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POC

Progress meets déjà vu, entrepreneurial style

Wed, 2011-09-21 08:28 — Greg O'Connor

What do a day at the beach and bringing absolutely unique technology to market have in common?  They are two of my favorite things.  Half educator, half evangelist, I spend my days carving out the difference between virtualizing server applications (AppZero) and virtualizing the servers they run on (Hypervisors VA/VM). 

I’ve been here before.  In 2000, I had the opportunity to gather some of the best and brightest people together as I co-founded Sonic Software with Bill Cullen (product brain and Sonic CTO; now AppZero CTO).  At the time, we saw a market-making opportunity to take the AppServer world standards (formal/XML or market driven/Java) and apply them to the EAI market.  The first ESB to market -- Sonic XQ (Xml Queue) -- was shipped in February 2002.  Sonic itself was bought by Progress Software.

In an entrepreneurial act of déjà vu, I’m at Progress Software’s Revolution conference in Boston.   I am struck by the irony of how very much I could have used the technology I now bring to my fellow software executives, who are struggling to balance revolution and cost. 

If you sell software, you’ll appreciate this observation

Growing Sonic Software, we faced two universal hurdles that significantly impacted our business – and that of pretty much everyone who sells software:

  1. Winning or losing – labor-intensive demos, proof of concepts (POC), evaluations, and trials had a huge impact on our growth rate
  2. Installs that did not go perfectly, resulted in fire drills, lost business,  and a sharp dip in customer confidence

(These facts of software life are some of the acute pain points we solve here at AppZero.)

At Sonic, we were often faced with a 5 day evaluation for a prospect:  1 day to setup our software on their environment, 3 days to do the work they requested, and 1 day show off the results.  When the 1st day did not go as planned, we always lost.  

Always.  Every single time. No exception.

A cautionary tale:  If you sell software, you are guilty until you prove yourself innocent

Oh, and here’s how I learned that an imperfect install can still bite you long after you have successfully fought to win a customer (in this case a market icon).  A full year after having won the business and implemented our product at the New York Mercantile Exchange, I received a call from the CIO.  He had some new concerns, “Sonic messaging system appears to slow down under load”. 

Arrgggh.  How could this be possible?  Sonic was ahead of its time with elastic scaling, continuous availability, and best in class through put.  This could not be correct.  As it turned out, it wasn’t. 

But determining and fixing the “root cause”  took 6 labor-intensive weeks filled with tons of anxious phone calls, numerous pointing fingers (with chewed fingernails), and a couple of flights to NYC by our top troubleshooter .  Life got very unpleasant before it returned to good.

The culprit? A bug in the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and Java Runtime Environment  (JRE) that would not do garbage collect (free memory) under load.  Now, long before that fateful phone call, we at Sonic knew all about this issue.  We had documented it, changed our install and packaging to make an easy fix. 

(Cue scary music) But then the customer got involved.  

Someone, somewhere along their line had installed their company’s “certified” version of the JVM/JRE thereby putting our product and reputation at risk.

“It wasn’t my fault” just doesn’t matter.  It took a long time, involving many smart people to find the 2 files that needed to be changed so that all the oil futures in the world could once again flow over the Sonic messaging system.

Morale of the story: Once a customer has your software, things happen.

If I had a time machine, I would bring the AppZero product to my(then)self 

AppZero not only solves the PoC puzzle for software vendors, but protects their Windows and Linux server applications from customers.  We make it possible for applications to be pre-installed, pre-configured and then provisioned onto a physical or virtual OS -- in minutes, perhaps over lunch.  

This capability effectively changes the math around POCs in a big way: we reduce the install, setup and configuration time to zero.  If I had been able to use AppZero at Sonic, I would have freed up a whole day to actually do the customer requests on every single PoC.   What would a 33% increase in productive time have meant?  I’m going to guess a higher win rate against the competition, faster company growth, bigger promotions, and more time spent with the wife and kids.  

