Opsource gets SaaS - CEO Treb Ryan discusses

Cloud Computing, Web2.0, Unified Communications, there are many of these terms and a whole world about what they mean. Here’s another one Software as a Service or SaaS. Given the fluid definitions, what is clear is that the leaders in any of these fields are those companies that have a distinct vision, commitment and approach to delivering on the promise of cloud computing. Once such company is Opsource.

I recently had the privilege of talking to Treb Ryan, CEO of Opsource, Inc., a leading SaaS provider based in Santa Clara CA.

Treb, please tell us about the presence of Opsource today.

This is an interesting time, we have realized what is happening in SaaS in the cloud paradigm is that fundamentally, the business world is adopting at incredible rates. This is why the market is moving this way: Originally, Saas was being adopted because of the potential of cost savings. We are seeing an elemental shift. Let me expand on that, going back to the eighties, we ran on the mainframe model and environments with many computers and PC’s. This was truly the PC generation. Now we’re seeing this evolve where the generation now grew up with the web, and therefore ubiquitous ability to access, share, and collaborate data. They want their applications to work in that respect, and to have this functionality. SaaS, serves the enterprise in delivering on the promise that applications will deliver across all those demands and do so in a way that is business-class.

What are the challenges out there for SaaS?

That brings us back to delivering on that business-class promise. Software in this model must be reliable, scalable, secure, and compliant. Saas is about software on demand and about being business-class. From the underlying infrastructure up to the operations, focus on all these requirements is fundamental. Whether its SAS, PCI, or any other type of compliance that is out there, the proper approach to building is essential. A successful product in this market must take what is basically

What are some of the cutting-edge aspects to the Opsource model?

We must take mashups and make sure they work in enterprise fashion. Things like RSS feeds, 3rd party data feeds, and more information coming from multiple locations is still brand new. Seeing how little in tools or systems to insure they work together for the enterprise, we released Opsource Connect, this is a cloud-based version of Informatica, a middleware application that connects cloud services and connects them with traditional applications like quickbooks or oracle.
Another challenge we address is the ability to remediate billing. To date, SaaS has been a subscription-based model. Business today are looking to capability to bill on software usage. We address this with our approach.

Tell us about your relationships

Well, we have a variety of underpinnings from partnerships and relationships, from open-source on up. We enjoy great partnerships with Boomi, a technology that delivers information in an agents-based technology from the cloud, Nirvanix, which specializes in storage delivery, Tricipher, which provides SSO (Single Sign-on) functionality. So you see, we bring a whole bunch of cutting-edge relationships into our approach and our offerings are unmatched because of it. We have a relationship with Amazon as well, which has opened up to take their platform towards their online goals which included SaaS applications.

How about misconceptions about SaaS?

Unfortunately a good deal of distinct technologies that represent different layers of this type of technology are clumped together. For example Amazon’s approach is more of a webservice to access infrastructure. This is different from other approaches that rely on a single code. Different layers of the technology are merging and this further adds to that gap.
Opsource is focused only on SaaS. Our customers are typically application companies, startups, software companies, pretty much anywhere that our dynamic offerings are realized as business class solutions. Opsource delivers on all that with advanced features such as analytics, billing, and integration offerings. We offer real-time visibility on application performance. We focus on all these challenges in the enterprise.

Where do you see the future of Web2.0, SaaS, and cloud computing initiatives?

New and exciting cloud initiatives are emerging, and how these all work together is the next big set of challenges. The fundamental technology is there, but attention will need to be paid to how these initiatives work with legacy traditional systems. The two worlds will continue to become increasingly interwoven. Questions like how do we ensure a seamless user experience? How do we ensure cloud initiatives are proven secure, reliable, scalable or what we would categorize as business class? More and more what we do will be about managing services that are out on the cloud. Opsource will be there on the edge of what’s coming next.