12:00-13:00

SaaS - An Overview / Jürgen Pfeifer

We’ll give a definition of SaaS and look into the SaaS ecosystem. You’ll get an overview about the driving business forces behind SaaS. We’ll discuss the benefits and disadvantages of the SaaS consumption model and look at the benefits of offering solutions through the SaaS model. What are the business models and monetization strategies in the SaaS market? We’ll explain Microsoft’s position on SaaS and how our platform can help to develop or consume SaaS solutions. Finally, we’ll see how Microsoft’s “Live” offering is related to Saas.

13:15 - 14:15

Building SaaS Solutions / Jürgen Pfeifer

This session discusses some of the new challenges that come with the design and development of SaaS solutions. Ideally, a SaaS application runs in a single logical instance and serves a multitude of tenants, each with a separate set of configuration and customization requirements. Even APIs to integrate the SaaS solution into existing applications and processes are required. And of course the tenants’ data and processes must be isolated from each other. These and similar challenges will be discussed and we’ll relate that to Microsoft technologies that might help to address these challenges.

14:45 - 15:45

SaaS in the Enterprise / Jürgen Pfeifer

This session discusses some of the aspects of consuming SaaS solutions in the enterprise. We’ll look into the continuum of control versus cost savings that are typically discussed when planning to use a SaaS solution. What implication to the enterprise architecture has SaaS? What is the relation between SOA and SaaS? Integration and composition are core architectural capabilities when consuming SaaS, so we’ll look into some architectural patterns in that area.

16:00-17:00

Implication on the Infrastucture / Kevin Sangwell

By definition, SaaS applications are consumed from an external provider. Whilst this is similar to outsourcing, there are some key differences when purchasing software as a service from an external provider. As you’re not handing over an existing application you must consider integration, identity management and single sign-on, data security and ownership and more. Add this to the requirement for service level agreements around availability and performance as a minimum and you’re facing a new challenge for your infrastructure architecture and its management. This session will discuss these issues you need to consider and look at some some of the Microsoft technologies which can help in these areas.