While we don’t usually review books on this blog, the Manga Guide to Databases deserves some serious attention for LongJump users. Those who are just getting started with relational database design and data modeling will find this guide to be entertaining and extremely comprehensive. And even the most seasoned DB gurus can appreciate just how accessible this guide is. Some of our LongJump engineers are already looking to buy copies for their kids.

Of course this book focuses on very bare bones database development, covering everything from entity-relationship diagramming to database security to data sharing and scalability issues (much of which LongJump’s Platform-as-a-Service handles natively without having to write SQL or having to architect a database infrastructure). Still, the courseware provides real “fantasy” world examples complete with theory and exercises, and it does so with humor and clarity.

In fact, this unique approach to learning definitely puts the fun back in the fundamentals. Here’s hoping they develop a Manga Guide to REST Web Services!

Technorati Tags: database, manga, rdbms, relational data, sql

As a developer you are the tailor, with access to configuration-ready suits and the ability to make edits to a suit as needed. You work with your customer, understand their needs, and guide them to the right configuration for their purpose. You help them try on the closest suit possible to what they need, and then you do your finishing work after you’ve met. When your customer comes back, together you try on the fitted suit and hopefully it is exactly what they need at that time. As that customer grows (or shrinks), you can help modify the suit so they get the most life out if it as possible.

What don’t you do? You don’t weave and dye your own fabric. You don’t re-invent cuts or create your own button holes. You don’t make your own buttons. In short, you don’t start from scratch. The result is that suits are made faster and relatively less expensively, and your customer gets what they want.

Agile Developing for the Enterprise Using PaaS

As more businesses and organizations begin to adopt agile methodologies to improve customer responsiveness and rapidly develop applications, it would seem that software tools have to be agile-ready. So far, most of the focus on those agile tools happens to be on the project management and delivery lifecycle phases, but what about the actual development of applications? Developers must examine how application creation tools can best support agile software development as a business strategy.

One example that comes to mind is the development of internal business applications. In the past, it was virtually impossible to build custom, enterprise-grade applications for every department. Now, because the current generation of users is so web savvy, having to deal with hard-coded legacy database applications and spreadsheets is not only ill-conceived and impossible to manage, it can ultimately lead to increases in operating costs and be rife with error.

The primary response from IT organizations has been to decouple the information from the application. Such is the nature of SOA/XML. That’s fine for the IT developer, but completely unusable from a departmental end-user standpoint – the people who have to use the data and face the information management challenges on a daily basis. They still have to rely on an in-house development resource or highly paid consultant to get to that data in a meaningful way that integrates with their work processes.

PaaS can be the ideal solution to solve that problem by making it extremely easy to design, develop, adapt and service web-based applications, while leveraging a comprehensive enterprise-class service environment. It is so easy to build apps that a significant amount of development and changes can be realized in a single meeting or overnight. This gives the user access to new functionality almost immediately. And very savvy users can even make the modifications themselves – simply by changing configuration options – offloading minor development tasks from the coders.

Our new whitepaper “PaaS and Agile Development: The Application Platform for Enterprise Transformation” covers everything a CIO, software product manager, scrum master, or architect needs to know about leveraging PaaS as part of an Agile strategy.

Technorati Tags: agile development, agile manifesto, agile processes, application development, cloud computing, extreme programming, PaaS, Platform-as-a-Service

For government entities, compliance-heavy industries like healthcare and manufacturing, or even the growing Green Tech verticals, LongJump provides built-in support for digitally signing records to reduce paperwork while dramatically improving accountability. An example of when lack of certified oversight and accountability is a problem? How about test records from the oil spill in the Gulf? Without secured, certified processes in place, it’s going to be difficult to identify points of failure and establish liability.

The short video below provides an overview of how the Digital Signatures work.

To use digital signatures in LongJump, here is what you need to know:

• Signatures can be encrypted using public, private or certificate keys and provide complete control for compliance and audit requirements, such as those defined in the FDA’s CFR Part 11 or the EPA’s ECHO.
• Digital Signatures are set up by selecting specific fields that are signed for. For example, in a approval of meeting a test record with digital signature settings in place, you can set up a hierarchy of signature areas where the submitter must first sign the record before the user’s manager can access and sign the record.
• LongJump enables you to define who can sign a record by limiting who can see and edit the document based on their role, team, or specific users.
• When signing a document, users are asked for their password and pass phrase.
• A single record can also have multiple signing blocks consisting of fields and multiple users can sign a document as part of an approval process.
• Once a signature is in place, those fields cannot be modified without voiding the signature.

Of course, like all LongJump web-based applications, you will be able to easily report on records, as well as create policies for when signed documents do or do not meet certain conditions. LongJump also keeps a log on signature related activities for a complete audit trail.

You can learn more about enabling the digital signature feature from the Support Wiki.

Technorati Tags: bp, digital signature, epa, fda, gulf oil spill, PaaS

SEAL Mobile and Mash-up Micro-Apps are lightweight enterprise applications providing a secure access to on-premise and/or cloud enterprise applications via simple interfaces for common tasks. These are available across various business domains from Supply-Chain, Logistics, Procurement and Manufacturing to Financials, HR, CRM and Performance management.

Their Micro-Apps are delivered to mobile platforms like the Blackberry, iPhone and Google Android.

You can visit them at SAPPHIRE in Orlando, booth #721 for a demo.

If you want to learn how they were able to get to market so fast, you can attend our next Ziff Davis Enterprise eSeminar May 26 at 1PM Eastern.

Technorati Tags: android, blackberry, cloud computing, custom applications, erp, iphone, isv, PaaS, saas, sap, sapphire

LongJump, a leading Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) software provider, announced the availability of Version 7.0 of their application platform which adds a range of collaboration capabilities for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications. This new release focuses on helping ISVs (independent software vendors), their developers, distributor and partner channels, and customers collaborate seamlessly with each other within the platform.

Says LongJump CEO Pankaj Malviya:

“SaaS technology vendors today must address the fact that web users all want to work better together. LongJump Version 7 provides a premier platform for addressing social networking, community building, and collaboration that naturally extends into enterprise business applications.”

You can read the entire press release here.

Technorati Tags: developers, isv, PaaS, saas, var

We’ve introduced a new library of videos that cover the deep set of features within LongJump’s public and private cloud PaaS. Over time, this library will be extended and refined so that businesses, developers, partners and ISVs interested in LongJump’s SaaS application platform can quickly watch a short video on the features that matter to them most.

You can watch these videos from our website at http://www.longjump.com and by clicking on Video Tour on any of the web pages.

The library covers the platform’s major areas including:

• Application Design
• Development
• Reports
• Access Controls
• Productivity Features
• Personalization
• Release Management
• Distribution
• Maintenance

The videos are also available on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LongJumpVid.

Of course, no video can do what a live demo can, so you can also contact us for a complete walk-thru or sign-up for a free trial.

Technorati Tags: application development, cloud computing, PaaS, Platform-as-a-Service, saas

Recognized for creating new opportunities in cloud computing and SaaS

SUNNYVALE, CA, April 16, 2010 — LongJump, a leading provider of software that powers Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), today announced that it has been chosen by AlwaysOn as one of the OnDemand Top 100 winners. Inclusion in the OnDemand 100 signifies leadership amongst its peers and game-changing approaches and technologies that are likely to disrupt existing markets and entrenched players. LongJump was specially selected by the AlwaysOn editorial team and industry experts spanning the globe based on a set of five criteria: innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value, and media buzz.

View the complete release here.

Technorati Tags: alwayson, cloud computing, PaaS, saas, software-as-a-service

Timesheet Manager is a web-based customizable timesheet/timecard management application. It features ready-to-use timesheets that can be related to employee data as well as other objects such as Accounts or Projects.

The app is constructed around three objects.

