The model stood in stark contrast to installed, or on-premise, software, which has long dominated the enterprise market.
"SAP is the biggest player in on-premise software, and even they decided they needed to get a better platform for the cloud," Mr. Cory said.
Enstratius is available as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) or as on-premises software.
It's difficult for many businesses to afford on-premises software, so Swingvy's goal is to offer them a cheaper alternative that is accessible on mobile devices.
Basically, the Gateway connect san on-premises software appliance with Amazon's cloud-based storage for a more secure integration between on-premises IT environments and AWS storage infrastructure.
There were other examples of companies switching from on-premises software to Office 365 or Google Docs and the world did not stop.
Traditionally, it has been delivered as on-premises software, but over the last several years it has started delivering it in the cloud for customers who don't want to manage all of the complexity related to running software like this.
While it may not be a simple matter to move from one cloud vendor to another, chances are it's easier than it would have been to rip and replace bad on-premises software –and cloud vendors clearly recognize this.
TechCrunch: Microsoft is moving into the cloud storage space, and with its on-premises software could post a material threat to traditional cloud storage companies like Box, and hybrid providers like Egnyte.
After launching distributed database DynamoDB last week, Amazon Web Services is debuting another product AWS Storage Gateway, which is a service that provides enterprises with a new option to securely upload and backup data to the AWS cloud from on-premises software appliances.
While a set of standards could certainly help this develop even further, as Levine pointed out, we are really still in early days when it comes to cloud maturity, and as with on-premises software, there will be a battle between vendors who want to control the stack and those that want to be more open.
