SaaS Flatform metering and billing

SaaS PlatformMetering and billing

2014-12-24

websqrd.com

Sang Song

Metering

• Metering is the process of monitoring usage and tracking application use

• Recommendation is to log all requests and all access requests

• Metering should also log business metrics– Number of invoices generated– Number of courses played

• Helps in multiple billing methodology for different flavors of customers

• Metering also helps in capacity planning and knowing system health

• Consolidated metering information related to tenant can be made available pro-actively to customer administrators

Reference : http://www.slideshare.net/8KMiles/building-saas-products-with-windows-azure

Billing

• Pricing models for SAAS applications vary based on type of application, usage, customer profile, etc…

• Unlike the boxed product, a SAAS product can have innovative pricing models– User based– Usage based– Fixed monthly cost– Fixed yearly cost– Freemium– Multi year contracts

• Billing models can be tested out early during trials to identify usage and can be finalized later

• Amortization of total cost can be over multiple customers –multiple billing cycles

Reference : http://www.slideshare.net/8KMiles/building-saas-products-with-windows-azure

Apache Stratos

• In June 2013, WSO2 donated the PaaS framework, Stratos, to Apache

• Highly-extensible Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) framework for Apache Tomcat, PHP, MySQL and etc…

• High utilization rates

• Automated resource management

• Platform-wide insight including monitoring and billing.

Reference : http://stratos.apache.org/

Staratos - Logging, metering

Logging, metering, and monitoring are primary, but important features that should not be ignored. Apache Stratos is capable of capturing all health statistics, application logs, and usage, and aggregating them into a centralized location. It makes devOps life easy, otherwise it is an impossible task to login and monitor each and every instance in a large-scale deployment that has hundreds of instances.

Reference : http://stratos.apache.org/about/why-apache-stratos.html

Stratos Logging System

Stratos Per-Tennant Usage

Stratos Tennant Detail Usage

Stratos System Log

Apprenda

• Founded : 2007

• Headquaters : Troy, NY

• Area served : Worldwide

• Employees : 80

• Launched its platform-as-a-service (PaaS) in 2007, supporting Microsoft's .NET Framework.

• In 2008, Apprenda closed its public cloud service and began selling the software for private PaaS

Reference : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apprenda

Apprenda SaaS Usage Metering

• SaaS vendors have a variety of options for metering the usage of the solutions

– per user metering

– per account metering

– per transaction metering

Reference : http://apprenda.com/library/software-on-demand/saas-usage-metering-measurement/

Apprenda ISV Solutions

• ISV’s must implement a metering solution in order to bill clients for usage

• build their own metering solution in house or they can implement a metering solution provided by a third party vendor (Built-in Apprenda’s ISV solution)

• Apprenda’s ISV solution eliminate a significant portion of the costs, complexities and risks associated with developing and deploying a home grown SaaS metering solution


Apprenda ISV Solutions (2)

• Implement a SaaS metering solution

– provides accurate tracking of client usage

– provides the capacity for analyzing client usage patterns

• Usage analytics provides

– determine what the most advantageous and most marketable metering methods are for each SaaS offering they deliver via the cloud



• Designed for integration with the Private PaaS

• Apprenda’s ISV solution provides

– Tools to meter and analyze client usage

– The capacity to collect client payments via a variety methods

• credit cards

• bank transfers

• traditional checks



• Provide tools

– define an unlimited number of pricing

– feature service plans, which can be easily updatedand instantly deployed

– the capacity for more stable revenue streams

– flexible tools to manage client subscriptions

– handle the entire payment process

• deposits into a SaaS vendor’s merchant account


결론

• PaaS 솔루션인 Staratos와 Apprenda의Metering 방법을조사함.

• 두솔루션모두 Resource Usage Metering을위해 Log를사용하고있음.

• SaaS vendor는계정별,트랜잭션별등다양한metering옵션지정할수있다.

• Metering solution은과금을위한 Client의정확한사용량을측정하는데서더나아가,

Client의사용패턴을분석에도이용될수있다.

• 패턴분석을통해수익을최대화할수있는과금방법을정할수있으므로,

vendor에게제공시과금체계를만들때매우유용함.

• 또한 Client들의지불방식통계도패턴분석을통해얻을수있다.

• Vendor의서비스Plan은언제든업데이트할수있고,즉시반영되어야함.

• 서비스 Plan 뿐아니라 Client별 Subscription도쉽게관리되어야한다.

• Vendor에게매출현황을보여줄수있으며, Vendor계좌에입금까지도관리된다.

• Vendor가 Client에게 Subscription을제공하고비용을받는방식인데반해,우리는

Vendor,즉회사가모든 Client의사용량비용을모두지불하는방식이므로,다소

차이가있다.

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SaaS Flatform metering and billing