And if I had had AppZero at Sonic, our very cool software would have been safely isolated from the customer’s operating environment instead of deeply enmeshed in it.  Innocent from the start.  Hey, how’s this for a new tag line? “AppZero -- protect your software from your customers.” 

I am always looking for a way to communicate better and cut to the heart of any discussion. So, if you have thoughts on this subject drop me a line at GregO {@} Appzero {dot} com or tweet me at http://twitter.com/gregoryjoconnor. 

Server application virtualization = Sales 2.0 accelerant for ISVs

Mon, 2011-05-16 04:39 — Greg O'Connor

As luck would have it, I recently attended two thought-provoking Sales 2.0-focused presentations almost back to back. In the first one, Ben Nye of Bain Capital Ventures spoke about lessons learned from SolarWinds, a poster child for Sales 2.0.  At the next, David Skok of Matrix Partners gave a first-rate talk with practical advice on "How to Build a Sales and Marketing Machine" .  With apologies to Ben and David, I’d “nutshell” one of their key points as follows:

Your product is your sales person.

Technology and expectations have combined to shift away from a sales-rep model to one that is product centric; one that lets the buyer take it for a test drive and become self educated. In this model, the product is made available for evaluation and is the vehicle by which an interested person will become a highly qualified prospect.

Success here requires: 1) ease of installation 2) ease of use 3) intuitive and instruction free interface 4) fast proof that the product works as advertised, which in turn implies that marketing has set clear and accurate expectations ahead of time.  (For articles and videos on these topics, visit the Sales 2.0 company).

Here, is how AppZero acts as a Sales 2.0 tool when ISVs package their application as a Virtual Application Appliance (VAA):

  • Instant provisioning of demonstrations and PoCs
  • Installation time is removed from the delivery process
  • Time consuming configuration processes are eliminated
  • As there is no installation or configuration required, errors are removed from the equation
  • Applications can be instantly provisioned on premise, at the customer site, and/or in the cloud
  • The application can be moved from server to server (physical or virtual) with no lock-in

This last point deserves elaboration. AppZero VAAs can easily move … again and again. VAAs capture all of an application’s state, enabling a demo to evolve into a PoC, which in turn can move into production.  The sales process is accelerated. (For a brief description of the ISV-relevant characteristics of a VAA, see my previous blog, “Moving ISV applications in a Sales 2.0 world -- What a difference an “A” makes”)

Let’s consider a very realistic ISV sales progression. An ISV delivers an application demo as a VAA and converts it into a proof of concept (PoC) in the cloud. Once the PoC is successfully completed, the application – and all the work that has been put into it during the PoC -- can be moved to wherever the customer wishes it to live. That place could be their data center, a private cloud, or a public cloud. 

The technical nutshell of Sales 2.0 reasons for ISVs to use AppZero’s VAA approach include: ZeroInstall, small image size, fast network delivery, works with Windows, Linux and can migrate to where the customer wants. The business nutshell is even simpler: faster time to customer satisfaction, lowered cost of acquiring customers, and winning more business.

My own Sales 2.0 proposition for ISVs is AppZero’s ISV Accelerator Program.  In this program, we offer qualified ISVs the following at no charge: professional services to assist in encapsulating the ISV application as a VAA; the right to use that VAA to deliver demonstrations and PoCs with no time or volume limitation; and six months of support. Hop into our funnel and move your Sales 2.0 self right on through it to satisfied customer/enthusiastic reference.

I am always looking for a way to communicate better and cut to the heart of any discussion. So, if you have thoughts on this subject drop me a line at GregO {@} Appzero {dot} com or tweet me at http://twitter.com/gregoryjoconnor.

Moving ISV applications in a Sales 2.0 world -- What a difference an “A” makes

Mon, 2011-05-09 08:26 — Greg O'Connor

Innovative technology deserves new words. Back when “EJB” was the new shiny, bright center of Java standards, I was part of the team that created “ESB” – both the moniker and the market. It was a natural for me to christen AppZero’s patented, OS-free server application virtualization technology “Virtual Application Appliance” (VAA). Why VAA? To compare with, and contrast against, the well-established “Virtual Appliance” (VA) concept. To both build on the known and to differentiate from it. 

