It has been just over two years since I last wrote about Software as a Service (SaaS). Some of my points then are still valid but like anything, my opinions have changed a bit.

I use several SaaS products and during 2006, they had uptimes amongst the high 90s in availability. The only time they were down was during a storm and I lost my internet, something I could hardly blame on them. The investment in infrastructure among the vendors is one of the main reasons this has been the case. Including the vendor of a service we use here for business purposes. Since my last article in December 2005, there haven’t been any unforeseen outages.

I still fret over not having data stored where I can get it, but I’ve used some scripting skills to retrieve the data the old fashioned way (scraping) to move information into my systems to massage and tweak as I see fit. I’ve asked the vendor about web services, yet they are not inclined to move into that direction for fear of losing clients who can easily move their data elsewhere. Considering the recent kick off of two services that directly compete with them, I can understand their fear levels on that.

Adobe Connect

This week I encountered another issue that I have with SaaS, weak compatibility with existing systems. I have a client that uses the former Macromedia Breeze as a collaboration tool. This thing can tie into LDAP directories to sync data between Breeze and AD on users and groups and overall this sounds like a good thing.

The primary issue for the client was that instead of doing multiple page queries against AD, Breeze pulls one page and then stops. The client couldn’t get all their users into the app. They wanted to control a user from Breeze instead of using AD groups. They also didn’t want to change the page size on AD. They knew it was possible, but they also knew that if a VBS script could do multi-page, then something they paid a lot for should as well. After they called Enterprise support and didn’t get far, they called me to see what I could do.

Another issue arose when the client wanted to combine fields from AD to modify the user name displayed in Breeze. This was not possible with Breeze integrated into AD. Therefore, another reason to call upon me to handle this for them.

I had 24 hours to come up with a plan that worked and could be implemented. My first draft of a solution that accomplishes it all in one fell swoop looks good; however, it won’t be ready for prime-time in the 22 hours I had left. Another two hours spent on going in other directions proved that my initial plan was the only solid long term thing. After another cup of Joe, I realized the key was to do a short term thing with scripts and build an application later.

Although Breeze (now Adobe Connect) has an XML web services interface, it’s not a service as you or I know. It’s a Get or Post method that returns XML or you have the option to construct some funky XML looking stuff to get things to work. I took the Get method as I figured it would be the fastest way to go. Three hours later, the client is smiling and happy as can be. Shortly after, Adobe Support sent a cryptic email stating that the request has to be elevated to engineering!

This brings up a big issue I have with SaaS, support. You get the full range of mediocre to outstanding support at any place. But a place that has my data better be responsive, knowledgeable, and very friendly when they have my data hostage!