Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud: Will VARs Plug In?

Multiple open source software companies are pumping the same message into The VAR Guy’s email inbox. From Compiere to Pentaho, small open source application providers are calling on VARs to deploy business software in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). Will VARs answer the call? Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy.

Compiere 3.3, an open source ERP (enterprise resource planning) system, debuted March 24 with EC2 support. A day earlier, Pentaho launched a business intelligence software suite (verion 3.0) that also plugs into Amazon’s EC2 cloud. And stay tuned. At least one other open source company will make a similar move within days.

Oh, and a shameless plug: The VAR Guy Live, a webcast scheduled for April 15, will explore the opportunities — and challenges — awaiting VARs that launch applications in Amazon’s cloud.

Reality Check

From Windows to Linux applications, dozens of software companies are getting cozy in the EC2 cloud. But it’s important to keep cloud computing and Software as a Service (SaaS) in perspective. Gartner estimates that less than 10 percent of the corporate software market currently involves SaaS. And by 2013, only about 20 percent of the corporate software market will involve SaaS.

Translation: SaaS is growing super-fast — about 20 percent annually, ar. Both closed-source and open-source companies want to cash in. But VARs would be foolish to ignore the 80 percent of the market that will continue to involve on-premise software deployments.

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