New Service as a Service offering raises some questions

The IT Skeptic is not sure what to make of recent leaks about Google's upcoming extension to Google Apps: Service as a Service (SaaS+).

For those who haven't been following the rumours it seems Google will be releasing Service as a Service (SaaS+) to Google Apps users next year. It will be a free offering to existing Google Apps paid clients and will include modules for:

• service design
• service transition
• service operation
• CSI

So much the same as other offerings, but I'm intrigued by indications that SaaS+ will include Cloud hosting of services themselves. Apparently the Service Transition module is not for managing internal change, it is for moving applications into Google's hosted cloud: "Create a change order, approve it, and publish all legacy code and data into secure reliable hosted servers with a single click (some data reformatting required)". Google are of course emphasising the integrity of the system: "To ensure high availability and disaster resilience, SaaS+ systems are hosted across fifteen international data centers, most of which are in countries with stable political systems and a recognised civil legal code".

The service design module comes with "a range of colorful templates, and users may contribute service templates of their own". In addition, services will be offered on the Google Play Store: early indications are these will include offerings from DHL, QuickBooks, and Oracle.

In addition to the list of modules above, there appears to be a governance module which enables the outsourcing of IT governance: "Policy setting, compliance monitoring, and performance evaluation are delivered as an external service, relieving the organisation of the responsibilities for IT governance. These processes are interfaced with Google Answers for crowdsourced fulfillment, giving SaaS+ the lowest cost governance model in the industry today."

I suppose all you geeks will be excited about the social media interface to SaaS+: "SaaS+ supports all major social media platforms (Google+, Blogger, Orkut and Google Chat). Not only are services and support delivered via social media, but so too are the administrative, financial and security interfaces. There is an open API and an SMS interface for other social media tools to provide busy mobile staff with such functions as application release or deletion, financial payment approvals, user password resets and security clearances."

SaaS+ is expected to be released about this time next year.