Software as a service (SaaS) provider Cinolla has signed up with SaaS Assured, which enables its services to stay online even if the data centre hits the skids.

The company, which manages bookings and scheduling for outdoor activity providers, signed up to the SaaS Assured initiative to provide peace of mind for its clients.

SaaS Assured, which is provided by NCC Group, “helps to ‘keep the lights on’ while allowing time for end user to source and transition to an alternative solution that fits their requirements,” according to the NCC Group website.

This is particularly interesting news given the spate of downtime issues experienced by big cloudy vendors in recent months. CloudTech broke the news earlier this month that CRM provider Autotask was suffering serious downtime, whilst a Joyent server also went west recently due to what’s known in the trade as a fat finger.

“The SaaS Assured agreement gives our customers extra confidence to invest in our service,” said Rob Brasington of Cinolla in a statement. “The agreement is simple enough for all decision makers to understand, while the legalities are straightforward and clear.

“I’d highly recommend it to SaaS providers looking to strengthen their offering.”

SaaS Assured’s solution ensures that data will be available even if the company goes bust, with customers assured that they can access their application for three months continuously after a failure.

“SaaS Assured adds significant value to a SaaS provider’s offering, removing one of the major barriers to cloud adoption,” said Daniel Liptrott, managing director of NCC Group’s escrow division.

“Cinolla should be commended for being proactive about business continuity and addressing this common customer concern.”

Chief financial officers “hold the keys” to the next phase of cloud adoption, according to analyst house IDC, because they are among the last ones to move into cloud services.

The analysts, who have collected their findings in the latest Asia Pacific cloud survey, say the CFO has an important role to play in terms of moving to a more optimised business model. In other words, it’s to ensure that the CFO sees cloud as a strategic differentiator for companies, as opposed to just being a cost-cutting exercise.

IDC believes that this won’t be an overnight change, but will be “balanced in the short term by the rest of the CXO table.”

The Asia-Pacific report, of 2,300 businesses, examines how in New Zealand 100% of organisations polled have a cloud budget forecast by 2016. Almost four in five (79%) claim they are using between two and five cloud services already.

Similarly, the researchers note a correlation between enabling business projects and barriers to adoption decreasing was noted. The most frequently cited pain point was ensuring data was secure, according to 36% of respondents. This was followed by constraints of legacy architecture, cited by 16% of those polled.

Yet overall it was New Zealand, considered the fourth most mature Asia Pacific cloud nation excluding Japan, which was praised for its approach in the report.

Cloud is bringing the competitive landscape of NZ businesses closer than ever before

Adam Dodds, IDC New Zealand research manager, said: “Cloud is bringing the competitive landscape of NZ businesses closer than ever before. All business sizes and industries are adopting to the opportunity of leveraging compute services provided from outside of their premises to create go to market and business operations opportunities.

“The challenge to all is how you untangle your legacy infrastructure and align your organisation – with people and processes – to adopt cloud appropriately,” he added.

New Zealand’s prowess in the Asia Pacific arena was also noted by the Asian Cloud Computing Association (ACCA), who placed NZ second only to Japan in its latest rankings, calling it an “ever-ready leader.”

Compare and contrast with the 2012 verdict, which placed New Zealand in sixth, noting improvements in freedom of information and data privacy but placing dead last in international connectivity. This year, while still being the area of weakness, NZ outscored the four lowest ranked nations – China, Indonesia, India and Vietnam – as well as its Pacific rival Australia. New Zealand scored highest in green policy.

Do you agree with the view of the CFO in cloud?

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The news marks an important client win for IBM after losing a widely publicised battle against Amazon Web Services for a lucrative CIA cloud contract back in October. IBM are involved alongside AT&T, which will provide network services, and KPMG to provide education and drive users to the new services.

By putting it in the cloud, government entities can scale their IT up and down as appropriate, with CalCloud “designed to allow around the clock access to a shared pool of easily configurable resources including compute, storage, network and disaster recovery services,” according to a press release.

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“California is setting an example for other states on how to use cloud technology to improve coordination across agencies and municipalities while reducing the barriers and duplication that can impede the delivery of government services.”

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Find out more about IBM’s partnership with California here.

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