Research
Publication Date: 1 June 2009
ID Number: G00168152
APaaS: A Step to a 'Killer App' for Cloud Computing?
Yefim V. Natis, Eric Knipp
"Easy to learn and use application development environment, with runtime deployment
of virtually unlimited scalability and reliability, at small or midsize business (SMB)
technology prices" sounds too good to be true. However, it is one of the promises of the
state-of-the-art cloud-computing environment. To most people, cloud computing is a
hardware notion of computing off-premises or of improving operations in a data center;
but the hard-to-combine business characteristics of application productivity, power,
agility and low cost, offered by a state-of-the-art cloud application platform, may be a
"killer app" for cloud computing, while the hardware arrangements may, in the long term,
end up being only the means to a bigger goal.
Key Findings
•
Successful cloud application platforms must support thousands of users to attain the
cloud economy of scale, justify provider costs and reduce costs to users.
•
To enable thousands of user organizations (tenants) to share a multitenant platform,
while each organization uses customized application images, the leading providers
typically encode and execute the application in model-driven metadata.
•
The scale of investment and the scale of use that are attainable in a cloud-computing
context can unite three otherwise conflicting characteristics of a software development
environment: ease-of-use (productivity), power (high-end qualities of service) and SMBaffordable prices.
Recommendations
•
SMBs should anticipate a growing use of cloud computing tools and solutions.
•
Large organizations looking for fast return of software development investment should
consider application-platform-as-a-service (APaaS) offerings as an emerging alternative.
•
Independent software vendors (ISVs) and system integrators should become familiar
with APaaS options in anticipation of growing demand for cloud-computing-style
characteristics in RFPs.
•
Software vendors investing in virtualization as a cloud-computing strategy should reexamine and extend their strategies to pursue a shared-everything, multitenant APaaS.
© 2009 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction and distribution of this publication in any form
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are subject to change without notice.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Analysis ............................................................................................................................................. 3
1.0 The Unique Constellation of Values ............................................................................... 3
1.1 Highly Productive, Easy-to-Learn Development Environment That Delivers
Easy-to-Change and Customize Applications ......................................................... 3
1.2 Massive Scalability, Massive Amounts of Data, Enterprise-Class (and
Beyond) Performance and Reliability ...................................................................... 4
1.3 SMB-Level Pricing ............................................................................................. 5
2.0 Challenges...................................................................................................................... 6
2.1 Proprietary Programming Models and Lack of Standards ................................ 6
2.2 The Perceived Risks of Newness of the Cloud Computing Model.................... 6
2.3 Data Security Concerns..................................................................................... 6
2.4 Lack of Commitment From the Leading Software Vendors .............................. 6
2.5 The Limited Viability of Most Current Offerings................................................. 6
2.6 Even the Best APaaS Applications Are Not Ready for Enterprise Computing . 7
2.7 Overcoming the Challenges .............................................................................. 7
3.0 Market Implications......................................................................................................... 7
4.0 Conclusions .................................................................................................................... 8
Recommended Reading.................................................................................................................... 8
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Gartner Reference Architecture for Multitenancy............................................................... 4
Publication Date: 1 June 2009/ID Number: G00168152
© 2009 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
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ANALYSIS
1.0 The Unique Constellation of Values
"Highly productive, easy to learn and use development environment that delivers business
applications that are customizable, changeable, capable of implementing serious business
functionality and, when deployed, offered with massive scalability, high-end enterprise-class (and
beyond) performance and reliability, supporting massive amounts of data, all at SMB prices." This
describes a state-of-the-art cloud application platform, an APaaS (see "Cloud, SaaS, Hosting and
Other Off-Premises Computing Models"). No single characteristic of such state-of-the-art APaaS
is unique on its own, but the combination of all of them available in one package is
unprecedented and is only possible in the cloud.
1.1 Highly Productive, Easy-to-Learn Development Environment That
Delivers Easy-to-Change and Customize Applications
Cloud computing is based on the elasticity of resources (and costs) that is derived from the
shared use of common pools of computing resources. To be viable, a cloud provider must have a
large number of independent users of its pooled resources. To enable the many users (tenants)
to coexist in this shared environment without interference, the platform must implement
multitenant isolation (see "Introducing SaaS-Enabled Application Platforms: Features, Roles and
Futures"). The shared-everything model of elasticity and multitenancy is the most advanced cloud
application architecture, enabling pooling of most underlying computing resources and finegrained elasticity (see Figure 1, Note 1 and "Reference Architecture for Multitenancy: Enterprise
Computing "in the Cloud"").