The compare part is that, packaged either as a VA or a VAA, applications travel fully configured and arrive at their destination ready to run – for instant deployment. The contrast part is that, whereas VAs travel on a Virtual Machine (VM) complete with a fully functioning OS, AppZero VAAs travel OS-free.

The difference that the contrast makes? Let me count the ways:

  • An application packaged as a VA of 40+ Gigs is going to be 10 to 100 times smaller as a VAA
  • Sending a 40+ GB file over a network with an average file transfer rate of 1 GB every 4 hours – is measured in days; AppZero’s VAAs will most likely make the same trip over lunch (see my last blog:  (Size matters for apps on the move: physics for ISVs and IaaS providers)
  • Sending Microsoft OS around in VA/VMs is pretty much prohibited by Redmond-crafted license agreements. For that reason, of the 1667 matches found on VMware’s Virtual Appliance Marketplace today, you will find many, many, many Linux based VAs. Windows? Not one.
  • Sending applications that run on Microsoft OS, in AppZero VAA OS-free packages, is quick, easy, and Microsoft compliant.

Put another way, AppZero VAAs let Microsoft-based ISVs deploy their applications across a network for instant PoCs and demos. Something they can’t do with VAs. And, while we’re in the VMware and Microsoft neighborhoods, let me mention that AppZero VAAs are hypervisor and cloud agnostic - happy on any machine (physical or virtual), anywhere (datacenter, private or public cloud).

Which brings me to Sales 2.0. Debate over the definition of Sales 2.0 fuels blogs. But, by any name, successful sales for ISVs in today’s technology-shaped economy require that an application be readily accessible to its buying public, at a click of a mouse. 

When an ISV uses the OS-free AppZero VAA approach, the application arrives swiftly, and ready-to-run – requiring no installation. The potential customer sees hassle-free implementation and can concentrate on using an application – not the laborious process of installation and configuring it.

And that just makes plain old-fashioned good business sense for ISVs. I’ll take a look at some of the specific Sales 2.0 benefits in my next blog. In the meantime, check out our ISV Accelerator http://www.appzero.com/content/appzeros-isv-accelerator-program, or join us for a brief webinar Thursday, May 12th: “ISVs: Provision your App in a Snap for Labor-free PoCs”

I’m always looking for ways to sharpen my discussions.  So, if you have thoughts on this subject, drop me a line at GregO {@} Appzero {dot} com or tweet me at http://twitter.com/gregoryjoconnor

Size matters for apps on the move: physics for ISVs and IaaS providers

Tue, 2011-04-19 10:45 — Greg O'Connor

Give me physics over art any day.  Something nice and measureable.  Something really difficult to argue against.  Here’s some AppZero Physics 101 for you:

Moving an application packaged as an AppZero Virtual Application Appliance (VAA) is 30 – 600 times faster than moving that same application on a Virtual Machine (VM).

I will gladly – and probably unstoppably – use follow-on blogs to tease out the details and reasoning that back up my physics.  But I’ll give you one set of real-life data points from an ISV who shall be nameless until approved for PR by their legal department.

  • Scenario:  using FTP from Cambridge, MA to an Amazon instance at a Virginia-based cloud center, we were getting an average transfer rate of 29/30 kb per second – or 1 GB every 4 hours.
  • 40 GB is the size of the ISV application packaged on a VM as a Virtual Appliance (VA), complete with necessary OS elements.  At the average transfer rate of a GB/4 hours, the application would have taken 160 hours, or 6.7 days to move.
  • 300 MB is the size of that same application packaged as an AppZero, OS-free VAA.  At the average transfer rate above, we are talking 1 hour and 20 minutes to move.

Let’s be really conservative:  1.5 hours vs 6+ days = a huge time savings at 100x faster.

While actual numbers will vary with the complexity of the application and some other variables, physics will prevail:  small, OS-free VAA packages will always … without exception … travel faster than OS-bound VMs.  Furthermore, no matter what the transfer rate may be, the ratio between moving VMs and VAAs remains constant.

