There was a press release in the “media” room here announcing a new project from Parallels the company is calling its “SaaS FastTrack” program.
I’ll admit – it was a bit of an unusual experience trying to digest a press release in print. Fortunately I had a chance to sit down with Serguei Beloussov, who explained to me some of the significance around the program.
The basic premise is a system for helping independent software vendors build their applications to function with Parallels’ Open Platform and Application Packaging Standard, both designed by the company to function as an open and ubiquitous standard for communication between the various application and infrastructure pieces of a hosted solution.
It’s really a more focused effort at what the company was already doing – helping ISVs to build solutions that can be easily adopted by hosting providers, which are the bulk of the company’s customers.
The interesting thing about the program, he says, is that there’s no immediate and obvious financial benefit to Parallels from the ISVs that build their solutions to function with the APS. The benefit to Parallels is in the ecosystem it is building – an environment where Parallels software is the simplest way to package hosting solutions. If the hosting providers using that software grow, and deploy more servers, that is where the benefit is for Parallels.
As far as the nuts and bolts of the program, there is a “standard level,” for ISVs with one application, which will provide the partner with assistance packaging the application and making it visible. The “premium” level is for ISVs with one or more apps and want “rapid time-to-market” with promotions and connections to executives in the service provider channel. The “ultimate” level is for ISVs that are new to SaaS, want to learn about the service provider industry and about service provider business models.
These aren’t exactly inexpensive offerings, ranging in price from about $1,000 for the standard to about $10,000 for the ultimate. But it seems to be a very deep engagement. The full, exhaustive description of the FastTrack program is available on the company’s website.
I think the other really interesting thing about the FastTrack program is how strongly it reaffirms Parallels’ vision for the distribution of SaaS applications. Unlike, say, Microsoft with its SaaS Incubator program (which, though a little bit similar, really is a completely different thing), the Parallels program is really based on the belief that the software developer should make its application available to service providers, who will then deliver the service to their customers, rather than the ISV finding a host for itself and then providing the service.
They’re just different areas of expertise. Software developers know how to develop software, while service providers really know how to provide service. It’s right there in their names.