Publication Date: 1 June 2009/ID Number: G00168152
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Figure 1. Gartner Reference Architecture for Multitenancy
I
II
Isolated
Shared Hardware
Tenancy
(Elastic
Shared Nothing Virtualization)
Enterprise
Tenant Tenant
Tenant
Tenant
III
Shared
Process
Tenant
IV
Shared
Everything
Tenant
Tenant
V
Custom
Multitenancy
Tenant
Tenant
Tenant
Application
App.
App.
App.
App.
App.
App.
App.
Application
Platform
(AP)
AP
AP
AP
AP
Service-Enabled
AP (SEAP)
SEAP
AP
Data
Platform
(DP)
DP
DP
DP
DP
DP
DP
Inf. Op.
System
(OS)
Inf./
OS
Inf./
OS
Infrastructure
OS
Infrastructure
OS
DP
DP
elasticity
Infrastructure
OS
Infrastructure
OS
Multitenancy
Source: Gartner (June 2009)
Each independently operating tenant requires the ability to customize the application to its
requirements. To support tenant-specific customization of applications, while retaining the shared
underlying computing environment, the leading APaaS platforms encode the applications'
business logic as metadata. Tenants typically obtain the metadata encoding of the application
business logic by using a model-driven design tooling. In this scenario, the execution of an
application is a process of interpretation of metadata, not execution of precompiled binaries.
Customizations (or design changes) in this environment are easy and unintrusive, because they
require changes only to metadata encoding of business logic, not recompilation or reassembly of
applications. Although the model-driven design and the metadata-driven execution typically force
a new and proprietary programming model (until there emerges a standard), they produce an
easy-to-learn, easy-to-use and easily customized/changed platform for application design,
development, extension and maintenance.
The essential requirement for a cloud-based application is "only" the ability to customize the
shared cloud-based application for each of the potential thousands of tenants. The preferred
method for delivering that capability in APaaS is via metadata encoding of the application
business logic, best achieved by using model-driven design tools — ultimately delivering a side
effect of exceptional development and maintenance productivity and agility to the designed cloudbased business applications.
1.2 Massive Scalability, Massive Amounts of Data, Enterprise-Class (and
Beyond) Performance and Reliability
Although individual applications deployed in an APaaS environment may have small user bases,
a successful APaaS environment must have thousands of tenants operating at the same time. A
Publication Date: 1 June 2009/ID Number: G00168152
© 2009 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 4 of 10
small number of tenants will not provide the sufficient economy of scale and sufficient degree of
elasticity that are essential to a viable cloud offering. To support thousands of tenants and
thousands of registered users, the provider must invest in a data center capacity of a massive
scale and deploy state-of-the-art platform technologies. Indeed, cloud-style data centers of
Google, Microsoft, Amazon and others have cost vendors billions of dollars. At the hardware
level, these platforms use grids of thousands of servers and storage devices; and at the software
level, they use extreme transaction processing (XTP)-style and other advanced one-of-a kind
technologies, which are unique and important enough to these vendors to be highly guarded
industrial secrets in many cases. This operational power is massive, achieved at massive costs to
the providers and can be justified only by a cloud computing scale of use.
To support thousands of small and other tenants, the cloud providers are forced to establish
platform technology environments capable of handling processing loads that exceed the largest
mainframe-based traditional enterprise scenarios. The small tenants are thus offered the use of a
platform that only the industry giants could achieve in the past.
1.3 SMB-Level Pricing
Few IT organizations or ISVs can individually afford the kind of platform technology that is, at the
core, a viable cloud environment. In-the-cloud technology is developed to benefit any one
organization (it could hardly be cost-justified if there were only one organization using it), but also
to serve thousands and more paying tenants (a community) all sharing the cost of the common
underlying platform. As the result, individual tenants get the state-of-the art, highly scalable and
reliable execution environment at a fraction of the cost, amounting to SMB-level prices. For most
small, midsize and large organizations, APaaS (or APaaS-based applications) is the only realistic
way to reach such levels of quality of service for their customers at affordable prices.
Cloud platform providers make the massive investment on behalf of potentially thousands of
customers (tenants). As a consequence, even the smallest users get access to a state-of-the-art
advanced computing platform that they could never afford on their own.