• The Timesheet object, used for recording weekly timecards for each employee
• The Daily Timecard object, which is the “Detail” object to the Timesheet “Master” object (you can read more about Master-Detail relationships in our wiki)
• The Employee Rate Table object, which is used for “looking up” an hourly rate to fill in some Timesheet values

Some enhancements to the Timesheet Manager go beyond just objects and fields including:

• Using a Formula to set the Default Value for Week Start as the nearest Sunday
• Using a Formula field to automatically determine Week End
• Using a Formula to set the Weekday based on the Daily Timecard Day
• Using Rollup Summary Fields to sum up hours recorded by Daily Timecards to the main Timesheet
• Using a Data Policy to execute Java Code that converts a Rollup Value to a Number Value
• An approval workflow to ensure management sign-off
• Reports for current hours/wages anticipated and approved wages
• Using a Post Selection JavaScript when a user completes an Employee lookup to the Rate Table to automatically retrieve the Hourly Rate

Of course, you can completely modify this app to suit your needs. We’d love to hear your experiences and suggestions on this app as well as any permutations that this app has inspired in your business.

You can Test Drive the Timesheet Manager app here, or install it into your account (Free!).

Technorati Tags: application development, developers, enterprise applications, formula, master-detail, rollup, timecard, timesheet, workflow

Many thanks to Adam Day, VP of Business Development at HRAnswerlink for his participation on describing how his firm was able to leverage LongJump’s on-premise PaaS to drive rapid deployment of their new SaaS offerings.

This follows past eSeminars including:

• Cloud Computing, SaaS and Its Impact on Channel Solution Providers

• New Strategies For Building Business Applications In 2010

If you’d like to view this eSeminar and any in the past that cover SaaS, PaaS and Cloud Computing, you can click here for recorded archives.

Technorati Tags: application development, cloud computing, enterprise, enterprise applications, isv, IT department, PaaS, Platform-as-a-Service, saas, software-as-a-service

I don’t know a single programmer who likes wasted effort. In fact, there’s a beauty to what they do, much like a poet, when they are able to refine and compress layers of code into well-thought out simplicity and modularity. It is this very reason the LongJump platform was created.

So here are some ways that Platform-as-a-Service can make Programmers happy:Cut the Code

One of PaaS’s inherent benefits is about leveraging existing functionality across multiple applications all on one instance. That means specific object models and processes or custom code can be used across all apps running on the platform. You build things once, rather than try and invent the wheel with every project. That reduces coding requirements and maintenance. Programmers can then focus on unique projects and core applications, rather than common stuff, which leads us to…

Make Programming Fun

Programmers think programming is fun. That’s why they do it into the wee hours. There’s something about taking nothing and turning it into real processes that make life ultimately better. So, should they focus on stuff they did last time (for example, building another reporting component) or should they spend their energy on new challenges? Platform-as-a-Service frees programmers from such monotony and gives them more time to spend on other challenges.

Everything is Connected

PaaS puts a lot of focus on foundation building and as a result, when a programmer creates some model or process in PaaS, it has serious reuse potency. Programmers can leave their mark on a core piece of the pie that becomes the norm through all applications that come afterwords.

Empower Them

With PaaS, the status of the programmer is ultimately elevated. Why? Primarily because a lot of common lifting is being done at the IDE levels where business people are essentially mapping out their own data and processes, the programmer is called in when serious effort is required. Maybe it’s a JavaScript or a creation of a class element or a SOAP connector, but PaaS lets programmers go beyond the minutiae of daily business processes and solve the key technical problems.

Reduce Deployment Lag

Most PaaS instances are live. There’s a beauty to that in being able to build, test, and deploy in the same day rather than having to go through big deployment efforts. (You still can have a formal release process if your PaaS supports multiple instances). For a programmer, that means their work is happening in lock step at times with requests that are being made. Technology is no longer the gating item, and instead the overall business approach becomes what needs to get worked out.

Technorati Tags: application development, developers, manage programmers, PaaS

Technorati Tags: cloud computing, linkedin, PaaS, Platform-as-a-Service

PaaS is the next transformational wave in software-as-a-service and it’s already here. Are you ready? Join us for an insightful and practical examination of PaaS and its effect on how businesses can accelerate SaaS application development.

Stefan Ried, Senior Analyst at Forrester will share the latest Forrester research on PaaS as it relates to public and private cloud implementations and how enterprises, ISVs and IT outsourcers can take full advantage of its unique properties.

This webinar will also uncover the platform elements you need to execute a comprehensive PaaS strategy including:

• Rapid design tools for modeling data and processes
• Standards based software development
• Public, private and virtual private cloud options
• Integrated ISV/VAR/Outsourcer features (subscriber management, billing, etc.)

When
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
@12PM Pacific Daylight Time (@3PM Eastern Daylight Time)

Presenters
Stefan Ried, Senior Analyst, Forrester
Rick McEachern, EVP Business Development, LongJump
Pankaj Malviya, CEO and Co-Founder, LongJump

Click to register: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/519899832

Technorati Tags: application development, enterprise, forrester, isv, PaaS, Platform-as-a-Service, saas

ChannelWeb has recognized LongJump as one of the 20 Coolest Cloud Companies, positioning it with the likes of Amazon EC2, Google App Engine and Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform. This comes on the heels of last week’s naming of LongJump CEO Pankaj Malviya to their list of Top 25 Technology Thought Leaders. As indicated by ChannelWeb,

“LongJump is actively rounding up ISVs to brand and host their own SaaS offerings.”

The channel community is one area where cloud computing can truly be a “sky’s the limit” proposition. With all that experience in IT and application services, VARs, MSPs, and solution providers can realize significant potential creating vertical applications that meet the needs of businesses across the globe.

It is likely why ChannelWeb is actively discussing cloud computing:

“Cloud computing platforms facilitate and ease the deployment of applications into the cloud, limiting the cost and complexity by cutting the need to buy and manage hardware and software. As cloud computing continues to gather steam and more VARs and their clients are looking to design, develop, test, deploy and host apps in the cloud, a robust, flexible platform has become a must-have.”

Technorati Tags: channelweb, cloud computing, crn, isv, msp, PaaS, Platform-as-a-Service, var

Scott Dahlgren at The VAR Guy posted an article today about how VARs, solution providers, MSPs and others in the IT channel can really capitalize on cloud computing. Specifically he looks at how the PaaS model presents the widest opportunity for the channel to be involved in the cloud. He states:

The current trend is improving time to market and time to revenue which is greatly dependent on how quickly you can build and deploy an application. The opportunity to add value now is not so much in technical competency but in a Partner’s understanding of the business problem that needs to be solved and then building that application in a way that adds the most immediate value to the business.

He also highlights the LongJump partner program:

LongJump launched their VAR program last quarter that provides a development platform, backup, storage, ability to scale easily, network, security, and pre-built applications for $15/user/month. Partners can then develop web applications and sell them for whatever price they choose.

Technorati Tags: application development, cloud computing, it channel, msp, Platform-as-a-Service, saas, solution provider, thevarguy, var

Mike Vizard at CTOEdge had a thoughtful post regarding the challenges facing IT in determining how much to rely on software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms to deliver applications versus running those applications on their own internal infrastructure. He adds:

The real question IT organizations might want to ask themselves in 2010 is why they have to make this kind of decision in the first place. In an ideal world, IT organizations should be able to develop an application that can be dynamically deployed as a service or on their own local infrastructure as they see fit.

You can read the entire article here.

Technorati Tags: application development, enterprise applications, IT projects, on-premise, saas

The LongJump platform made its debut on Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Applications Servers. Incidentally, we were one of only two PaaS-capable platforms to be featured, and the only one which could operate as a PaaS and on-premise. Pankaj Malviya, CEO and Founder of LongJump, had this to say:

“We believe LongJump’s placement in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant demonstrates that PaaS is emerging as a true alternative for enterprises in the application server market. Application platforms in the cloud are ideal for building and delivering innovative enterprise-class solutions that meet dynamic business requirements in record time. LongJump squarely addresses a sizable void for powerful, user-configurable, web-based business applications, without compromising the security and control businesses require.”

This realization by Gartner that PaaS must be included in the conversation when it comes to businesses looking at streamlining application development is something we’ve been talking about for awhile and appreciated.

