbols 107, 110 syntax 114, 119 system administrator 117, 164 systems 46, 85, 88-9, 95, 99-101, 117, 131, 134-5, 137-9, 144, 149, 159, 163-5, 167, 177 hypertext 89 T tags 112, 122 tail, long 93 tapping 164, 166-7
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tasks 31, 43, 58, 60, 64, 66, 72, 85, 114, 117, 177 TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) 139 TCP/IP 87 team 64, 175 Tecgraf 116 technical information 110 obtaining 166 technical support teams 79, 166 technologies 7, 17, 19, 22, 36, 40-1, 48, 63-4, 85-6, 91-2, 96, 100-2, 108, 123, 125-6, 163-4 [10] service-based 66 standard document Information 113 templates 107, 111, 176 terms 15, 21-3, 27, 40, 67-8, 70-2, 81, 83, 88, 114, 131, 157, 170 test 60, 81, 135-6, 154 test machine 80 that‟s 169 theartofservice.net/index.php 34 themes 47, 176 thinkitservices.blogspot.com 186 thresholds, automated 158 ticket 165-6 timeline, clear 64 timescales 145-6 toolkit 113 tools 38, 40, 81, 90, 106, 128, 143, 146, 175-8 business email creation 7, 52 top 4, 8, 41, 66, 70, 132-3, 186 top candidate services 129 topics 88, 97 Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) 139 track 50, 53-4, 56, 135 trademarks 13 train 69
[email protected] 185 transactions 62 Business 131 transparency 129 U UCLA (University of California in Los Angeles) 86 UCs (Underpinning Contracts) 145 Underpinning Contracts (UCs) 145 Understanding Mashup Building Platforms for Business Applications 188 Uniform Resource Identifier (URIs) 89, 122 United States 86 University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) 86 updates 78, 99, 139, 143, 175, 177-8 updating 19, 83, 165-6, 178 upfront costs, cheaper 28, 72 upgrade 15, 32, 42, 78-9, 139 URIs (Uniform Resource Identifier) 89, 122 URLs 106-7 usage 35, 86, 90, 178 user activity 94, 99 user base 91, 98-9 User Control 111 user group committee 64 user satisfaction 161 users 14-17, 20, 25-6, 34-5, 40-53, 55-6, 67, 80-3, 85-6, 88, 90-1, 93-104, 106, 124-6, 170-4, 176-7 [16] associated 137 charge 44
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collective 94 email 95 home 19, 101 potential 17 remote 14 single 43-4 unsubscribed 54 users access 44 users data 44 users machines 22 users request 40 users start 99 user‟s data 20, 44 Using SaaS 20 using SaaS software solutions 16, 30-1 Utility Computing 6, 24, 35, 57 V value 2, 92-3, 97-9, 110-11, 128, 130, 135, 140, 144-5 financial 128 variables 107, 110-12 vendors 15-17, 41, 186 independent software service 56 vendor‟s hands 15 versions 32, 46, 48, 65, 76, 83, 90, 112, 115-17, 139 latest software 6, 32 older 49, 76 vice-or-saas 187 viewArticleBasic&articleId 187 virtualization 6, 35, 125, 170, 181 VOIP 49, 78 W wasn‟t 17-18 way software applications 14 web 8, 11, 21, 49, 85-6, 88-108, 111, 117, 120, 122-3, 125-6, 163-4, 166, 170-2, 177, 187-9 introduction of 92 Web Application Design 104 web application development 91, 107, 128, 166 Web application framework SaaS and Web Applications Specialist 57 web application frameworks 9, 106-8, 111-12, 120, 188 web application hints 104 web application processing 112 Web Application Types 187 web applications 4, 8, 10-11, 85-6, 90-2, 98-108, 110-11, 115, 118, 125, 163-4, 166, 170-1, 174, 185, 187 [8] basic 104 developing 91, 111 interactive 108 maintaining 100 native 92 new era of 93, 101 prevented 102 standard 108 Web Applications Frameworks 9 Web Applications SaaS and Web Applications Specialist 139 Web Applications Special Level 4 Web Applications Specialist Exam Tips 12 Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification 2-38, 40-189 Web Applications Specialist Level Exam 4 web-based applications 23, 40, 46, 50, 104 complete 46
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web-based email services 14, 37-8, 45, 50, 55 dominant 55 web browser 5, 14, 16, 22, 25, 49, 52, 88, 92, 96, 104, 108, 112, 115, 125 web content 93 Web-enabled application development 187 Web Form 111 web pages 40, 50, 88-90, 96, 106, 111, 115, 117, 122, 124, 173 web platform 92, 102-4, 106, 125-6 web service processes 23 web services 23-4, 40, 93, 100-1, 106, 111, 115, 125 web technologies 100, 164-5 web users 93-4 weblog 96 website 36-9, 46, 51-4, 56, 85, 88, 91, 93-5, 104, 110, 116, 123, 126, 184 Website Design Tool 54-5 what‟s 102, 154 Wikipedia 90, 94, 118, 188-9 wikis 46, 93, 166 Windows 5, 92, 101 Windows-based operating systems 56 Windows-based users 46 Windows Live 7, 37, 48, 51 Windows Live Call 48-9 Windows Live Hotmail 7, 37, 50, 55 Windows Live Messenger 7, 48-9 Windows Live Spaces 7, 50 wisdom 142-3 work 2-3, 18, 25-6, 32, 43-4, 48-9, 56, 58, 73, 75, 90, 94-5, 104, 106, 165, 172-5 [7] work offline 25-6, 75 work orders 151, 155 workforce 39, 58, 68, 82-3 business‟s 32 workgroups 83 workhorse 102 workloads 125, 158, 160 workspaces 7, 52, 56 Workstation users 65 World Wide Web 8, 14, 85-91, 94, 96, 101, 122-3, 189 worry 16, 30 www.computerworld.com/action/article.do 187 www.emereo.org 2 www.theartofservice.org 4
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