Commentary on Billing Systems, Accounting Software and Cloud Computing.
EMS Cortex is one of five technology partners included in the Microsoft Dynamic Data Center Alliance, along with NetApp, Compellent, F5 and EMC.
This is a program designed to bring together an ecosystem of partners including hosters, system integrators, hardware manufacturers and software vendors who partner with Microsoft to offer rich and differentiated value around the Dynamic Data Center Toolkit for Hosters and the Dynamic Infrastructure Toolkit for System Center.
The following is an extract from a Microsoft case study on American Cloud Service Provider NGenX and their use of the Cortex Cloud Control Panel and Microsoft virtualization.
To me, it shows what a powerful concept the “Single Pane of Glass” is when it comes to provisioning and managing services in the Cloud. The need for a portal to control all hosted services can even help drive underlying technology choices at the Service Provider.
For the full case study refer to www.microsoft.com
“The VMware environment allowed us to virtualize a good percentage of our infrastructure that we used for hosted application services to our customers,” says Spindt. “However, the VMware platform required a lot of manual intervention for us to provision servers internally, and it didn’t provide nGenX with any means of exposing to our customers any control over their systems.”
To make up for the shortcoming in regard to self-serve capability, nGenX deployed a provisioning solution from Microsoft Gold Certified Partner EMS-Cortex. The IT staff at nGenX uses it to provision servers, and nGenX customers use it as an interface to administer many of their virtualized workloads. “The provisioning solution from EMS-Cortex is key to our vision around cloud computing,” says Robert A. Bye, Executive Vice President and General Manager at nGenX. “We’d seen how the EMS-Cortex control panel benefitted our Exchange and data backup customers, and we thought it would work for building out our concept of cloud computing.”
nGenX envisioned a single console from EMS-Cortex that its customers could use to manage virtual and physical servers, applications, and other resources such as storage and network resources. “However, VMware did not interoperate well enough with the EMS-Cortex solution for us to get more heavily engaged in a cloud computing environment,” says Spindt. “There was also the cost factor. We needed to determine whether we should stay with VMware or find an alternative, more cost-effective virtualization platform that would integrate better with EMS-Cortex.”
Solution
To meet its goals, nGenX chose to use Microsoft virtualization technologies to support its new cloud computing service offerings, called Guardian Cloud, with EMS-Cortex technologies as the core of its Guardian Control Panel for automation and provisioning. The company is leaving its existing VMware solution in place for internal purposes.
Speaking as someone who is involved in the global SME ERP Industry through Enprise NZ and Enprise Software, involved in the Cloud Control Panel & Hosting industry through EMS-Cortex and involved in the Business Messaging and Social Media Industry through Datasquirt; here is my prediction of how ERP Software will be sold in the new decade that we are now entering;
Sales Process
Applying Upgrades and Patches to the ERP System
Prior to a new upgrade or patch being applied to a live ERP system, it must be tested against the individual customer’s data and processes to ensure that the software changes work correctly and cause no disruption to the business.
To enable this testing process, the ERP Reseller will go into their portal of the Cortex Control Panel and request a temporary test copy of the live ERP Environment. This enables the ERP Reseller’s consultants, in conjunction with the customer’s staff, to test the new software version and identify any possibly reconfiguration issues on the test system.
Once the testing process is completed and signed off, the ERP Reseller can go back into their portal of the Cortex Control Panel and apply the upgrade to the live system. They can also delete the test system when they are finished with it.
Support
Support of the ERP System by the ERP Reseller and the ERP Vendor is a lot easier, more efficient and less costly under this new model for the following reasons;
The model works better for everyone involved in the ERP system sale. The customer, the ERP Reseller and the ERP and other software vendors.
The Customer gets:
The ERP Reseller gets:
The Vertical Solution Vendor gets:
The ERP Vendor gets:
A combination of strategic features in EMS-Cortex’s “Cortex version 8.x” Provisioning System and Citrix’s new XenApp and XenDesktop product lines enables Managed Service Providers to add significant value to the offerings of existing global SME-focused ERP Partner Channels. The combined technologies enable complex ERP applications to be delivered in a fast, templated, repeatable, “cookie-cutter” approach which is provisioned and managed on-demand by the ERP partner and/or the customer’s IT department from their own branded provisioning portal.
The Cortex product enables Service Providers to delegate administration of provisioning and management of hosted solutions to resellers and reseller channels. It can also provision from a quick & simple process, the ERP application together with a selected template database, vertical solution add-ons, virtual servers, SQL database server and other business support applications such as email, SharePoint, CRM, VOIP etc. This facilitates up-sell opportunities for the ERP partners to sell a complete Cloud based offering, as well as the ability to quickly deploy temporary demonstration and pilot test environments.
Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop technologies enable Windows applications (most of the popular SME ERP applications are of this format) to be deployed through the Internet in a similar way to web-based applications. Furthermore, Citrix XenServer (or Microsoft Hyper-V) enables the full virtualization of each customer’s Private Cloud, which means the ERP Partner can customize the ERP solution in a similar way to an on-premise configuration.
The end-result is a win-win-win situation for the customer, the ERP Partner and the Cloud Provider.
The customer benefits from reduced capital outlay, a quicker time to value and a more professionally managed environment for mission critical servers and databases.
The ERP partner benefits from faster, repeatable, cookie-cutter deployments giving a known and easily accessible operating environment – meaning quicker delivery times, easier support access and the ability to up-sell complementary Cloud services.
The Cloud Provider or MSP gets a new channel to market where ERP channel partners are now selling their Cloud services.
My prediction is that over the next 12 months we will see a dramatic shift to the Cloud with SME ERP deployments. EMS-Cortex, Citrix and Microsoft will be key players in making this happen.
EMS-Cortex is a business unit of the Enprise Group, based in Avondale, Auckland, New Zealand and very much focused on delivering its Cloud Provisioning system “Cortex” to the Hosted Service Providers of the world.
Cortex is fast becoming a very important and popular product within the world of the largest Hosted Service Providers and is working in close partnership with software giants, Microsoft and Citrix to deliver cutting edge virtual cloud infrastructure solutions.
As CEO of the Enprise Group, I’m very proud of EMS-Cortex and the amazing progress it has been making in the global world of the Cloud. The Cortex team are extremely dedicated and talented and the product is without doubt the world leader in its class. We are in fact now stretched to keep up with global demand for the product and you will find Cortex customers amongst the largest, leading service providers in every corner of the world.
People outside the Hosting industry regularly ask me the simple question, “What does Cortex do?” and I still feel quite challenged to construct a simple answer that is easy to understand yet still technically accurate.
Below is my best effort to date to describe what the Cortex product is;
Cortex is a browser-based software package used by Cloud Providers, Telcos, Internet Hosting Companies and Large Corporations to manage and automate the provisioning of hosted applications, hosted services, infrastructure, customers and users in their hosted environments.
Without a product like Cortex, these businesses that manage large numbers of users, services, applications etc would require a large team of network engineers to manually manage, configure and install applications, user accounts, passwords, environments, virtual servers etc. Cortex automates all of this and makes it quick and easy.
Applications most commonly provisioned by Cortex are Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, CRM, Blackberry, Citrix Desktops, Microsoft IIS, SQL Server, Backup Agent, Hyper-V and other business applications including CRM, ERP, Payroll etc. An SDK is available to enable third parties to add their own software to the Cortex offerings.
Cortex portals, complete with on-line web store are typically configured to look like part of the Service Provider’s own web site and can optionally enable customers and resellers to provision their own applications, systems and users.
Stay tuned for my future posts on EMS-Cortex, because some exciting things are going to happen in this business this year…
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Mark Loveys 