You can view the press release here.

Technorati Tags: application development, application server, cloud computing, gartner, magic quadrant, PaaS, Platform-as-a-Service

Pankaj Malviya, CEO of LongJump was at SIIA OnDemand in San Jose last week to showcase the LongJump cloud applications platform. While public and private cloud infrastructure may be top mind, the applications that sit in that cloud also need a revolutionary strategy. LongJump presents a streamlined approach to application development that leverages the shared power of a multitenant business platform to minimize time to market and manual effort.

You can watch the short 6-minute video here.

Technorati Tags: cloud computing, custom applications, isv, PaaS, Platform-as-a-Service, saas, siia

Be sure to visit our website to read about how American Mitigation Law Group, a loan modification company in Del Mar, California is helping homeowners keep their homes during the mortgage crisis. We spoke with Nick Hasselwander at AMLG about how they are using the LongJump platform and CRM to build a complete mitigation workflow for their clients in 30 states.

One of the most compelling points Nick makes is:

“Even though we saw the crisis coming, which is why we were in the market, everything was still happening so fast. Because the industry changed and rules were being added, managing processes was difficult. We would refine a process to a point that it was effective, and then have to scrap it because of new requirements. There were no software tools we could acquire that would instill any best practices. The one thing we could rely on was LongJump enabling us to make changes quickly and transition the team effectively as we continued to refine and redefine new processes.”

Nick and AMLG’s story was also featured in Inside Mortgage Finance (Subscription Required) in a story on Cloud Computing.

Technorati Tags: american mitigation law group, cloud computing, mortgage crisis, mortgage industry

GARTNER SYMPOSIUM/ITxpo, Orlando, FL, October 19, 2009 – LongJump, a leading provider of software that powers Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), today announced a value added reseller (VAR) program for its LongJump Cloud Applications Platform from the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo. LongJump’s reseller program appeals to solution providers, Managed Service Providers (MSP), ISVs and VARs who want to take full advantage of opportunities in the Software-as-a-Service market, generate recurring subscription revenues and leverage LongJump as a platform for the delivery of ongoing custom products and new service offerings. LongJump’s program lets VARs leverage its powerful, multi-tenant cloud platform to launch their own branded SaaS business, build custom database-driven applications or customize LongJump’s existing CRM offering to meet their clients’ specific needs.

In the face of adverse market conditions, businesses are holding back on big ticket IT consulting projects, forcing VARs and solution providers to shift strategies and focus on smaller IT projects. Now is the time for resellers, solution providers and MSPs to diversify their customer offerings by offering SaaS solutions. Forrester estimates by 2016 70% of all SaaS business applications will be built on a PaaS platform, and that the PaaS market will grow to more than $15 billion in 8 years. For software vendors considering adopting SaaS in the short-term, Forrester recommends leveraging an existing PaaS offering to mitigate losing more time-to-market.

LongJump’s VAR program allows VARs to profitably create solutions for large and small projects and offer those solutions to clients on a subscription basis. Leveraging the company’s PaaS provides a way for VARs to directly participate in a SaaS business model by facilitating rapid application development to fulfill clients’ long tail of IT projects, while also creating new recurring revenue streams to help their own bottom line.

“The LongJump VAR program is designed to give resellers and solution providers a profitable and fast way to tap into new cloud revenue streams,” stated Pankaj Malviya, founder and CEO of LongJump. “We are providing our reseller partners with ready-to-use applications and a flexible PaaS solution to capitalize on for ongoing customer application opportunities.”

Program Features Keep Partners in the Driver Seat

LongJump’s VAR program provides real financial advantages to resellers by 1) delivering recurring revenue streams, 2) ensuring that they own the entire customer relationship, and 3) providing a platform for the delivery of additional business process consulting and automation. The program includes:

• Your Business, Your Branding: VARs can offer their own branded solutions to their customers.
• No Program Fees: VARs can quickly get started by offering SaaS products to their customers.
• Recurring Revenues: VARs earn recurring revenue based on the pricing they set for their customers. Wholesale service price is NOT a percentage of revenue.
• No Hardware or Software to License: LongJump’s multi-tenant platform is fully hosted, eliminating the need for expensive infrastructure and operations costs.
• VAR Customer Control: The reseller will always be the customer’s point of contact. Resellers manage billing and support so that customers are not faced with the hassle of having to deal with different vendors, contracts, etc
• Platform and Product Training: LongJump will provide free training for resellers to certify them on the platform and help them understand how to create and customize client solutions.
• Technical Sales Support: For sales situations where technical expertise can help close a contract, LongJump will work with the reseller as a member of their team to provide answers to customers.
• Sales and Marketing Materials: Partners will be supplied with relevant sales and marketing materials that can be customized, including datasheets, white papers and other documentation about LongJump.

Partners Achieve Success with LongJump

LongJump already counts a number of VARs participating in its program. For example:

• Carlsbad, CA-based Ximix does business with a diverse portfolio of companies in healthcare, military and defense, manufacturing, real estate and financial services and leverages LongJump’s platform having built hundreds of custom applications for HR, billing, employee management, etc. Rob Brown, a Ximix cloud evangelist and consultant, commented, “Good information management is about reducing complexity and PaaS eliminates having to manage a large ecosystem of SaaS vendors. For many organizations, we avoid the cost creep that is associated with more established vendors like Salesforce by developing on LongJump’s PaaS offering, but its real value is its application-agnostic framework which enables delivery of any transactional database-driven application extremely quickly. This means as our clients grow and require changes to their application portfolio, the apps that we prototype and build on LongJump can be extended and reused or translated into new apps on-the-fly — drastically tipping the economy of scale in our favor.”
• Atlanta, GA-based Emery Creek Solutions joined the company’s VAR program to take advantage of customizing its CRM to maximize customer opportunities. “LongJump’s CRM was easy for us to get up and running and customize. It is the most comprehensive CRM product I’ve used,” said Tim Frey, partner at Emery Creek Solutions. “With LongJump, we have been able to integrate our customer information and automate our sales processes, allowing our team to work quickly and more efficiently.”

Pricing and Availability

LongJump delivers enormous value to the channel. LongJump applications and PaaS platform have all the capabilities required for enterprise adoption and is comparable with other PaaS platforms that charge customers from $65 to $200 per user/per month. However, LongJump’s aggressive channel pricing creates a terrific opportunity to channel resellers to start offering branded SaaS solutions to generate recurring revenues.

The LongJump VAR program is available now starting at $15/user/month and includes LongJump’s pre-built and custom applications. Resellers can set the end user pricing.

Technorati Tags: cloud computing, forrester, gartner, isv, itxpo, msp, referral, reseller, Sales and CRM, var

Database and technology analyst Ken North examines how Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions help accelerate adoption of the cloud model within organizations. As we have indicated many times ourselves, and Mr. North comes to a similar conclusion:

PaaS solutions have particular appeal for startups, projects with ambitious deadlines, and organizations with a limited budget for capital expenditures. PaaS can remove the capital expenditure roadblock without the burden of diminished functionality. The richness and variety of development environments is one reason the PaaS model has appeal for system integrators and developers, particularly those building web applications. … PaaS has much to offer today to those who are building and integrating systems. PaaS users can create custom solutions and make full use of business process modeling, workflow tools, object modeling, data modeling and packaged applications.

As always, Mr. North’s analysis is very in-depth and is a must read for anyone looking at the varying solutions available for PaaS.

Technorati Tags: cloud computing, dr dobbs, ken north, multitenancy, PaaS, Platform-as-a-Service, techweb

PaaS allows application developers to simply build applications in the cloud, without ever having to worry about hardware acquisition and configuration, software installation, configuration, and maintenance, scalability, availability, backups, recovery, etc. You just sign up and start building, deploy with the push of a button, and pay for your usage as you go.

Bobrowski suggests that enterprises have a real option for cloud computing as some PaaS vendors start offering licensed versions of their platform. He urges enterprises keep their eyes “on the emerging trend of new PaaS and IaaS technologies that are available for licensing within your own data center as you consider how you might transition applications from inside your data center to the cloud.”

