Saas News & Articles

The announcement that The FeedRoom (news, site), New York-based provider of Web video and digital media solutions, has released a SaaS version of its v4.0 Enterprise Video Platform (EVP) is not really surprising.

Given the popularity of video at the moment, and the costs involved in developing live video streaming, it was only a matter of time before the company went down that road as companies like Kaltura lead the race to the (price) bottom by making its open source video solution free.

However, The FeedRoom is targeting companies that have large public relations or press departments and argue that public organizations will have to take to video in a market where transparency appears to be the buzz word.

It appears that Jive (news, site) may be making all the right moves with its Social Business Software. Today they announce solid growth for their platform for Q2 09 with an 80% increase in revenues year over year.

Along with strong revenue growth, they have recorded the largest booking quarter to date, having some significant customer wins.

It has been a busy time for Jive Software as social computing solutions have appeared to remain fairly popular during this down period. Here's a look at some of things that have helped Jive's momentum.

The enterprise content management provider KnowledgeTree (news, site ) released v3.6.1 on June 19, and already it has announced that it has upgraded its SaaS solution to include all the functionality of the on-site version.

Focusing on businesses that have a large dependency on documents, and consequently document management solutions, the company says the SaaS upgrade will eliminate the need for new hardware, or in-house training for the IT department.

The principal feature that is now available on KnowledgeTree Live is the Microsoft Office Add-In. In addition, the ability to integrate with Zoho Writer makes it possible for users to access and edit documents remotely without high-cost desktop software.

In April this year there was so much huffing and puffing about the fact that users of Adobe InContext Editing would probably have to pay a monthly fee for it, Adobe (news, site) had to clarify some of the issues.

First, it was explained that InContext Editing is not a paid additional feature of Dreamweaver, but is, in fact, a standalone editing service even though it provides integration features for Dreamweaver CS4 using its design view and commands.

Second, they explained that the monthly fee would entitle websites of smaller businesses, or non-profit organizations, to update and edit their websites at a relatively small fee compared with other solutions built for large websites, whose costs are not justifiable for smaller ones.

So, with all the dust settled, what is it that InContext Editing does?

SoftLayer Technologies (news, site), provider of on-demand virtual data center services, has scored again. Earlier this year the company announced their partner status in the Microsoft Hosting BizSpark program in addition to the release of a cloud package for the enterprise. This month they were recognized by the Gartner Magic Quadrant, which listed them as a “Niche Player” for Web Hosting and Cloud Infrastructure Services (On-Demand).

Each company in the Magic Quadrant was reportedly evaluated on its completeness of vision and ability to execute within: self-managed hosting, mainstream-managed hosting, highly complex managed hosting, global solutions portfolio, and enterprise applications hosting.

CloudLayer, SoftLayer’s set of cloud services and, in this case, recognition winner, includes a Content Delivery Network (CDN), Storage and Computing. All of these are available as standalone services or fully integrated with all other SoftLayer offerings.

“In my opinion, being evaluated in this report is proof that our unique approach is redefining hosting,” said Lance Crosby, CEO of SoftLayer. “Of course, our greatest pride and core goal is to provide solutions and scalability that make an impact on our customers’ business. But to me, being in the Magic Quadrant shows that we’re making a difference throughout the industry.”

Vjoon (news, site) is a German company offering a "for-rent" web publishing solution for those in the media.

When your solution is up against a number of others in the market, you need to find ways to promote your offering where your market will look. eTouch (news, site) did that earlier this year for their SamePage enterprise wiki.

In April, eTouch announced that customers could pick up SamePage from the Salesforce.com AppExchange. Pricing starts at US$ 100 per month for up to 20 users, US$ 200 for 21 to 50 users and US$ 400 for up to 100 users. And of course, there's that 30-day trial offer you find it hard to refuse.

Today, eTouch announces a new location to pick up the SamePage enterprise wiki: MySMBStore.com. MySMBStore.com is owned by Renovatix Solutions. It offers a number of enterprise level SaaS solutions at the same price or, in some cases less, than buying from the vendor directly. Buying from MySMBStore.com also gives you a single point of support and integrated billing for all applications you purchase there.

Pricing for SamePage at MySMBStore.com starts at US$ 100 per month for up to 20 users. Head over and read the reviews or write one yourself.

After allowing Acquia Search to simmer in over two hundred and fifty beta tester kitchens for a few months, Acquia (news, site) has taken the product and added it to its selection of hosted Acquia Network services.

Call it rubber-necking or whatever you want, but when one company buys another company in this business we want to know the details.

Such is the case with the announcement that Pennsylvania based Really Strategies (news, site) has just bought out DocZone (news, site), a Dutch-based SaaS XML content management provider under -- you guessed it -- undisclosed terms.

Let's take another trip to the cloud, shall we? Yes, the adage may be old: to cloud or not to cloud? The open source Enterprise CMS vendor Nuxeo (news, site) solved this poetic dilemma and took its document management product to the cloud.

More news coming on the second day of the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston. Socialtext (news, site) is offering their hosted social networking solution for free for organizations of up to 50 people. Along with the new free offering, they also announce the public beta of their social spreadsheet solution: SocialCalc.

Alfresco (news, site) is one of the most well known open source enterprise content management providers. With over 1.4 million downloads of their solution already and a number of marque clients for the Alfresco Enterprise, they should be happy to continue business as usual.

But, as usual, they aren't. This week they have announced a partnership with ParaScale, a cloud storage software provider, to offer Alfresco "Content as a Service".

For companies that rely on secure virtual environments for the exchange of critical information, IntraLinks (news, site) announcement that it has upgraded its SaaS platform should be of some interest.

The New York-based company, which provides enterprise-class document management solutions, has been developing and redeveloping its platform since 1997, and has unveiled a number of enhancements that the company says will make life easier for its clients.

What ho! Is that a new version of WordPress (news, site)  we spy?

The answer is yes. But of course, you probably knew already; WordPress 2.8 was released for immediate download toward the end of last week. Just like most seasoned blogging platform fans, we’ve come to expect big things from the system. This time, the newest version not only fits the usual bill, it also presents some pretty stiff competition for other platforms like Drupal.

Anyone who regularly has to produce any kind of written content in the course of their working day will understand this -- changing text without an apparent reason is very, very annoying.

It is maybe with this in mind that Sacramento-based Edit Connection has released a new document collaboration website that lets you look, but doesn’t let you touch -- unless, of course, the author allows it.

It is this difference from wikis that will probably get most of the attention. Revizr allows numerous document collaborators make suggestions on changes to be made, but leaves the ultimate decision on those changes to the document creator.