SaaS Consulting on the Side

[Dbeasy 15225]

I’m doing some management consulting for investors evaluating a SaaS company. There may be an opportunity for someone to provide a little bit of SaaS technical consulting on the side. Might be a few hours at a solid hourly rate. 

The person needs to have solid SaaS architectural expertise with Azure. Specifically, understands the trade-offs between SaaS on IaaS vs PaaS on Azure. If interested or know someone interested, DM me. It’s a nice way to make a few bucks without a lot of work. 

Whoever I use might get used again for other engagements. 

Edited October 20, 2023 by Dbeasy

[Handcruser 2805]

I’d be happy to help - this is right up my alley.

What is Azure though? And can you clarify what you mean when you say “expertise”?

[Celery Man 21026]

It’s pronounced “ah-zhur” rhymes with badger btw

[52-80 19277]

1 hour ago, Handcruser said:

I’d be happy to help - this is right up my alley.

What is Azure though? And can you clarify what you mean when you say “expertise”?

Azure , in middle-earth, was considered the greatest Orc and self proclaimed King of Moria.  He is claimed to have killed the Dwarven King Thror, but himself was ultimately brought down by Thorin, Dwalin, Fili, and KIli, in the Battle of the Five Armies.

[Jerry Callo 8828]

Is this about selling extremely comfortable, stylish shoes?

[Dbeasy 15225]

While I patiently wait for a cloud guru to emerge from the ether, this company made a surprising statement about SaaS business applications. They said it is extremely rare, even still today, for business applications to not have different versions of SaaS software for different customers. I haven't paid much attention the last few years, but I was under the impression that many multi-tenant business applications in the cloud today are one version of software delivered to all clients and that eliminated the need to manage multiple versions.  They update the single version, and customers are automatically on the new and only version. Wrong?

[Viper 12155]

45 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

While I patiently wait for a cloud guru to emerge from the ether, this company made a surprising statement about SaaS business applications. They said it is extremely rare, even still today, for business applications to not have different versions of SaaS software for different customers. I haven't paid much attention the last few years, but I was under the impression that many multi-tenant business applications in the cloud today are one version of software delivered to all clients and that eliminated the need to manage multiple versions.  They update the single version, and customers are automatically on the new and only version. Wrong?

I administer Salesforce for my company and as far as I'm aware all customers are on the same version of it except for the few weeks they spend rolling out the upgrade to each of their instance groups. 

Of course you're still able to target older api's with some custom code and flows and web service calls but the instances themselves are upgraded together automatically. 

Edited October 20, 2023 by Viper

[blacklab 11994]

44 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

While I patiently wait for a cloud guru to emerge from the ether, this company made a surprising statement about SaaS business applications. They said it is extremely rare, even still today, for business applications to not have different versions of SaaS software for different customers. I haven't paid much attention the last few years, but I was under the impression that many multi-tenant business applications in the cloud today are one version of software delivered to all clients and that eliminated the need to manage multiple versions.  They update the single version, and customers are automatically on the new and only version. Wrong?

Depends on the company. Some companies have a consulting/customization arm and with some customers will have them on a special version or won't upgrade them due to the upgrade breaking the custom code. Other companies may have built their software for customers to install on their hardware, then moved to a hosted model, but install a separate instance for each customer so they may have many versions running at the same time. 

[shakahorn 1650]

4 hours ago, Celery Man said:

It’s pronounced “ah-zhur” rhymes with badger btw

That's how I pronounce it but [semi serious] if you pronounce it differently, and do that with authority, a lot of folks will automatically think you're smart and start pronouncing it that way; and, [100% serious] MSFT don't GAF how you pronounce it and they actually encourage different pronunciations.  There's a video out there of Satya saying this of which I'm too lazy to look up and link.

[Dbeasy 15225]

Thanks for the input and the DM’s. I’ll reach out. 

[Celery Man 21026]

2 hours ago, shakahorn said:

That's how I pronounce it but [semi serious] if you pronounce it differently, and do that with authority, a lot of folks will automatically think you're smart and start pronouncing it that way; and, [100% serious] MSFT don't GAF how you pronounce it and they actually encourage different pronunciations.  There's a video out there of Satya saying this of which I'm too lazy to look up and link.

I agree with you about everything you are saying and also anyone who pronounces it differently with confidence will continue to be wrong since it is an actual word with a correct pronunciation. Just imo, people who say “ahz-you-or” sound fucking stupid, but that’s kind of a separate point. Dumb name for a cloud platform.

[Jerry Callo 8828]

1 hour ago, Celery Man said:

Just imo, people who say “ahz-you-or” sound fucking stupid

Don't ask them to pronounce GIF

[Shaggy3.0 1695]

On 10/20/2023 at 12:41 PM, blacklab said:

Depends on the company. Some companies have a consulting/customization arm and with some customers will have them on a special version or won't upgrade them due to the upgrade breaking the custom code. Other companies may have built their software for customers to install on their hardware, then moved to a hosted model, but install a separate instance for each customer so they may have many versions running at the same time. 

This is correct.  Invision follows this model.  They provide different versions for special customers because platform version updates may increase cost of ownership:  re-skilling/up-skilling/compliance governance/business architecture changes.   They'll maintain legacy versions in separate cloud accounts as long as you agree to long-term service agreements. 

Edited October 22, 2023 by Shaggy3.0

[52-80 19277]

On 10/20/2023 at 5:54 PM, Dbeasy said:

While I patiently wait for a cloud guru to emerge from the ether, this company made a surprising statement about SaaS business applications. They said it is extremely rare, even still today, for business applications to not have different versions of SaaS software for different customers. I haven't paid much attention the last few years, but I was under the impression that many multi-tenant business applications in the cloud today are one version of software delivered to all clients and that eliminated the need to manage multiple versions.  They update the single version, and customers are automatically on the new and only version. Wrong?

Some clients still want different versions of the same application, eg for different teams. Vendors will provide them on different images on the client tenant. And there are always companies slower to adopt new versions than others, regardless of where/how the application is hosted. 

The ease of application management and deployment through cloud is more for end users than for the vendors. Vendors still have to juggle different versions/branches. 

This one’s free. Next one pls wire treefiddy to my IBAN

[Shaggy3.0 1695]

And you should think about other cloud-specific related factors.  Did the company build apps/platform solutions using cloud-specific services, or is their offering portable?  You mentioned Azure, which is #2.  AWS pwns.  Do your investors envision a near/long term multi-cloud strategy to lower cost and only user "best of breed" services?  Honestly, lots of variables to consider so you should develop a scoring/value criteria "score card" to guide your assessment.

 

This is also free.  BTW, I'm just a plumber.

 

[Bevo 13633]

On 10/20/2023 at 11:59 AM, shakahorn said:

That's how I pronounce it but [semi serious] if you pronounce it differently, and do that with authority, a lot of folks will automatically think you're smart and start pronouncing it that way; and, [100% serious] MSFT don't GAF how you pronounce it and they actually encourage different pronunciations.  There's a video out there of Satya saying this of which I'm too lazy to look up and link.

It is a color, specifically the color of the sky. There is only one way to pronounce it. There can only be one, except if you are British. Then it is a colour. And you should be beaten.

Edited October 22, 2023 by Bevo