He also met with LongJump CEO Pankaj Malviya to get some perspective about how our customers are using our installable business applications platform to develop applications faster.

“We are not exclusively a cloud vendor and PaaS on-demand is just one vehicle for our customers to derive value from the LongJump platform,” LongJump CEO Pankaj Malviya told us. “In fact, our customers take a movable application approach so they can develop on one instance (our PaaS, for example), test on another (a LongJump instance on Amazon EC2), and publish on yet another (LongJump in a private hosting environment). Our real value is helping to streamline application development and delivery and being agnostic to the application infrastructure. With more private cloud options entering the market, there is also less risk for businesses because they still don’t have to outlay any hardware to develop and test their applications.”

For the complete piece, click here.

Technorati Tags: amazon ec2, cloud computing, enterprise applications, iaas, on-premise, PaaS, Platform-as-a-Service, private cloud

Bill Ives of theAppGap took an extensive look at LongJump‘s application platform recently. The article looks at how LongJump is able to help businesses quickly build an object model, add processing, reporting, and even extend applications using industry standard development tools such as Java. According to Bill:

I can certainly see the benefit fit of using a platform such as LongJump to create web-based applications. LongJump’s Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and catalog out of the box intelligent objects can reduce the time and cost of developing and delivering data-driven applications. The business building block approach should allow developers and corporate IT teams to reduce the time to market or deployment, since they can bypass the need to repeatedly recreate common business processes and functions, as well as develop basic web functionality.

The complete article is available here.

Technorati Tags: application development, cloud computing, PaaS, Platform-as-a-Service

Gartner is tracking the hype around Cloud Computing in their latest report “Hype Cycle for Cloud Computing, 2009″ and cloud computing’s path towards mainstream acceptance. In particular, it looked at APaaS (Application Platform as a Service) and suggests that it is a transformational technology that is only 2 to 5 years from being adopted by mainstream IT while its initial penetration is less than 1%.

According to Gartner, “application platform as a service (APaaS) is a development and deployment environment for cloud-based applications, offered to IT organizations as a service.” Businesses will likely need to rethink their perspective on applications, as Gartner also states that:

APaaS is a part of a fundamental and discontinuous change in the application platform market. It is part of a larger SaaS and cloud-computing phenomenon, all amounting to one core change — the transition from IT solutions that are conceived, deployed and managed under the control of an enterprise IT department to IT solutions that are applied and composed by the enterprise, but executed and managed by expert third-party providers. It is a step toward greater industrialization of IT, to predictable, dependable, professionally managed, plentiful and agile information resources.

Gartner estimates that most IT organizations are or will in the next five years become partly dependent on SaaS-style software. Some may begin developing their own custom applications on APaaS leading to a change in IT jobs, organizations and budget allocations.

In a separate hype cycle report “Hype Cycle for Application Infrastructure, 2009,” Gartner also looked into application infrastructures. There it examined SaaS/Cloud-Enabled Application Platforms, also a transformational technology due to make its mainstream impact in 2 to 5 years. Gartner describes SEAP as a software-as-a-service (SaaS)-enabled application programmable platform for the development and deployment of custom applications that is specially designed to support SaaS-style applications. SEAP is inherently multi-tenant and is designed to provide a complete platform for ISVs to develop their own suite of SaaS applications.

Technorati Tags: apaas, cloud computing, gartner, PaaS

China Martens of the 451 Group provided an in-depth Market Insight Service report discussing LongJump and its potential as a PaaS provider inside and outside the corporate firewall. The 451 Group also provided a comprehensive look at where LongJump is in relation to other cloud computing companies and a fairly complete review of the company’s history and trajectory from SaaS provider to offering a multi-tenant application platform for service providers.

LongJump is keenly aware of the challenges it faces in attracting enterprises and ISVs to opt for its PaaS as they take a leap away from Java and .NET and into cloud app development. It’s at the start of what is likely to be a lengthy wooing process and points to its first five ISV customers as a good start in a matter of months. We see LongJump having more stability than some of its pure-play rivals, given its steady-as-it-goes CRM business, and expect it to successfully weather the likely approaching consolidation of small PaaS providers.

In addition, the report states the value opportunity for ISVs:

Companies of all sizes are eager to develop their own SaaS/cloud applications, and some will be particularly interested in the levels of control over branding and deployment that LongJump offers in some of the versions of its platform.

If you are a subscriber to The 451 Group’s research, you can view the complete report here. Access is also available as a trial, or if you would like to receive a copy of the report, leave a comment on this post or on our Twitter feed and we’ll contact you.

Technorati Tags: application development, cloud computing, customer relationship management, isv, PaaS, Platform-as-a-Service, private cloud, saas, software-as-a-service, the 451 group

Michael Coté, one of the analysts at RedMonk talked with LongJump CEO Pankaj Malviya about platform-as-a-service on the cloud.

He writes:

Back in February, LongJump started providing their platform to ISVs packaged to be used as a private PaaS, where “private” means “run on your own,” just as “private cloud” does. That is, these ISVs would use the LongJump platform to develop and then sell SaaS applications… Since February 2009, they’ve had 5 ISVs sign up, each creating of delivering SaaSes with LongJump in very narrow industries like electronic equipment maintenance, HR, and drug trial management.

Michael and Pankaj also discussed the current trend for PaaS providers towards delivering what developers need vs. what the industry is providing.

One of the more interesting statements from Pankaj was that development shops were finding the lack of traditional (to use my modifier) ALM (application lifecycle management) in PaaS development annoying. Folks like Force.com – and the wider “cloud” world” – the conceit goes, don’t provide enough hooks to fit into the software development process that people are used to. The thinking is that there’s a cultural mis-mapping between how people want to develop software for the cloud and how the cloud wants (if only by omission of other options) people to develop software. Bringing up the specter of ALM-weakness is a good ploy and segmenter: if you know what ALM means, you probably like it, and if you don’t know what ALM means, you’re probably not worth selling to.

To read the complete article, click here.

Technorati Tags: alm, application lifecycle, cloud computing, developers, isv, PaaS, saas

Our latest LongJump release (version 6.2) has hit the cloud with something desperately needed in today’s business application space: Flexibility and Visibility. Flexibility in the way that information is displayed and visibility into a deeper set of information and analysis. Many of today’s cloud applications come out of the gate serving a basic set of functions in a basic way. Rarely can the interface adapt to suit the needs of a wide array of users, and few can match LongJump’s depth in terms of features, scalability, and adaptability.

Over the course of the next week, we’re going to take in-depth looks at some of the big features that have been added like Digital Signatures, New Form Layouts, Object Inheritance, RSS/Atom Feed Report Publishing, and Data Snapshots.

Until then, be sure to check out our feature tour and the press release.

Technorati Tags: atom feed, cloud applications, digital signature, form processing, rss feed, snapshot data

Yesterday featured a nice article from Chad Berndtson of Computer Reseller News on their ChannelWeb blog about LongJump’s BAP. Chad spoke with company Chairman Rick McEachern about the impedous for the platform and the growing need for software producers to want to privately build, brand, deliver and control SaaS applications.

“We thought midsize ISVs between $40 million and $200 million would be the sweet spot,” (McEachern) said. “But we find ISVs whose companies are well over $1 billion coming to us, too. It’s very interesting that it spans the very small to the very large. What they’re saying to us is: ‘Basically, what you’re telling me is you’ve got Salesforce in a box and we can private label it?’ Well, that’s not really our message, but essentially, yes, it’s that. It’s OK with us if you want to put it in those terms.”

The complete article is available on the ChannelWeb site.

Technorati Tags: application development, developers, isv, on-premise, saas, software-as-a-service

LongJump today announced that The David Allen Company, renowned experts in personal and organizational productivity, including David Allen’s decade-long bestseller Getting Things Done and the more recent Making It All Work books as well as many public and private coaching session and seminars, has selected LongJump’s Business Applications Platform to manage its business development and resource management operations for the company.

