Callidus Software launched its Callidus OnDemand project to meet its customers' need for a sales performance management solution in a hosted on-demand environment. From the beginning, it wanted to focus the project team’s resources on delivering software—not managing IT operations. It also did not want to invest the time and resources in re-architecting its software so that it would run in an environment where multiple customers use the same instance of the application. To achieve this it sought a deployment platform and a managed services partner that could meet requirements such as security, operational scalability, and platform reliability.
“Sun was the most cost-effective solution," says Jeff Saling, Vice President of Callidus OnDemand at Callidus Software, "but what really swung the deal was Sun’s willingness to partner with us as we designed the environment for Callidus OnDemand.”
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The combination of Sun technology and Sun Managed Services has been invaluable. The Sun technology is a very solid base for our business, and the services team has worked as a fully invested partner since the beginning, helping us launch in five months and responding quickly as we innovate and grow.
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— Jeff Saling, Vice President of Callidus OnDemand, Callidus Software
Together Sun and Callidus developed a Java-based solution in which Sun manages the servers and the network, and Callidus manages its own applications. They adjusted and improved the initial design by migrating from the Solaris 9 Operating System to Solaris 10 to take advantage of its robust security features and Solaris Containers. They also fine-tuned the mix of the Sun Fire E6900 , Sun Fire X4600 , and Sun Fire X4200 servers to cost-effectively address various processing needs and build in redundancy. To help meet its service-level agreements, Callidus also contracted for SunSpectrum Platinum Support.
Sun and Callidus designed a utility architecture in which each customer environment is placed in an individual Solaris Container. This approach offers great flexibility in assigning resources as needed. This architecture isolates customers from one another to maintain a high level of security. After testing the solution in a proof of concept, Callidus moved quickly into production and brought its first customer on line in August 2006.
Callidus easily exceeded its original estimate for the number of subscribers for the first year, growing 100 percent in a single quarter. Callidus OnDemand has gone from 0 to 25,000 subscribers from more than 120 countries in just 18 months, and expansion continues. High availability has been a key factor in this growth, with the solution stack averaging 99.97 percent availability.
Solaris Containers are enabling a high level of server utilization. Eight Sun servers hosting 135 Solaris Containers are running at 75 percent utilization. Sun Managed Services provides ongoing monitoring and management of the environment, freeing staff to continue to improve the Callidus software offering. This virtualized environment results in an operational cost savings of about 50 percent for the subscription service as compared to the on-premise model—a savings that Callidus passes on to its customers.
Encouraged bythe reliability and innovations in the Sun platform, Callidus plans to continue refining the subscription service, augmenting disaster recovery capabilities, and delivering services from Europe.