Question: Do you know how big your application is when it is separated from the OS?

Thought:  No wonder Amazon Web Services offers a data import/export service base on Fed-ex delivery

A major provider of IaaS told me last week, “When you talk about reducing a package from gigabytes to megabytes, you have my attention.”  Why?  Because physics makes dollars and sense when you’re in the business of moving applications for a living.  And that’s exactly what ISVs do all the time when you consider demos, proof of concepts (PoC), and software distribution. 

So, with this blog, I am kicking off a series that calls ISVs to do themselves and their bottom lines a favor …  Take a look at AppZero’s ISV accelerator program (http://www.appzero.com/content/appzeros-isv-accelerator-program) -- the poster child for good things that come (and go) in small packages – literally. 

I am always looking for a way to communicate better and cut to the heart of any discussion.  So, if you have thoughts on this subject, drop me a line at GregO {@} Appzero {dot} com or tweet me at http://twitter.com/gregoryjoconnor

The hills were alive with the sound of Microsoft ISVs

Thu, 2009-07-30 12:58 — Greg O'Connor

Ahhhh.  New Orleans in July.  When crawfish jump into the pan to get out of the heat. Yet all things Microsoft head there for the Worldwide Partners conference. And, as I said before, when you have the cure for what ails the Microsoft ISV, you go too. So we did. I have to say the crowd did seem to be 3 parts Microsoft employees to 1 part partner, but at around 6,000 attendees, that still leaves a goodly number of folks who want what AppZero has.

AppZero software can and does slash the time it takes to get software up and running for proof of concepts (POC) on customer sites and in the cloud. From days to hours or minutes. (I detailed the game-changing value AppZero brings to ISV POC work in general in my last blog: Cloud + POC = 'Obvious' ISV Revenue Growth. But Microsoft ISVs have very specific, additional considerations.)

Microsoft just entered its fiscal 2010 with big plans for its new year. Starting with the roll-out of Windows 7, the company plans to launch Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Exchange 2010, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Azure. Have I forgotten anything? Probably.

In addition to slogging through economically feisty waters doing their day to day business, Microsoft ISVs will be furiously investigating and evaluating the 'what' and 'when' of incorporating these releases into their offerings. Then they'll be busy doing the work, making the sales calls, and - as spring follows winter - jumping into a new round of POC engagements as their customers say "show me".

There is so much work to be done just to stay current, never mind competitive. This is the time for ISVs to conserve and leverage their technical talent. And the fact is that any time an SE spends installing or configuring an ISV's POC is wasted time - zero revenue and zero constructive productivity.

But, you say, "It has to be done." What has to be done? POCs? Absolutely. Days and hours getting it up and running? Absolutely not. Installing once into an AppZero VAA, gives you instant proof of concept (POC) with no installation or configuration. Repeatable, predictable, lightning fast.

The math is indisputable. The Microsoft partners got it.

The only question that came up was, "Can't we do this in a virtual appliance (VA)/virtual machine (VM)?" Fair question. Our datacenter customers run VAAs in VMs all the time. But, if you're an ISV who is looking to simplify distributing your application to your prospects and customers, the VA/VM approach comes with some baggage. You will have licensing issues if you send your application off, complete with pieces of an MS OS. Issues you won't have using AppZero's VAA approach.

Bonus: If you also want to deliver your application to a cloud environment, that same VAA works unchanged. The ISVs we talked with liked the idea of having only one delivery container for customer premise (virtual or physical) and cloud. Less complexity. And when the POC succeeds, don't you want to harvest the work your folks have done with a smooth transition to production? Check. Check. Check.

You know, when you have paradigm-shifting technology in your go-to-market portfolio, you tend to think big ... complex ... market-making ... But the Microsoft ISVs have a real, straight-forward problem that AppZero just solves - without changing the world. Without even changing the business model. What it does change, is that it smashes pre-existing economics of doing 'business as usual'. AppZero makes easy and elegant POCs. Simple.

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