IndependenceIT, the Allentown, Pa.-based cloud computing vendor, has added a new app services delivery platform and associated partner program to its existing workspace-as-a-service and software-defined data center offerings.
The new offering is designed to help IT service providers and enterprise IT departments efficiently distribute hosted applications, singly or in groups, to end users in multiple locations or organizations. Those service providers could include MSPs looking to offer cloud-based software on a subscription basis to their customers.
“It’s actually some of our larger MSPs who were driving this,” says Chip Buck, CTO and co-founder of IndependenceIT.
The new platform is built into version 5.0 of IndependenceIT’s flagship Cloud Management Platform (CMP+). In beta testing since August, that release is expected to enter general availability in mid-October.
According to Buck, CMP+ customers can embed app services within cloud workspaces, deliver them directly to end users, or both.
“Partners can mix and match,” he says.
Drawing on automated provisioning functionality, app service publishers can use the new platform to setup a delivery environment in as little as two to three minutes. Built-in scaling and resource management features will then automatically add or remove virtual servers and processing capacity dynamically in response to changing requirements.
There’s also a workload scheduler that lets service providers reduce usage charges by turning apps on or off during specified periods of the day and an API partners can use to integrate app services with storefronts and billing systems.
“Everything is very, very simple,” Buck says, noting that the new platform comes with a consolidated management console as well.
“All of a partner’s app services, no matter what data center they’re deployed in, can be managed from one administrative instance,” he says.
Partners can run the platform in a range of public cloud environments, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. The system supports VMware, Microsoft, KVM, Citrix, and Oracle hypervisors too. By default, it utilizes Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Protocol, users can optionally employ Citrix ICA, Teradici PCoIP, and HTML5 as presentation layers instead.
The timing is ripe for new hosted app delivery offerings right now, as the market for such solutions is currently in flux. In August, Microsoft canceled its Azure RemoteApp product and directed users of that service to a forthcoming cloud-based app delivery offering from Citrix. Named XenApp “express”, that service is expected to reach market early in 2017. Microsoft and Citrix announced a new agreement to collaboratively target the cloud app and workspace markets at the Citrix Synergy user event in May.
According to Buck, however, XenApp “express” will lack important administrative features available in IndependenceIT’s offering, such as the ability to track consumption, automatically clone servers, and manage memory or processing resources.
“There’s no data center automation built into XenApp,” he says. “It’s still really a packaging methodology that doesn’t take up any of the management aspects.”
Buck claims that IndependenceIT’s platform is more profitable for service providers as well. Members of the new app services partner program also introduced today can license all of the infrastructure needed to host up to 15 app delivery users or 50 virtual machines for a flat $100 a month.
Coupled with the solution’s overhead-lowering automation functionality, Buck says, that pricing structure has enabled beta program participants to raise margins on hosted app services from the 20 to 30 percent they were getting on competing platforms to as much as 65 percent. And unlike Citrix, Buck adds, IndependenceIT also sells exclusively through the channel.
“Our entire universe of customers consists of partners,” he says.
