Reinvigorated by Cisco's acquisition of newScale, the enterprise app store is back on the discussion block. Ranging in definition from complete marketplace through adjunct re-markets for mobile apps targeting the enterprise, the enterprise app store seems to be taking hold, at least on the terms of the vendors seeking to exploit the lack of pure focus in mainstream app stores.
This is a watch and learn - as the different approaches are vetted and validated through adoption and developer opportunity. It's going to be hard to pin down the procurement method that works best for extraneous apps and services, especially in Fortune 500+ companies that have rigorous architectural review and acceptance processes.
Clearly it's going this way, but which way exactly feels like an opportunity for further definition and exploration.
(this article is fraught with pop-ups etc so proceed with caution if you're following the link)
- Cisco newScale. Cisco will use the acquisition of newScale last week to primarily target enterprises with the ability to build a service catalog and self-service portal for private cloud services. It will be interesting to see the investments Cisco makes and if they’ll be able to successfully add the ability to provision public cloud services through the same portal.
- HP Open Cloud Marketplace. HP announced their cloud strategy at HP Summit on March 15th. A key component of the strategy is an open application marketplace. According to Leo Apotheker, HP “envisions this to be an open cloud marketplace that will offer secure, scalable and trusted enterprise applications and services catalogs.” Built on HP Cloud Service Automation, HP promises to make available both private and public cloud computing resources and applications through the self-service portal.
- VMware Project Horizon. Announced at VMWorld 2010, Project Horizon “will broker user access to applications, virtual desktops and data resources, while preserving the required level of security and control needed by the business.” If VMware successfully integrate Tricipher’s identity management software so that users can have single sign-on access to SaaS, mobile apps and native windows applications they’ll really move the ball forward.
- Orange Business Services Private Application Store. Orange Business Services markets their offering as catalog of services with project governance for the transition to and building and running of applications on any client device. Orange refers to it as a “Federated Web 2.0 Portal” that enables users to access applications from private clouds, managed private clouds hosted with Orange, or sanctioned public cloud services.
Verizon is not among the vendors listed above but they do offer a self-service customer portal as part of their Computing as a Service (CaaS) offering. Far more interesting is Verizon’s partnership with SAP to deliver SAP from the cloud and integrate SAP applications with Verizon’s Managed Mobility platform. The value of cloud is in delivering applications on demand to any device and the Verizon SAP partnership is a first step in accomplishing that. I have no doubt that Verizon will add an enterprise storefront capability and when they do, they’ll integrate cloud and managed mobility for many more enterprise applications. It demonstrates that the telcos may be best positioned to offer enterprises a cloud storefront that integrates cloud computing and mobility.
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