How is Apprenda's SaaSGrid different from Microsoft's Azure

I was looking for an internal PaaS offering and stumbled across SaaSGrid. They claim to have an all-inclusive solution that offers everything from self-service to billing. An interesting and very unique offering IF what they claim is true. They do offer a free version for smaller setups. If you have experimented with SaaSGrid or are using the product please tweet me with your thoughts about the product.

Here is a tweet exchange I had with Dan Turkenkopf, an engineer for SaaSGrid:

@weaselese
Saqib Ali

How is @SaaSGrid different from #Azure platform appliance (http://goo.gl/ixs8C)? Both seems be #PaaS based on Microsoft's development stack.

April 12, 2011 10:26 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@dturkenk
Dan Turkenkopf

@weaselese Quick answer: @SaaSGrid gives guest apps SaaS qualities like mulit-tenancy, lifecycle mgmt, pricing, etc. that #Azure doesn't

April 13, 2011 12:20 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@weaselese
Saqib Ali

@dturkenk please explain. how is @SaaSGrid more "multi-tenant" than #azure?

April 13, 2011 1:28 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@dturkenk
Dan Turkenkopf

@weaselese think of @SaaSGrid giving apps running on it the qualities of SalesForce.com without building them into the app

April 13, 2011 1:29 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@dturkenk
Dan Turkenkopf

@weaselese #azure allows multiple apps to run on it. @SaaSGrid does that, plus gives each one of those apps multi-tenancy for its data.

April 13, 2011 1:29 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@weaselese
Saqib Ali

@dturkenk interesting. so @SaaSGrid seems more of a #PaaS for ISVs rather than a PaaS for internal enterprise use. is that a correct stmt?

April 13, 2011 1:40 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@dturkenk
Dan Turkenkopf

@weaselese Yes and no. There's a lot of value to ISVs, but that same value can apply to enterprises who are delivering apps to BUs

April 13, 2011 1:41 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@dturkenk
Dan Turkenkopf

@weaselese Plus, @SaaSGrid allows you to leverage your existing .NET code as opposed to rewriting it for Azure

April 13, 2011 1:41 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@weaselese
Saqib Ali

@dturkenk so can i just take the app that i wrote in .net and put on @SaaSGrid, and it will run without any modifications?

April 13, 2011 1:44 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@dturkenk
Dan Turkenkopf

@weaselese You need to allow @SaaSGrid to provide the connection string to the DB, but that's about it to get up and running.

April 13, 2011 1:56 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@dturkenk
Dan Turkenkopf

@weaselese One add'l point. @SaaSGrid allows you to reuse your existing hardware as well where #azure appliance brings in new hw

April 13, 2011 5:17 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

Update on Friday, April 15, 2011 at 5:25PM by Saqib Ali

Jesse Kliza, another engineer from SaaSGrid, added following to the discussion:

SaaSGrid supports the MS stack, and is a mature private paas / private platform as a service.  However, companies license SaaSGrid and run it anywhere they choose (Apprenda does not host).  It stitches together any number of infrastructure nodes to create logical hosting layer/private cloud, specifically tuned for delivering software as a service.  That, coupled with all of the business services (billing and metering, entitlements management, drop in federated identity, etc.) and the fact that SaaSGrid automatically transforms applications to be multi-tenant, makes it a very different beast than Windows Azure or the Azure Appliance.