For most organizations of any size, a shared-everything, multitenant APaaS platform (and
APaaS-based applications) is the only realistic way to achieve in one platform (or application) the
unique combination of state-of-the-art in productivity, agility, power and performance at
manageable prices. To understand this, consider:
•
The massive potential user base of an APaaS and its applications, and, consequently,
an assured state-of-the-art, ultra-high-end execution environment
•
The potential base of paying customers (tenants) shouldering the shared costs of such a
platform
•
The essential demand for application customization that, in a multitenant context, leads
to metadata encoding and interpretation of the application business logic, which, in turn,
leads to highly productive, model-driven development tooling
•
The unique confluence of these characteristics when offering a shared-everything,
multitenant APaaS platform
A shared-everything, multitenant APaaS platform available only in the cloud may thus become an
irresistible offering for ISVs and IT organizations, compelling a large number of application ISVs
and, consequently, large numbers of IT organizations, to move to the cloud, thus rendering such
an APaaS a "killer app" for mainstream enterprise adoption of cloud computing.
Publication Date: 1 June 2009/ID Number: G00168152
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2.0 Challenges
The APaaS platforms available today are not quite the state of the art described in this research,
although the leaders are progressing in the right direction. There are many obstacles to
mainstream adoption of APaaS.
2.1 Proprietary Programming Models and Lack of Standards
The model-based programming environments of most APaaS are nonstandard (and no standard
for such programming presently exists). Other APaaS offerings that are attempting to use
established programming languages and programming models for customizable multitenant
computing are forced to reduce and alter the standard environments, losing the standard in the
process. Thus, the current APaaS offerings lead to exclusive vendor lock-in, a serious barrier for
mainstream adoption. A transition from the now-established programming models to the next
generation of model-driven style of programming will require a strategic endorsement and
backing from the leading software vendors.
2.2 The Perceived Risks of Newness of the Cloud Computing Model
While some kinds of software-as-a-service (SaaS)-style applications are well-established in
mainstream use, use of APaaS is new. Therefore, most users are cautious, evaluating the
viability of APaaS, especially considering that the leading software vendors have not yet
endorsed this model of cloud computing.
2.3 Data Security Concerns
Use of public cloud computing, whatever model is considered, for mainstream business
applications is being delayed. This is because many organizations are concerned about the
safety and security of their data. Thus, only the least-sensitive business applications are
considered for cloud deployment. CRM is the most popular SaaS application category, and is less
data-sensitive than other categories, because it does not address financial transactions. Some
ERP and banking cloud applications are emerging, but have not yet reached the mainstream
levels of adoption.
2.4 Lack of Commitment From the Leading Software Vendors
The software industry giants have stayed away from the shared-everything, cloud multitenancy
model. Instead, they are investing in the shared-hardware model, where elasticity occurs at the
level of dynamically allocated virtual machines, while the platform stack above the virtual machine
is the standard application server environment. Established software vendors and their users
favor this approach, because it preserves their established business applications, tools and skills.
Microsoft and other vendors likely will optimize the elasticity of the shared-hardware model to be
competitive and, thus, will delay the emergence of a mainstream genuine shared-everything
APaaS. However, pressured by the requirements of the SaaS market, the giants will be invested
in delivering a genuine multitenant metadata-driven APaaS environment by 2012.
2.5 The Limited Viability of Most Current Offerings
As already discussed, the effect of cloud computing emerges in large-scale use scenarios. This
makes it difficult for small startup companies to emerge and deliver a competitive APaaS
environment.
Characteristically, the smaller APaaS innovators find their businesses are evolving to:
•
Support ISVs and other partners (rather than IT organizations)
Publication Date: 1 June 2009/ID Number: G00168152
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•
Offer their development platforms as products for on-premises use (rather than as a
service)
•
Engage in software development projects for customers (rather than just concentrate on
software market)
•
Offer SaaS style applications that utilize their platform technology (rather than just
concentrate on the platform market)
None of these options ensures long-term viability for these vendors as platform providers,
especially when a nonstandard programming model is taken into consideration. The APaaS
market will not grow to its potential until there are several large vendors with sufficient funding,
market presence and strategic commitments to cloud computing. This does not mean that only
the large vendors can participate in the APaaS market. Many small application and technology
providers will emerge as partners with the leading platform providers, and will build vertical and
other specialized solutions for smaller markets, backed by the underlying horizontal platform of
the core provider. However, a strategic commitment by industry leaders is essential to validate
the market.
2.6 Even the Best APaaS Applications Are Not Ready for Enterprise
Computing
To be considered for enterprise-class systems, cloud application platforms must deliver reliable
advanced levels of availability, manageability, security, data integrity, service-level agreement
guarantees and functional completeness, including application integration, business process
management, multichannel user experience, event processing, business intelligence, serviceoriented architecture governance and other enterprise-required functionality.
2.7 Overcoming the Challenges
It will take three to five years for the industry to overcome these obstacles. Salesforce.com is the
current enterprise leader in this market with its Force.com platform, but it cannot succeed alone.
