Appliance to Cloud; Cloud to Server

This is a good time to keep an eye on start ups and how they are repositioning their solutions to and from the cloud. Here are two situations of such moves. Both offer a “second” option and do not negate the original offer.

WeoGeo launched with an appliance that would manage geospatial data. About two years later it offered that same solution as a cloud service (press release).

In contrast consider Altadyn, a CAD solution provider. It first offered its 3DXplorer as a Software as a Service (SAAS) solution. But per Ralph Grabowski at All CAD Access, users didn’t like giving up control of their design data. Thus, today the company began shipping “the behind-the-firewall version of its browser-based 3D collaboration, um, software: 3DXplorer Enterprise Edition.” In short, they have a choice. The “host your own” solution has these advantages, per the article: performance, security, geographic distribution (neither Grabowski nor I follow that one) and own IT staff, which he suggests means lower cost than using Altadyn’s staff.

I suspect that customers will vote on what they “want” with their dollars. It will be interesting to see which option (if either) clients of these solutions select.