GOC

Cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service application performance ranks as a top concern among companies that use the Web-based technologies, according to a new survey.

 

Officials at Keynote Systems (News - Alert) – a San Mateo, California-based company that provides test and measurement products for mobile communications and the Internet – say that security and fast access to applications also ranked high among the 600 people surveyed at a conference this week.

 

Though nearly half of respondents said they already use or plan to use cloud computing or SaaS (News - Alert) in the next six months, many have no testing and monitoring solution in place, Keynote officials say.

 

That’s a concern, according to Vik Chaudhary, vice president of product management and corporate development at Keynote.

 

“Keynote with its infrastructure of more than 240 test and measurement locations worldwide is well positioned to lead this market, so companies that need to test their applications don’t need to build that infrastructure themselves,” Chaudhary said.

 

The Web-based application models are expected to play a more important role in this slower economy, as SMBs and enterprises seek cost-cutting measures.

 

Yet concerns about such Web-based technologies aren’t uncommon.

 

For example, as TMCnet reported, the recent crash of Google’s (News - Alert) Gmail service for some users raised questions among IT professionals about the efficacy of using free e-mail and other SaaS solutions as a foundation for business communications.

 

“You all are using a free e-mail service for business?” one Google blogger, identified as Tha Juggla, posted at about 7:30 p.m. one recent night – more than a day after Gmail went down. “What kind of (dummy) made that decision? I would want to know, then fire that moron.”

 

The comment followed Google’s announcement at 5 p.m. on Oct. 15 in the company’s Apps discussion forum that it had detected a problem that prevented Gmail users from accessing their accounts.

 

General speaking, Software as a Service, or “SaaS,” is a model in which an application is hosted as a service provided to customers on the Web. Since customers don’t need to install and run the application on their own computers, they don’t need to worry about software maintenance, ongoing operation, and support. At the same time, customers give up control over software versions or changing requirements.

 

Google Apps includes hosted collaboration and communication software and services designed for businesses. Its Premier edition costs $50 per user per year. The SaaS offering is seen by many as the front-running challenger to on-premise applications such as Microsoft’s (News - Alert) Office and Outlook.

 

Yet the Google program has had problems before.

 

As Jan Carlos Perez of ITWorld.com reports, both free and paying Premier customers saw outages over the summer.

 

“One outage, on Aug. 11, lasted about two hours but affected almost all Apps Premier users,” Perez reports. “The other two, on Aug. 6 and Aug. 15, hit a small number of Apps Premier users, but both outages were lengthy, lasting for some affected users more than 24 hours. In all of the incidents, users were unable to access their Gmail accounts, getting instead an error message when trying to log in. It seems the tech gremlins that caused the problems in August are back again.”

 

Keynote appeared to be using the data it gathered to promote its Keynote Internet Testing Environment, or “KITE” product, which tests and analyzes Web applications.

 

“KITE offers both instant testing from the desktop and from a pre-selected group of geographic locations in North America, Europe and Asia. KITE enables Web Developers, Quality Assurance and Web Operations Professionals to keep up with rapid development cycles, offering real-time performance testing and analysis of complex Web 2.0 applications for immediate performance feedback,” Keynote officials say.