1) Software startup sharpcloud developed a social networking-based tool for corporate strategy planning but needed global scalability beyond its means. 2) By developing its tool on the Windows Azure platform, sharpcloud gained the infrastructure needed to scale worldwide while only paying for resources used. 3) This allowed sharpcloud to triple productivity, save $500,000 annually, and gain credibility with major customers like Fujitsu.

1. Windows Azure
Customer Solution Case Study
Software Startup Triples
Productivity, Saves $500,000 with
Cloud Computing Solution

2. Overview “We wouldn’t exist if we had to build out
Country or Region: United Kingdom
Industry: Manufacturing—High this level of server capability ourselves.
tech and electronics
Windows Azure makes it possible for us to
manufacturing
scale the service as needed, using—and
Customer Profile
Based in Guildford, England, paying—only for what we need.”
sharpcloud provides a sharpcloud was founded on a revolutionary idea:
software-as-a-service solution
that enables executives to plan
to enhance strategy development efforts by using
strategy road maps with the the interactive and collaborative tools familiar to
ease and interactivity of social-
networking sites.
people who use social networking sites. But
turning that idea into a real service for corporate
Business Situation
For its service to be successful,
users required a global series of data centers—far
sharpcloud needed to offer beyond sharpcloud’s reach. By taking advantage
scalability to support major
corporate users anywhere in
of Microsoft partner programs and familiar
the world—requiring a network Microsoft technology, sharpcloud developed and
of data centers far beyond its
means.
now hosts its solution on the Windows Azure
platform. The company estimates that it is 200 to
Solution
sharpcloud developed and
300 percent more productive than it would have
hosts its service on the been on a competitive platform, saving up to U.S.
Windows Azure platform, which
helps manage the worldwide
$500,000 annually. Running on Windows Azure,
infrastructure so that sharpcloud has gained the confidence of major
sharpcloud can focus
exclusively on enhancing its
corporations such as Fujitsu, which finds that the
application service. sharpcloud service reduces its strategy planning
Benefits
time by 75 percent.
• Boosts productivity 300
percent, saves U.S.
$500,000
• Scales to support millions of
users
• Reduces time-to-market,
cost of development
• Enhances credibility with
major corporations

3. “When you talk to Situation using dynamic social-networking
A major upside to the Internet is tools, such as Facebook.”
the business that it brings a global market of
potential customers within the Khan and his colleagues knew
community about reach of every startup company, that the integration of social
the road maps that regardless of its location. networking tools and corporate
However, having access to this road-map development had to be
impact business global market also forces not just highly visual, but also
startups to compete against simple to deploy and use. Those
strategy, you find more established, better financed requirements suggested a Web-
that people have a companies throughout the world. based application using the
How are startups to meet this Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5
very difficult time challenge? and the Microsoft Silverlight 3
cross-platform browser plug-in,
communicating A British company formed in which could deliver streaming
their strategic 2009, sharpcloud was founded video and animation, plus other
on a seemingly simple but visual features, without requiring
plans.” revolutionary idea: to apply highly software other than a Web
visual and commonly used social- browser on an executive’s PC.
networking tools to the crucial
corporate project of developing To support the global companies
long-term road maps and that sharpcloud envisioned as
strategy. To simplify deployment prime customers for its visual
and speed adoption, sharpcloud road-mapping tool, the
would offer its solution as a company’s service would also
service delivered to its customers have to be highly scalable,
over the Internet where and when capable of supporting large
needed through cloud computing. numbers of users who could be
dispersed anywhere around the
“When you talk to the business world. But without a revenue
community about the road maps stream, the company’s finances
that impact business strategy, were too tight to build this level of
you find that people have a very scalability. It needed to devote all
difficult time communicating their the financial resources it could to
strategic plans,” says Sarim developing the most compelling
Khan, Chief Executive Officer and service; buying and managing a
Co-Founder of sharpcloud. server farm or, worse yet, data
“They’re using presentations or centers around the globe, was
spreadsheets that are static not an option.
documents, that don’t let people
collaborate. Yet people sharpcloud found its solution in
communicate and collaborate cloud computing, the same
constantly in their personal lives, technology it was planning to
provide to its customers. Initially,

