Cloud Computing, Software as a Service (SaaS),
and OpenSpan
SaaS has clear benefits, such as cost savings, ease of
administration, no need to do mass desktop upgrades, and centralized
support. But SaaS presents integration and other desktop challenges that
OpenSpan technology is in a unique position to solve.
Despite its remote hosting, users still interact with SaaS
applications in the desktop environment. SaaS applications are normally
displayed alone in a browser, or the browser function may be merged in
another user interface such as a mashup or other portal. If enterprise
SaaS users are required to use additional desktop interfaces and
applications (Excel, a mainframe terminal, other Web applications, Java,
PowerBuilder, or even DOS-based) in concert with a SaaS instance, the
integration burden remains with the user, still burdened with multiple
interfaces. This can degrade productivity, by forcing cumbersome
workarounds, copy-and-paste, and switching between applications.
SaaS Integration Challenges, OpenSpan Solutions
SaaS therefore presents several key technical and business challenges
to traditional integration strategies:
- Lack of, or minimal depth of APIs. Integration
with SaaS applications is limited to functionality or data exposed by
the SaaS vendor's developers. You no longer own or even have access to
the underlying source code.
- Reliance on SaaS vendors. Any non-standard
integration projects will depend on your vendor's development schedule,
not your own.
- Core applications change. Enterprise desktop
applications are upgraded and previous SaaS integration APIs or code
are invalidated.
OpenSpan focuses on integrating applications in the presentation
layer. The common denominator across all applications, whether cloud or
legacy mainframe, Web, Windows native, Java, or others, is that every
application and application graphical user interface (GUI) delivered to
a user ultimately interacts with that user's operating system.
OpenSpan lets you realize the full advantage that SaaS and cloud
computing offers by effectively merging them with your existing set of
applications and architectures. With OpenSpan, you can also effectively
scale that structure in the future, by including additional SaaS
instances, desktop, and even virtualized applications.
Summary
Cloud computing and SaaS can seem like a bargain, but users can incur
unintended costs with manual workarounds in order to make legacy
applications function effectively. OpenSpan helps you use those existing
applications to integrate, extend, and enhance cloud services and
virtualization.
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