Thanks,
Justin.

While there is a focus on Video of course, integrating video with data or “meta tags” is critical to making all the video that is recorded at remote locations searchable.

Keep the edge cost as low as possible can really enable all kinds of new applications that might otherwise be expensive at scale.

Imagine a $10-$20 temperature probe with a Zigbee wireless interface versus a $200-$300 mini PC with a WiFi interface connected to a thermocouple.

Other applications for could broadly be referred to as “Remote Sensing as a Service” include power management solutions like Tendrill Networks is building. See http://www.tendrilnetworks.com/

I think this is the sort of innovation I would expect from the startup community. It’s one of the ways to get a leg up on incumbents.

In terms of building competence, I would do it via partnerships. I would expect SaaS providers to look to firms like Symbol (now a Motorola product line) or more specialized providers that interface measurement equipment with PC infrastructures. The SaaS provider should focus on adapting the data and safely integrating it into the SaaS offering, and not specifically on the hardware end of things.

Do you see this as a market opportunity for incumbent SaaS providers, like Salesforce, or a microsoft, or startups?

As well, what steps would a company go through to develop such a competency? I know of SaaS support companies, like eVapt; however, I thought there might be other resources or experts with a more specific knowledge of local data acquisition.

You’re spot on with reducing the amount of intelligence on the premise side of things. In any scenario like the one painted in this post, I would highly recommend limiting premise side “agents” to collector and measurement roles.

Sending that data to a SaaS aggregator via XML (just a protocol choice, clearly other formats would be valid) is where the intelligence would kick in.

Why for you is sending an XML on the premise side too expensive ?

With the democratization of browser enabled mobile phones or mini-pc you could have simple interface to submit any information, or even consider automated events such as geo-localization.

An example is companies trying to find the best way from one point to another for transport trucks.

You have one central system gathering information from the internal DB (customer information), Traffic information and local information from the truck drivers.

Traffic information are obtained through API and drivers information are obtained through mobile phone.

Another example, mobile ads based on your localization. Information are coming from internal DB (your profile) and your geo-localization (iphone like). You could even think about a simple interface to explain when you arrive in a shopping center the kind of goodies you are looking for.

XML is just one way of sending information but it is becoming quite common.

An interesting idea but I don’t think S+S is what you are looking for.

In this solution you would need maybe an E&M port on a router with special IOS software on it to report shorts or some other electrical notification that indicates an alarm condition. I have seen other similar solutions that use this same structure to key radios remotely etc.

If you add too much intelligence on the premise side, the solution quickly becomes too costly and, therefore, cost prohibitive. I think you’re on the right track. This is probably one of the more interesting conversations I’ve seen on the blogosphere recently regarding SaaS and future applications. Thanks!

Kevin Doherty, CEO
Phase 2 International