Moving from Client/Server to Client/Cloud

So what do you do if you developed a client/server application for the SMB market, and you want to grow your customer base and increase revenue? This was the case with a recent customer of ours. Our suggestion was to convert their traditional software sales model (fixed revenue) into a Software-as-a-Service model (recurring revenue). The transformation required Linxter and Microsoft SQL Azure to update their client/server architecture to a client/cloud architecture.

By moving to a client/cloud architecture the company was able to replace their high, upfront license cost with a small, recurring monthly fee per client license, and eliminate the need for a server admin. The company’s client/server product had required customers to pay an upfront license fee, which included client licenses as well as a Microsoft SQL Server license. This upfront cost and need for a server admin seemed to be a barrier to many SMBs who did not want the responsibility of running their own database server — which would include making it highly available via clustering, managing tape backups, and adding more hardware as their storage requirements grew.

Removing upfront cost and admin requirements allowed the company to expand their customer base and increase revenue. Not only was the revenue increase due to customer expansion, but also a higher return per customer. With the new recurring revenue model, the cumulative revenue received from a single customer after twenty four months of use would surpass the initial upfront license of the old model.

So, how were Linxter and SQL Azure used in this client/server to client/cloud transformation?

SQL Azure provided a highly available, scalable, multi-tenant database service hosted by Microsoft in the cloud. The databases could be quickly provisioned and deployed, and no one had to install, set up, patch or manage any software. Plus, high availability and fault tolerance are built-in, and no physical administration is ever required.

Linxter was the key for them to enabling this software + services approach of keeping the power and richness of their already developed desktop app and connecting it with the power of a cloud relational database. Linxter’s cloud messaging platform, which combines web services with a series of traditional features such as local transactional queues and file chunking, enabled them to quickly and efficiently utilize the cloud database in a secure and reliable manner with no specialized coding.

If you are looking to increase software sales, we highly recommend offering your product as a service in order to generate recurring revenue for your company and lower costs (on a monthly basis) for your customers. It’s a great model… everyone wins.