PowerShell and Amazon S3

We just implemented the Xcellery backup using the Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and PowerShell script!

Amazon S3 is a storage for the internet. It provides a web service interface that we can use to store any files in a safe and secure place. PowerShell is command line shell and scripting language from Microsoft. One of the key features for PowerShell is it is object-based and can access .NET objects. Since Amazon S3 uses a web service interface, with a little work, it can become a set of PowerSell Commandlets. By combining both, we can write a elegant script that backup our files and upload to S3 automatically.

PowerShell and Amazon S3 rock!

The video I was waiting for - STIRR 2.4!

A month ago, Heng-yi (Chief Architect), Dwight (Marketing adviser) and myself presented Xcellery at STIRR 2.4. The event is famous for its 60 seconds pitch. You go on stage and tell within 1 minute what your company does. I was really nervous but survived. :-) During the event, Alison McNeill from bub.blicio.us interviewed me. Watch it below, a video I was long waiting for. I'm the 2nd person interviewed. Have fun!

SaaS vs. On-premise

Web 2.0, the mother of SaaS (Software as a Service) has introduced a huge paradigm shift in regards of software deployment and consumption. SalesForce.com, Google Docs & Spreadsheets and others are good examples for it. A service provider hosts and stores the application as well as the data in the cloud. The convenience of on-demand software often overpowers the concerns for security and reliability. But "luckily" there will always be a large group of companies/users for which it is out of question to store data externally. Unfortunately such companies won't be able to take advantage of the good things SaaS offers, unless it's brought to them in-house.

Xcellery isn't a pure SaaS and fits more the SaS (Software and Service) model. It combines the power of your already installed dekstop software with the power of our collaboration service. Xcellery has been live for a little over a year. We keep listening very carefully to our customers and realize that there is a lot of interest towards the Xcellery Enterprise Edition (XEE). Our users like to explore the possibilities with www.xcellery.com but eventually want to store the data securely behind their own firewalls. Excel is a business tool and often used to process confidential data.

For us here at Xcellery it's important to support both models Sa(a)S and On-premise. Up till now www.xcellery.com has been priority but the feedback is clear, we can't go without XEE.