Competitors such as LongJump, Rollbase, Archer or Vertical Solutions are too small to deliver all
the potential functionality of an APaaS-based application environment (see "Application
Infrastructure for Cloud Computing: An Emerging Market").
One or more giant technology vendors will have to join the APaaS market to make it a safe
mainstream option and to give momentum to missing standards. Meanwhile, the more visionary
users (ISVs and IT organizations) have an opportunity to differentiate and advance their
businesses through early use of this emerging category of platform technology with its unique
new characteristics.
3.0 Market Implications
Even the most successful scenario of APaaS does not imply that all, or even most, enterprise
computing will move to a cloud base in the planning horizon. However, the scenario indicates that
for most IT organizations, the "new normal" will include a combination of on-premises and cloudbased software services. Integration of heterogeneous information and processing resources will
remain a fundamental capability of viable business IT organizations.
IT market segments will adopt APaaS at different time frames and for different reasons. For
example:
•
Small businesses and ISVs targeting all-Web prospect bases (consumers or other
potential massive audiences) are primary beneficiaries of the synergistic powers of an
Publication Date: 1 June 2009/ID Number: G00168152
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APaaS. Modest entry costs, high productivity and a short learning curve of an APaaS
enable undercapitalized startup businesses to experiment and look for their market
segment, while the high-end enterprise-class computing power and scale of such
platforms ensure that they are prepared for success.
•
Some traditional small businesses or ISVs, which target small employee and customer
bases, will grow to enterprise-scale using an APaaS or APaaS-based cloud application
with the technical scale-barrier no longer there.
•
Most SMBs will not look to increase scale because the business nature of their offerings
will not demand it. However, many of them will be attracted to the productivity of the
APaaS design tools, as well as to the advanced levels of performance, availability and
manageability typical of APaaS-based applications. Many SMBs will also like the ease of
customizing the APaaS-based applications, and the business arrangement that is free of
capital costs.
•
The large IT organizations that have invested in established IT expertise and application
platform capacity likely will be the last to adapt APaaS technology, because their IT
environments already address the required levels of productivity and scale. Their
interest in cloud computing is focused on the potential of reduced costs using the cloud
system's infrastructure services (the shared-hardware and virtualization model), rather
than concentrating on a new software architecture. However, most of the unique
applications that the ISVs develop on APaaS platforms will be available exclusively in
the cloud environment, and will ultimately draw most of the large organizations to
APaaS.
•
The large ISVs will be under pressure to match the productivity and agility of their
smaller competitors using third-party APaaS, but likely will choose to acquire APaaSenabling technologies (SaaS/cloud-enabled application platforms) to build their
exclusive APaaS stacks.
4.0 Conclusions
Organizations turn to cloud computing for two fundamental reason: to save costs or to achieve
unique results. In the end, many IT departments will turn to the cloud, not because it offers a
better-functioning data center (although they will use some cloud innovations in their data
centers), but because it offers unique opportunities and services unavailable anywhere else, such
as the unique constellation of capabilities supported by a shared-everything, multitenant APaaS.
Additional research was provided by Mike Blechar, Anthony Bradley, Massimo Pezzini, Brian
Prentice, David Mitchell Smith, Jess Thompson and Ray Valdes.
RECOMMENDED READING
"Reference Architecture for Multitenancy: Enterprise Computing "in the Cloud""
"Three Levels of Elasticity for Cloud Computing Expand Provider Options"
"On Apples, Oranges, Amazon and Google"
"Key Issues for Web and Cloud Application Development, 2009"
"Application Infrastructure for Cloud Computing: An Emerging Market"
"LongJump Reality Check: Product vs. Service in the Early Cloud Age"
Publication Date: 1 June 2009/ID Number: G00168152
© 2009 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Page 8 of 10
"Key Issues for Cloud-Enabled Application Infrastructure, 2009"
"Predicts 2009: Platforms and Integration Middleware Move Into the Cloud"
"Cloud, SaaS, Hosting and Other Off-Premises Computing Models"
"Introducing SaaS-Enabled Application Platforms: Features, Roles and Futures"
Note 1
Gartner Reference Architecture for Multitenancy
The Gartner reference architecture of multitenancy identifies the shared-hardware model of
multitenancy as the model where elasticity of the cloud is derived from a shared pool of hardware
via elastic virtualization. The reference architecture also identifies the main competing model of
multitenancy as a shared-everything model, where the elasticity of the cloud is derived from
sharing all application platform and database resources, thus allowing for fine-grained allocation
and charging of computing resources.
This research is part of a set of related research pieces. See "The What, Why and When of Cloud
Computing" for an overview.
Publication Date: 1 June 2009/ID Number: G00168152
© 2009 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
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