Macquarie Hosting Delivers $1 million SaaS Incubator Sandpit

Allows Australian SaaS developers to test commercial viability of products without large commercial outlay

Sydney, 25 September 2008 – Macquarie Hosting, a division of Macquarie Telecom today launched its Software as a Service (SaaS) incubator sandpit for SaaS providers, designers, integrators and developers (both independent and enterprise).

The SaaS Incubator Sandpit is a simple to use, entry level solution that allows SaaS start-ups and developers to quickly assess the commercial viability of their products and deliver proof of concept and inputs without a large capital outlay.

Macquarie Hosting has invested more than a million dollars over the past year in virtualization hardware and core Internet and security services to support this initiative. The service has been tested with a range of customers including News Limited, Westpac and Showbiz.com.au.

With this service, start-ups will have access to multi-million dollar infrastructure that is specifically designed to handle the demands of enterprise service level agreements and meet delivery standards for one hundred per cent online businesses wanting to test critical application deployment.

Macquarie Hosting has launched the service in response to enquiries from innovative Australian start-ups as well as market demand for SaaS solutions. Gartner predicts that by 2010, more than 30 per cent of all new software purchased in Asia Pacific will be delivered by a SaaS model.

“SaaS has been around in several guises for some time, but it is only recently that it has been recognized as a proven business model,” said Aidan Tudehope, Managing Director, Hosting, Macquarie Telecom.

“Entrepreneurial Australian software developers are seizing the opportunity to showcase their wares but in today’s tight capital markets it is harder than ever before to fund the testing of their applications.

“This service is not designed as a profit centre for Macquarie Hosting, rather, it is a launch pad for start-up Australian service providers. Obviously, if the test case is successful, we hope the customer will choose to stay with Macquarie Hosting as its preferred service provider,” he said.

Under the Sandpit program, Macquarie Hosting will provide:

• Managed virtual servers for customer proof-of-concept testing
• A full range of license rentals including Microsoft Service Provider Licensing Agreements (SPLA), Redhat and VMware
• Testing on a variety of virtual machines ranging from small to large servers with different CPU and memory configurations to establish best-practice set-up for specific applications
• Access to Macquarie Telecom’s management tools MacquarieView and InView for real-time visibility into system performance and trending to aid in planning
• Supported migration to fully-managed virtualized infrastructure post-pilot

Platform independent SaaS to help migrate on-premise applications

Unlike other software development programs, the Macquarie Hosting Incubator Sandpit does not require customers to use a specific SaaS platform. The Macquarie Hosting hardware supports multiple platforms including Windows, Redhat Linux and Solaris giving customers greater choice and flexibility.

“We expect strong demand for this service from new SaaS providers, looking to move from shipping software to delivering their applications as a service,” Tudehope said.

“Rather than creating a whole new server environment, we offer a low entry point testing platform that allows the vendor to remain focused on establishing themselves in the market, as opposed to worrying about the capital cost of infrastructure setup.”