Before we made our selection, we evaluated several vendors, including some well-known competitors to LongJump.  We felt that not only did LongJump go the extra mile to understand our unique business needs, but they also provided the most flexible application platform to address the complex business needs of an entrepreneurial company with global mindshare.  The functionality of their offering helped us realize the vision of how to optimize our business processes over time. We’re looking forward to a long and successful relationship with LongJump.
- Robert Peake, CIO of The David Allen Company

You can read the complete press release here.

Technorati Tags: custom applications, david allen, getting things done, gtd, PaaS, situational applications

If you happen to be in Vegas in the coming weeks, you may want to stop by Mandalay Bay where our very own CEO Pankaj Malviya is taking part in a discussion panel at Interop Las Vegas on May 19th @ 2:45PM. The session is being hosted by Jeffery Kaplan, Founder and Managing Director at THINKstrategies. Jeffery has also covered LongJump before in a recent article. According to organizers, the panel shall discuss:

Hosted applications vary from the specific to the adaptable. At one end of the spectrum are websites with one purpose; at the other, open platforms that let you build your own applications. Navigating the landscape of on-demand applications can be a challenge — should you choose one comprehensive application suite, or best-of-breed portals? Do you need off-the-shelf functionality, or limitless flexibility? This session presents a taxonomy of on-demand applications so you can choose what works for your business.

Also participating in the discussion are:

Technorati Tags: interop, jeffrey kaplan, on-demand, PaaS, saas

Gartner analysts Yefim V. Natis and Robert P. Desisto produced the first comprehensive research note on LongJump’s Business Applications Platform with some key insight for those looking to take advantage of online and on-premises based PaaS. They take an honest look at the opportunities and challenges we face with our platform, but are buoyed by our current success so far.

LongJump is starting this expansion on a promising note — even at this early stage, it is already referencing two ISV customers poised to go to production with their applications, built on LongJump BAP.

Yefim and Robert also did an excellent job summarizing how to choose the right platform for the goals of your business:

The company took this direction in response to requests from prospects, and, in doing so, responded to the reality of the multiple patterns and reasons why organizations choose cloud-style application platforms:

• Many small and midsize user organizations and small ISVs are attracted to productivity and low cost of the cloud platform development (these prospects are served by the LongJump On-Demand service offering).
• Many large user organizations are attracted to the productivity of the cloud application platform environment, but insist that their data must remain on-premises (these prospects will be best-served by the single-tenant version of the new LongJump BAP).
• Many large ISVs wish to offer business applications as a service, but demand full in-house control and ownership of the underlying application platform (these prospects will be best-served by the multitenant version of the LongJump BAP).
• Some large user organizations are looking to build private cloud services in-house (these prospects also will be best-served by the multitenant version of the LongJump BAP).

Ultimately, while we know we have a golden product on our hand and that there is a real market need, our own execution will determine our level of success. So far, however, the signs are positive.

Gartner subscribers can log in and read the complete report here.

Technorati Tags: cloud computing, gartner, multitenancy, PaaS, Platform-as-a-Service, saas

Gartner has named LongJump one of it’s Cool Vendors in Cloud Computing System and Application Infrastructure for 2009. Below is an excerpt of the report available to Gartner research subscribers:

Why Cool: LongJump is a cloud application infrastructure service provider delivering an application-platform-as-a-service (APaaS) offering. The company also has a history as a CRM vendor and offers a solution called “Relationals” (also the name of the parent company) that is delivered as a cloud application service.

Its Business Application Platform, branded as LongJump, is similar in concept and origin to Force.com’s underlying salesforce.com CRM application. LongJump is a APaaS cloud platform provider that stands out. It offers a runtime environment and a multitenant development environment, and it supports the creation of multitenant applications. It also offers multitenancy configuration options that allow the user to store data in a common multitenant database, one tenant database instance that is dedicated to the user or in a mixed multitenancy model. The service offers a visual development environment and uses Java as its programming language. LongJump also offers a range of delivery options. In addition to the cloud computing service, the company supports hosting of its environment on third-party infrastructure (for example, Terremark Worldwide data center, Amazon EC2/Amazon Simple Storage Service [Amazon S3] or installation as software in an enterprise data center).

Who Should Care: IT managers who are looking for flexible on-premises and off-premises deployment options using a business-oriented platform will find LongJump’s approach useful.

You can read the complete press release here.

Technorati Tags: app, cloud computing, cool vendor, gartner, multitenancy, PaaS

Led by John Rymer, Forrester’s research team including Randy Heffner, Jeffrey S. Hammond, James Staten, and Wallis Yu, provided an extensive report entitled “Platform-As-A-Service Is Here: How To Sift Through The Options” on several PaaS vendors, including LongJump. The report discusses the rewards and risks of PaaS for application development and includes products up and down the PaaS stack, and is one of the most extensive reports on the topic.

The basic reward of PaaS is that it allows IT groups to defray capital costs and some operations costs (configuration, management, reliability, and scalability) to a vendor. PaaS shares these potential advantages with other forms of “cloud computing.” If the economics work out, application development groups should be able to use these cost savings to improve their responsiveness to the business’ needs for new and changed applications.

The Forrester report also deep dives into how enterprises can start planning for PaaS-based initiatives with a pragmatic approach to their long tail IT applications, including on-premise deployment as offered by LongJump’s new platform configuration.

Forrester recommended that application development managers begin to experiment with PaaS to determine its potential future value. Forrester is convinced that today’s PaaS market contains at least the seeds of the next generation of application platforms, if not one or more of the companies that will drive the category. We recommended considering how PaaS can help deal with current business needs and listed important factors to consider when working to create a prudent initial approach to PaaS.

The complete report is available on Forrester’s website here. If you subscribe to their research, you can get the report for free.

Technorati Tags: application development, Application Strategy & Selection, Architecture & Technology Strategy, Computer Architectures, Data Management, Development Tools, forrester, Information & Knowledge Management, IT department, IT Infrastructure & Operations, IT Services, john rymer, Outsourcing, PaaS, Packaged Applications

LongJump’s Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) product for on-demand application creation, has been selected as a finalist by the editors at Webware.com, a CNET site, for the 2009 Webware 100 Awards in the category of Infrastructure and Storage. In each of the Webware 100 categories, there are 30 finalists, and from that list will include 10 winners selected by the general public.

Voting ends April 30th. All the winners will be announced on May 19.

To vote, click here.

Technorati Tags: application development, cloud computing, cnet, PaaS, Platform-as-a-Service, rafe needleman, webware

LongJump, along with companies like Akamai, AMD, AT&T, Cisco, CSC, EMC, IBM, Red Hat, SAP, Sun Microsystems and VMWare, proudly joins the Open Cloud Manifesto, the first step in defining vendor-neutral interoperability standards for cloud based platforms.

The manifesto defines cloud computing as:

• Scalability on Demand
• Streamlining the Data Center
• Improving Business Processes
• Minimizing Startup Costs

It also lists the challenges of adopting cloud computing in real-world business environments including:

• Security
• Data and Application Interoperability
• Data and Application Portability
• Governance and Management
• Metering and Monitoring

The goals of the manifesto is to promote:

• Choice
• Flexibility
• Speed and Agility
• Skills

And as cloud computing matures, there are several key principles that the manifesto hopes to address to ensure the cloud is open and delivers the choice, flexibility and agility organizations demand. We are eager to work with other cloud providers to ensure that the challenges to cloud adoption (security, integration, portability, interoperability, governance/management, metering/monitoring) are addressed through open collaboration and the appropriate use of standards. The goal for vendors should be to not use their market position to lock customers into their particular platforms. We also recognize that all platforms must try to adopt existing standards wherever appropriate while also helping to define new standards that promote innovation.

