By Céline Bousquet, Director of Operations at Agarik

According to the Gartner consulting firm, the SaaS market (Software as a Service) will be worth 22.1 billion dollars in 2015 and will continue with its impressive expansion taking with it other sections of the cloud, IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and PaaS (Platform as a Service).
Publishers are therefore central to the transformation of IT and the switch from Capex to Opex, from ownership to rental. Aware of the need to adapt their own model in line with these changes and to continue to grow, some publishers are still asking questions; the Cloud is certainly a stage needed for their development but what will be the impact of the change on current systems? Others, those most recently on the scene, have grown up in this world in perpetual motion and from their founding have delivered an SaaS model. And when their particular solution slot is buoyant, they quickly take market share and make serious inroads on their elders.

Although it is customary to reconsider the benefits of the model for the end user (easy access, payment by user, flexibility of use …), we wish to focus here on the interest of the model for publishers and how a move to it can be achieved with serenity.

Quick installation, an accelerated purchasing process, direct access to business line departments: publishers have understood the interest of this model for their clients which in some cases involves the very survival of their activity. To benefit from these new rules of the game, they must control, in our opinion, 3 points:

• Use the services of a provider who adapts to their new economic model
• If the publisher uses an “On premises” model (with hardware support), manage to deliver a SaaS model which limits application re-developments
• Guarantee high availability and security of its applications for end users

What solutions?

The publisher’s customers ask it to charge for its software by user or task, so why would an infrastructure provider not do the same? We therefore advise the publisher to form a partnership relationship with its hosting service where an understanding of the business model must be the driving-force of the relationship.

The architecture of cloud platforms can be designed to support the requirements of applications. Niche players will be able to provide better technical adaptation.

Finally, availability and security are commitments that your hosting service – outsourcer will make. Among the points to be checked: 24/7 availability of its teams (on-site or simply on stand-by?) and the level of its certifications, for example ISO 27001 will guarantee its good practice in terms of security.

.At Agarik we assist publishers in transforming their business model, such as the company One2Team, a major projects’ management software publisher whom we have worked with since 2004. When in 2008, One2Team decided to switch from traditional licensing to SaaS, the partnership relationship was essential to this transformation. Today the initiative has paid off since One2Team provides equipment worth more than 7 billion euros (Equipped projects total budget) and numbers more than ten thousand users in France and Europe.

As for the company TalentSoft, SaaS European leader in the Integrated talent Management of Talents and Skills, in 2012 the company completed its offering, optimised by the Cloud, by hosting its solution on the Agarik PaaS. Joël Bentilola, Technical Director of TalentSoft explained: “Cloud Computing offers a real competitive advantage. Thanks to the Agarik platform, we can offer solutions which combine public and private Clouds in accordance with the highest security standards.” Today, more than 2 million users and 10 million candidates are connected to TalentSoft worldwide.

Find out more about Agarik services for publishers

Valeo – global leader in the design, manufacturing and sale of components, integrated systems and modules for the automotive industry – has once again shown its trust in Agarik for the implementation, administration and supervision of its new multi-site Cloud platform.

Agarik will be hosting the directory and authentication platform 24×7, for all Valeo’s office automation services accessed via the Cloud.

The application catalogue available to Valeo employees has now grown to encompass email, calendar, office automation, collaborative working tools, a functional directory and administrative processes. Agarik offers a new, high availability multi-site platform that will enable all Valeo users to access Cloud-based office automation services.

Hervé Dumas, Director of Office Automation Solutions at Valeo, said: “Improving collaboration and productivity by bringing together innovative Cloud-based office automation services  is at the heart of our strategy. Agarik’s services are crucial in enabling us to make a sustainable commitment to this approach, with the levels of performance and availability that are essential in the business world.”

About VALEO

Valeo is an independent industrial Group fully focused on the design, production and sale of components, integrated systems and modules for the automotive industry, mainly for CO₂ emissions reduction. Valeo ranks among the world’s top automotive suppliers. The Group has 127 plants, 21 research centers, 40 development centers, 12 distribution platforms and employs 71,000 people in 28 countries worldwide.

About AGARIK

Agarik specializes in hosting and operating high-availability infrastrustures.

Guaranteeing perfect control over systems architectures from Cloud computing to complex networks, Agarik supports some of the biggest e-commerce outsourcing projects. Software publishers, integrators, e-commerce businesses and advertising agencies rely on Agarik to get the best out of innovation for their business.

As the outright owner of all its resources (Data Centers, fiber optic networks…) and the only player in France to offer an on-site 24×7 support service, Agarik is committed to delivering against even the most demanding SLAs in the industry.

Dassault Systemes, Randstad and Accenture Insurance Services have all placed their trust in the Agarik expertise.

Agarik is a subsidiary of  Bull Group.

Press relations contact :

Sonia Rolland – Phone: +33 (0)6 64  51 14 62  – sonia.rolland@agarik.com