Lawson Takes Its Own Approach to Cloud Computing by Jeff Moad
Lawson Software Inc. recently became the latest vendor of ERP applications to jump into the cloud computing fray, rolling out versions of its M3, S3, and talent management applications running in Amazon.com’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) environment as well as an option for customers to run bundled versions of some of its applications on their internal cloud platforms.
But don’t expect Lawson to turn itself overnight into a Salesforce.com or NetSuite. For one thing, Lawson’s architectural approach to cloud computing is markedly different from those of such software-as-a-service-only (SaaS) vendors. And, for another, Lawson foresees its customers embracing its cloud-based applications only gradually. Officials said Lawson expects only 5% of its revenue to come from cloud-based services in the first year, growing to 15% over the next few years.
“I’m not so sure that, in the short term, demand [for cloud-based applications] will be dramatic,” said CEO Harry Debes, in an interview with Managing Automation at Lawson’s recent annual CUE customer conference in San Antonio. “Over the next three to five years, it has a chance to be big. But it will take a while for our customers to understand it.”
Lawson’s approach to the cloud differs in several ways from that of pure-play SaaS providers and its more traditional competitors. Unlike vendors such as SAP and Epicor, for example, Lawson has elected not to rewrite its applications to run as multi-tenant SaaS services with all customers sharing a common code base and database. Instead, customers of Lawson’s external cloud services will each run its own copy of the Lawson applications.
Lawson officials insisted that, while cloud purists typically sneer at offerings that are not multi-tenant, its approach has advantages. Because Lawson’s cloud customers run their own instance of the software, they have the ability to customize the application code. That’s typically not allowed in the multi-tenant world.
And, since the Lawson external cloud offerings run in Amazon’s EC2 environment, customers will be able to scale their use of underlying server, storage, and other computing resources, paying only for what they need. Like users of multi-tenant SaaS systems, customers of Lawson’s external cloud offerings will pay a monthly subscription charge that covers software license, use fees, hosting, and maintenance charges. Customers will have the option of continuing to pay for the applications indefinitely or bringing them in-house, something else SaaS-only vendors don’t offer.
“We believe our approach to the cloud supersedes [multi-tenant] SaaS,” Debes said. “Customers get their own unique instance of the software, and they still have price flexibility and the option to later purchase or continue renting. We’re giving people options that SaaS doesn’t have.”
article written by Jeff Moad continued here via Managing Automation