Technorati Tags: cloud computing, cloud manifesto, open cloud

The gang at CS Techcast, a podcast by Consortio Services, talked with the CEO of LongJump, Pankaj Malviya, about Platform as a Service to get the scoop on cloud computing trends for business. They discuss the adoption of cloud computing platforms within corporate IT teams, and how PaaS provide a point in evolution for developers to create enterprise applications in the cloud. Pankaj also discusses how LongJump is one of many platform tiers within cloud computing. The interview also examines how PaaS changes IT’s perspective to evaluate their focus in their organizations in regards to cost savings, security, and capabilities inherent in the platform they build on.

Technorati Tags: cloud computing, IT department, PaaS

First, let’s talk “stuff.” If you mean by data, absolutely. As Facebook’s recent stumble has indicated, customers should be able to freely move their content. In fact, any application platform should have published APIs that are enable you to migrate data in and out of the system. And their code-based development should support industry standard syntax and logic like Java so at the very least, you can migrate custom logic and processing. But if you mean the applications themselves, which you could argue is the valued piece, that is going to take awhile.

Applications are a combination of data structures (or data models), processing, presentation, a range of interaction that works in concert with the existing platform. As such, every platform vendor has ways of adapting those structures to help businesses leverage as much of the pre-built platform as possible. For PaaS providers, the application modeling and framework are part of their magical sauce, often uniquely optimized for their operating environment, mixed with a large dose of customer requests, and added to that many late night hours of ingenuity. Why? Because there is no all-encompassing platform yet, but each step takes us closer.

Alan Zeichick of SD Times has a more sensible response to issues of standardizing the cloud.

Standards, hastily enacted, can stifle innovation. Cloud computing is in an early experimental growth stage. Sure, we have some well-entrenched early success stories, such as Amazon, Google and Salesforce.com, but it would be a potential tragedy to allow the early work of three companies to be codified as standards. We need time for their cloud offerings to shake out for a few years. We need time for new players to enter the market with new technologies – and new ideas. We need time to broaden the base upon which the standards are made to go beyond commercial interests.

To add to Alan’s point, as we build our platform, our job is never done. Companies are finding more and more uses for LongJump and with each new use comes a handful of new requirements — sometimes involving a change to our modeling and framework. It’s exciting because it’s making our platform richer, more robust and more sophisticated with every update.

If you asked us today to adhere to a standard, we would say: “for what… and whose?” It’s not like millions of companies are jumping online creating applications and abandoning their traditional architectures. At this point a cloud standard would be like asking companies like us to band together to set rules and speed limits and street etiquette before we’ve reached escape velocity. Yes, it’s safe, but completely impractical.

When WiFi was in its early stages (or the Internet for that matter), standards came about when adoption became wider. Adobe held PDF until it ensured that everyone could read it. HTML is still changing as new browser technology is introduced. You want standards? Help improve adoption of these platforms and lobby for the changes that will make them interoperable. Don’t hang up projects based on interoperability first.

And if you’re worried about lock-in, pick an application platform vendor that is willing to work with you on those issues. Talk to them. Give them a chance to address those issues, one-on-one. It’s still early and you can help define the platform you need. And that is better than any standard.

Technorati Tags: application development, Applications, cloud computing, Platform-as-a-Service, standardization

Technorati Tags: application development, coghead, custom applications, enterprise applications, PaaS, Platform, Platform-as-a-Service, techcrunch

There’s a new, vendor-neutral site called Power in the Cloud that is completely focused on situational applications: custom applications that are tailored to meet specific business needs. They have a particular interest in the different platforms, like LongJump, that are geared towards situational apps and are having some interesting discussions around some of the advantages and challenges of this emerging space.

The discussions tend to be around how the more advanced business user or analysts can take advantage of these platforms, but they also recognize tools for more hard core developers.

Here’s their coverage of LongJump.

Technorati Tags: enterprise applications, PaaS, Platform-as-a-Service, situational applications

Additionally, we have added some important features for tracking information, improving administrative update performance, and application design as well as a new help system.

More Interface Changes

As part of the user interface update, users will be able to choose their own color schemes within Setup and companies will be able to load their logo for display on the left of the home page. Additional interface updates include:

• moving action buttons to the top of a view
• moving the record counter to within the view management icon
• introduction of widget-based web tabs for putting dashboards anywhere in an application, not just the Home tab
• introduction of database joined view web tabs for displaying views built by joining objects
• the ability to hide empty fields in a form layout within a section
• record owner information can be moved to the top of a record detail or to the bottom within a layout

Field History Logging

LongJump now makes it possible to keep a change log for specific fields in a record for change management, auditing and compliance purposes. By enabling  audit logging on a field, changes to that value will be time stamped including who made the change, the previous and new value.

Applying Formulas to Report Summaries

You can now create custom summary formulas to build additional analysis by taking a total summed value computed by the report and applying a more complex formula to it. For example, a summary of total goods sold can be shown with an additional calculation to determine sales compensation.

Wildcard Searching

Users can now use wildcards like * and ? to help with searching. LongJump’s search algorithm will look for patterns based on the wildcards.

Public and Private Tagging

Records can now have two levels of tagging: public and private. A private tag is one created and used only by the user. Public tags are shared across the organization.

Static Resources

Application developers will be able to load and store web resources such as CSS stylesheets, images, Javascript files, ZIP and TAR files to be served when called from custom pages, code, or other areas of the application.

Mass Data Operations

For any of the administrative data operations such as mass update, delete, ownership change and emptying the recycle bin, processing for more than 2,500 records will be conducted as a background process so users can continue to work freely and be alerted via email when the operation is complete.

Exporting Attachments

Users will be able to export any documents or attachments associated with a record during the export process. Files will be encoded as either ISO-8859-1,
UTF-8, or UTF-16 format during export.

Other Changes

• fields now support default values
• the Photos tab has been removed and has been consolidated with the Documents tab

Technorati Tags: application development, developers, enterprise applications, Longjump, Platform

Among the topics they discussed were LongJump’s bootstrapped roots, the software as a service (SaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) industry, cloud computing as a whole impact on enterprises and businesses.

To listen to the complete interview, along with Steve’s interviews with Court Cunningham, the CEO of Yodle and Daren Tsui from MSPOT, click here.

Technorati Tags: bootstrapping, cloud computing, innovators radio, PaaS, pankaj malviya, Platform-as-a-Service, saas, software-as-a-service

Enter PaaS.

First, I’ll admit right now, I’m not a developer. I’ve written some applications before in a variety of languages including assembly, C++, Pascal, Java, and BASIC, but coding was not my calling. However… as a business user, there is some real advantage to the PaaS model, especially as it crashes into a sustained, cooperative relationship with agile developers.

Specifically two major points of the Agile Manifesto (“Customer Collaboration” and “Responding to Change”) are inherently easier in a PaaS environment. PaaS provides a significant amount of customization and configuration at the non-coding level, which can deepen a user’s commitment to the application.

For example, I can “self-service” myself to design some very sophisticated automated actions or generate elaborate reports, normally reserved for a DBA and programmer. Such as with LongJump’s data policies or workflow or validations, many automated processing functions are laid out in an easy-to-convey way. I just have to have an understanding of how to dissect the data.

And when I reach my limit of expertise on the design platform or when the platform’s native functionality reaches a wall, I can turn to my buddy, Joe the Agile Software Developer, and say, “Can you write me a connector to our backend such-and-such?” or “Do you have time to write me a simple cleansing algorithm to hunt down bad email addresses?”

The parameters are fairly well defined. The constructs of the platform are very clear. Best of all, changes can happen in near real-time. If Joe writes a Java function for one of our objects, it can go live immediately without having to reinstall a thing. Checked in code is usable the moment it leaves Eclipse. While web developers might say “so what” to that, for enterprise developers, it can be something prized.

And if Joe’s code is close enough to what I need for another object, and I can read enough of it to know where my differences are, I can copy and paste the code for use in another object. It becomes one less thing Joe needs to do for me (freeing him to play WoW or whatever it is programmers do with free time — probably read about coding).

The end result are applications that not only work the way the end user needs them to (point number 2 of the manifesto), they are essentially alive – adapting whenever I have a new business need. And the realization of those changes are not measured in weeks or months or even days – more like minutes.

As a business user, because I’m tailoring the app to my own needs, there’s also a real stickiness to it and more satisfaction as we grow old together. As I mature, as our processes mature, the app matures with me. It’s mine.

And isn’t that the point of agile development?

Technorati Tags: agile manifesto, agile software, application development, developers, programming

This is something we’re predicting will coalesce; right now it’s a bunch of individuals doing this on their own, but we expect lean software to catch on… Lean software could be the antidote to bloated vendors, products and applications and could be helpful in a down economy.

Rymer describes lean software as:

An approach to building, delivering and running software that values fit-to-purpose, simplicity and time to results above all. Lean approaches minimize complexity, startup time and resource usage, and [avoid] features and methods not essential to fulfilling the application’s business purposes. Developers can easily combine Lean software components with others when large systems require more features.

Rymer is spot on in discussing the need for programmers to build leaner, smaller applications. One thing the Web 2.0 push has taught us was to be more introspective when it comes to our application needs. Do we really need every application to be a monolithic exercise in features and functionality? Probably not. Lean software is also very much akin to situational applications.

At the same time, the platform those applications are built on are extremely important. The platform itself must be rich enough to support agile development models where apps can be deployed at will and common business infrastructure components don’t have to be built up from scratch. It is also important for the platform to allow situational and lean applications to connect to each other natively so you don’t end up creating another application silo.

Rymer also stated seven principles to follow for developing lean software:

1. Use fit-to-purpose tools and platforms
2. Employ a lean and agile development process
3. Follow standards that enable pluggable components for tools and applications
4. Hire skillful developers
5. Leverage open source
6. Optimize deployments
7. Rent or outsource context and own core applications

As Rymer mentions, there are some solutions already in the form of OSGi (Open Services Gateway Initiative), SaaS (software as a service) and PaaS (platform as a service), which provide modular and elastic alternatives to heavy solutions.

Technorati Tags: application development, custom applications, developers, enterprise applications, eweek, forrester, john rymer, lean software, PaaS, situational applications

Unfortunately, the article seems to miss the point. Platforms like LongJump, while are easy enough for savvy business users to create applications, also improve the position of coders. Why?

1. Developers are going to have to code a lot less and will not have to revisit applications they create as much because the majority of the object and process modeling needs in the application are already provided as part of the platform framework.
2. That means less boring coding like writing yet another rule engine or yet another SOAP connector for some small special project. Instead, the evolving challenges of development can be tackled instead of being quagmired in reinventing the wheel.
3. PaaS also reduces the cost of application development for highly specialized applications, allowing companies to do more with less resources while also optimizing internal processes and improving transparency of information.

Sophisticated applications, those with special needs or complex processes, will still require custom coding or customization of some kind that will require the discipline of a skilled developer who understands data, efficient processes, actions and design.

What PaaS does provide is an opening for a new kind of application development where business units, instead of running their operations on spreadsheets and emails, can quickly create collaborative applications, workflows, processes and reports for basic business tracking, management, and analysis.

One way to think about PaaS is that it is sort of like of Adobe Dreamweaver. The basic core function is to create a usable solution to a problem quickly and easily. If you need more sophistication, the coding engine is there for an HTML/Javascript expert, but in the meantime, a business user can go in, mock up what they need, make basic edits, or even have a serious contender solution and not have to code a single line. These would be applications that most companies would not have paid a developer for anyway.

So if you’re a coder, relax. We’re just getting rid of the junk work so you can spend your time on the cool stuff.

Technorati Tags: developers, infoworld, PaaS, Platform-as-a-Service

By now, everyone knows the value of software as a service (SaaS) to small and midsize companies. But eventually, PaaS could have an even more profound effect on growing companies’ access to the applications they need. Platform as a service is a technique that makes it faster, easier, and cheaper to develop and deploy custom SaaS applications using existing components.

With PaaS solutions, more vertical industries that have traditionally been excluded in custom software circles will likely find a fitted answer without paying a large amount for consulting. In addition, Paul states that “growing companies can expect PaaS to deliver not only more customized software at faster speeds, but also better prices.”

Technorati Tags: PaaS, Platform-as-a-Service, saas, smb

So how hard could it be for those same service providers to deliver network-based apps, be they simple things such as e-mail and hosting or complex applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) or customer relationship management? The answer is, it turns out, pretty hard. But that doesn’t mean that carriers have — or should — give up on delivering software applications via their networks. It just means they have to be smarter and savvier, even as the types of services and apps that can be delivered via the network cloud are rapidly proliferating — from relatively simple messaging and security services to full-blown virtualized computing environments that can be “rented” by the month or hour.

I couldn’t agree more with this. Service providers have a maturation process they will need to go through to become software distribution channels. Since they are primarily geared towards an SMB market, they will require ready-to-go solutions that have immediate, meaningful impact, yet be able to take the shape of the businesses they are trying to serve.

For LongJump, we’re certainly trying to lay some groundwork in this area. LongJump, has partnered with service providers in some instances, including Singapore Telecom and Jamcracker, to deliver a broad range of platform-based application services to businesses.

“Every ASP application needs to have the ability to be customized; there isn’t a single customer willing to take a completely canned product,” said Pankaj Malviya, CEO of LongJump, of his company’s platform play. “If a service provider were to try to build what we can provide for them, it would take years. That’s our story: They can operate a single platform and build very powerful apps that they can offer individually but also are designed to talk with one another.”

In the end, it makes perfect sense. Service providers are the keepers of the pipes. As their business becomes more commoditized, they need to differentiate their services and take on a more value-added reseller role.

Technorati Tags: asp, carriers, cloud computing, jamcracker, PaaS, saas, service providers, singtel

We have heard from dozens of IT organizations charged with building web-based business applications for their constituents that meeting all of their needs is simply not possible. This is why IT silos and rogue/situational applications occur. LongJump CEO Pankaj Malviya discussed this in The Long Tail of IT.

Yet many CIOs have yet to wake up to new ways to provide greater services while also lowering costs. The answer is to get your head in the cloud.

According to Goldman Sachs in their July 2008 IT Sales Opportunity survey of 100 CIOs, less than 2% of them said cloud computing was a priority. In fact, it was ranked last in a series of initiatives. Instead, their approach is to cut rather than invest modestly in these flexible services.

In an increasingly competitive business environment and with the emergence of cloud computing and its off shoot, platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solutions, these CIOs seem to be missing a bigger picture.

That’s because PaaS offers businesses a very demonstrable ROI while also strengthening operations an organization. Both these factors should have CIOs taking a closer look at PaaS not only for its economic benefits, but as an opportunity to improve information management and processes across the enterprise.

PaaS can add significant value to enterprise IT by enabling CIOs to better serve the business, operate at a more strategic level with business divisions and rapidly deliver application solutions to business partners. PaaS also provides a modest-cost approach to cloud computing that doesn’t require infrastructure procurement, datacenter overhead, and minimizes risk.

LongJump believes that PaaS can provide an economy of scale savings to businesses’ application initiatives immediately and in the long run. At the same time, organizations can improve their maturity level, delivery a greater breadth of services, and have more control over their information.

For more information about the economics of PaaS and Cloud Computing, I invite you to read our whitepaper: “PaaS-onomics: A CIO’s Guide to using Platform-as-a-Service to Lower Costs of Application Initiatives While Improving the Business Value of IT.“

Technorati Tags: cio, cloud computing, economics, goldman sachs, PaaS, Platform-as-a-Service

Software vendors throw around the term “enterprise” quite a bit, and while LongJump is no different, for us, the term has a real meaning. For our applications (everything from our CRM solutions to our Employee Manager) and our Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), LongJump truly supports the notion of an enterprise: a business or organization that features multiple departments.

This is critical to understanding the depth of our platform, including our built-in team and role permission management system that offers enterprise-grade security to our highly extensible application interface. Our business model was built with enterprises of all sizes in mind. From the 10- to 20-person startup to the 20,000 Fortune 500 company, we’ve tried to maintain a critical balance between functionality and affordability because in the end, both spectrums have a thirst for both. The small company is going to need powerful tools if it hopes to grow and a Fortune 500 company is going to mature, deep functionality at an economy-of-scale to support all their constituents.

Obviously SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) and PaaS solutions provide that immediate time-to-value. You’re up and running on a complete platform and application space literally in seconds. Your team just logs in and is ready to start working. But certainly there are concerns, as indicated by J. David Lashar in The Hidden Cost of SaaS. Lashar states:

The relatively limited scope for configuring or customizing a SaaS initiative makes for low-cost, fast-paced implementation. However, this limited scope and implementation may not support the requirements, may not include the automations, and may not generate the intelligence (i.e., reports and dashboards) that are critical to the business. In other words, SaaS may actually impede the ability to realize full entitlement to CRM value. The cost is not a direct cost, but rather an opportunity cost in terms of lost CRM benefits, at least for enterprise-scale organizations that can afford on-premise solutions and might therefore be able to achieve greater CRM benefits from the greater functionality available from those solutions.

Certainly it is true that many SaaS CRM providers (and even on-premise CRM providers) have a limited scope in their ability to draw from enterprise sources and connect to the entirety of operations within a business. One reason is that those tools are often left to only certain members of the team. Others have to fend for themselves because of the cost of adding them as users. That’s why a platform strategy is critical, because platforms are extensible and designed to connect multiple applications and multiple departments. The economy of scale allows for a greater reach across the entire enterprise.

For example, LongJump’s SOAP Web Services API provides a direct connection point to a variety of web systems and is key to understanding how even on-demand applications contribute to the enterprise. Many SOA initiatives are locked into exchanging information across certain systems. Rarely do end-users see the benefit to help streamline their processes or analysis.

At LongJump we really believe that if you’re going to implement a PaaS solution, and you expect it to be wide-ranging enough within your multi-departmental enterprise, it needs to be truly affordable today as well as tomorrow.

This means supporting a complete enterprise view for everyone in the organization, not just a priviledged few.

Technorati Tags: cloud computing, enterprise, PaaS, Platform-as-a-Service, saas, soa, software-as-a-service

ORLANDO, FL, GARTNER SYMPOSIUM/ITxpo CONFERENCE, Monday, October 13, 2008 – LongJump, a leading Application Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) provider, unveiled a new release of its platform with features and functionality aimed specifically to meet requirements of corporate enterprises. LongJump already enables corporate IT to fully implement the LongJump platform, with its built-in application creation, workflow and customization, and data analysis capabilities ? all without the added infrastructure costs or data center overhead. In addition, LongJump’s new release provides sophisticated, actionable trending analysis, email-based workflow interaction, sandboxing for improved management of the testing and deployment process, and mobile access to applications. LongJump will be located at booth #510.

“Until now, Global 2000 organizations have struggled with delivering and maintaining dozens of applications and data silos,” noted Pankaj Malviya, LongJump’s founder and CEO. “The core value of PaaS is to enable companies to create multiple, interconnected applications to serve all of their operational teams on a common, integrated platform. We’re pleased to deliver LongJump’s latest platform release that squarely supports key requirements of our corporate enterprise customers.”

PaaS = SaaS-based Application Development

Resource-taxed enterprises are increasingly moving to take advantage of the ease and flexibility that PaaS and SaaS solutions offer; however, IT still has concerns, and one of the most pressing is around the robustness of these platforms.

A September 2008 Gartner report titled, “Control Personnel Costs to Reduce Your Application Support Budget,” notes the following: “IT Key Metrics Data shows that approximately 38% of the IT budget is directly attributable to applications that support the business operations, including financial management and ERP, corporate performance management (CPM), SCM and CRM applications.”

Enterprise IT requires ways to reduce costs, development time, quality testing, delivering and maintaining application infrastructure, as well as increasing reusability of application components to streamline delivery and support. With Platform-as-a-Service, enterprise IT can build more applications on the same platform, and the economies of scale will take effect to dramatically lowering the costs of all subsequent application initiatives.

Since its inception, LongJump has delivered its enterprise-grade applications platform with a focus on eliminating obstacles that keep established companies from adopting PaaS on a wide-scale basis, such as proprietary scripting, proprietary languages, availability, and reintroducing new information silos.

With its ability to scale quickly, leverage existing data natively across different applications, and extend its platform with industry standard, Java-based tools, LongJump’s platform already addressed many of these enterprise concerns. This new release introduces an additional layer of functionality that enterprises rely on, including greater interoperability, enhancing security, and extending reporting to support audit and compliance requirements.

Key enhancements to LongJump’s new platform include:

• Business Process Automation:
  • Email-based Workflow Approvals: Lets users trigger workflow activities using any email device
• SOA Integration:
  • Compliance of common SOAP-encoding standards such as WSDL / WS-I: Integrates seamlessly
    with other systems or SOAs
• Application Release Process and Compliance:
  • Sandboxing: Enables a company to create a separate instance of LongJump in order to test applications before deploying them into a production environment. This gives enterprises consistent control to test applications in advance of rolling out updates in a more manageable and secure way to support regulatory and business process requirements.
• Mobile Access:
  • Mobile Access: Provides WAP-based wireless access for BlackBerry, iPhone and other webenabled mobile phones and devices
• Security Enhancements:
  • LDAP server integration and authentication: Enables integration into Single Sign-On enterprise environments
  • Additional Security Login Controls: Ensures login identity based on computer MAC addresses and personal security questions
  • Visibility Controls: Supports an added layer of control for certain data fields for securing specific information
• Enhanced Reporting:
  • Historical Data Tracking: Tracks history of data in specific fields for trending and analysis
  • Additional Reporting: Provides improved user reporting and auditing to support compliance
    requirement

The company’s announcement comes on the heels of its LongJump Development Suite announcement for developers eager to exploit SaaS-based application development and delivery.

About LongJump

Based in Sunnyvale, California, LongJump is a service of Relationals Inc., a privately-held, proven provider of on-demand CRM and SFA business applications to more than 150 enterprise companies. LongJump’s Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and catalog of highly customizable, business applications help companies reduces the time and cost of developing and delivering data-driven applications. Its business building blocks let developers and corporate IT teams gain significant time-to-value, since they can bypass the need to repeatedly recreate common business processes and functions. LongJump is the first platform-as-a-service provider to bring robust customization, integration, and powerful functionality to businesses of all sizes, enabling them to quickly design, implement and do further customization in an easy, affordable way. For more information, visit www.longjump.com or call 800.886.9028.

Technorati Tags: enterprise, gartner, itxpo, PaaS, Platform-as-a-Service

LongJump CEO Pankaj Malviya wrote an article on the “Seven Key Requirements Corporate IT Needs from PaaS” for TechCrunchIT and it was featured today.

In it, Pankaj discusses how cloud computing initiatives are gaining momentum with businesses of all sizes, particularly with enterprises that are looking to adopt the right solutions to address their ongoing business and IT challenges. He also discussed the broad range of Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offerings that enterprise business and IT units are examining more thoroughly as a direct evolution of SaaS-based, single-discipline solutions that are targeted toward the horizontal enterprise.

These seven requirements for PaaS are what we have been hearing from LongJump customers when they are evaluating the right solution. Specifically, enterprise IT departments that PaaS will surely impact.

Technorati Tags: cloud computing, enterprise, PaaS, pankaj malviya, Platform-as-a-Service, saas, software-as-a-service, techcrunch

LongJump CEO Pankaj Malviya was a featured guest on the PricewaterhouseCoopers Start Up Show hosted by Steve Bengston September 25th. Pankaj and Steve discussed how Platform-as-a-Service as an organizational application development platform and the future of cloud computing can help businesses improve their IT services.

He talked about the need for PaaS, benefits, state of the industry and market, implementation, what applications work best in the PaaS model, and the future worldwide adoption of PaaS.

Technorati Tags: cloud computing, PaaS, Platform-as-a-Service