4. “The key for us sharpcloud executives chose the platform led the company to
Amazon Web Services platform reconsider its choice, so did the
has been the because it seemed large, reliable, availability of an option that had
and capable of supporting the not existed when sharpcloud
software and development and hosting of the selected Amazon. Since then, a
support available sharpcloud solution. beta version of the Windows
Azure platform had become
without licensing Yet, as development continued, available. The Windows Azure
concerns emerged. sharpcloud platform is an Internet-scale
cost.” was charged for developing its cloud services platform that is
Sarim Khan, Chief Executive solution using live resources in hosted in Microsoft data centers.
Officer and Co-Founder, the cloud; the alternative— It includes an operating system
sharpcloud developing the solution on local and a set of developer services
resources and then moving it to that can be used separately or
the cloud—was also problematic together in a pay-as-you-go
because the local and cloud tools model. In Windows Azure,
and environments were not sharpcloud executives saw an
consistent. Code could look and answer to the growing concerns
function one way on the it had about Amazon, so the
developer’s workstation but company switched its
behave somewhat differently in development and hosting solution
the cloud environment. Also, to Windows Azure.
sharpcloud spent time and money
updating and maintaining the “Because we were already
cloud-based Amazon servers, creating an application based on
time and money that could have the .NET Framework and
been focused on solution Silverlight, moving from Amazon
development. to Microsoft was relatively
straightforward,” says Andrew
Lastly was the question of Britcliffe, Chief Software Architect
security. As sharpcloud spoke and Co-Founder of sharpcloud.
with potential customers, the sharpcloud only had to rewrite a
question kept emerging: how modest amount of code to
safe is my data? Amazon ensure that its service and
promised security but had no storage mechanism would
track record in this area. Potential communicate properly with the
customers had their doubts, and Windows Azure application
so did sharpcloud. programming interfaces.
Solution sharpcloud continued developing
In mid-2009, the sharpcloud the solution locally rather than in
solution was well under the cloud, using a local version of
development. But the concerns Windows Azure fabric, provided in
over the Amazon Web Services the Windows Azure software

5. development kit, as the design support, and visibility—that they
environment. Developers used need to succeed. The program
the Microsoft tools—including the includes access to Microsoft
Microsoft Visual Studio Team development tools, platform
System 2008 Team Suite technologies, and production and
development system and hosting licenses. Participants not
Microsoft Expression Blend only gain support from Microsoft
design software—with which they professionals, but also from third-
were already familiar. party network partners, such as
incubators, advisors, and
Joining Partner Programs government agencies. The
In addition to using Microsoft program also gives startup
technologies, sharpcloud took companies visibility into a global
advantage of Microsoft partner audience of potential investors,
programs. For example, clients, and partners.
sharpcloud joined the Front
Runner for Windows Azure “The key for us has been the
Platform. Front Runner is an early software and support available
adopter program for Microsoft without licensing cost,” says
solution partners. It provides Khan. “As a small startup, we
technical resources, such as have to maximize our investment,
application support for Windows and these programs have
Azure from Microsoft certainly made our development
development experts by phone budget go much further than it
and e-mail, as well as access to would have gone otherwise.
Windows Azure technical We’ve also had good support
resources in one, central place. from Microsoft with technologies
Once an application is certified as including Windows 7 and
compatible with Windows Azure, Windows Server 2008 R2. And
the program provides additional it’s stimulating to get a window
marketing benefits. These into what other startups are doing
benefits include a promotional with these technologies.”
toolkit, including a stamp and
news release to use on marketing Using sharpcloud
materials, a discount on Ready-
to-Go campaign costs, and
visibility on a Windows Azure Web
site.
sharpcloud also joined the
Microsoft BizSpark program for
software startup companies.
BizSpark unites startups with the
resources—including software,

6. To use the sharpcloud service, Once the road map is fully
executives and other users populated with events,
working within a Web browser, executives can explore it by
create a framework for their road moving through a three-
map with a single click on the dimensional view that highlights
sharpcloud interface. They then the various categories of events
define the various attributes and and their attributes (Figure 1). At
properties they want to track, any point, executives can explore
such as benefit, cost, and risk. the details of an event and add
The next step is to add what information and media, such as
sharpcloud calls “events” to the streaming video. They can
road map—technologies, trends, highlight and explore the
and anything else relevant to relationships among events, such
Figure 1. The sharpcloud those who will explore or as dependencies and effects.
application makes it possible collaborate on the road map.
for a team to view events and These events can be assigned to Social networking is a central
the relationships among them categories for subsequent aspect of sharpcloud. Users can
in a three-dimensional road searching and can be defined by publish road maps to a specified
map and to post comments for when they occur and for how team with members located
other team members to long. anywhere in the world, or publicly
review. to everyone in an organization.

7. “Partnering with People who use these road maps it not just as a technology
can change or add comments to platform, but as an
sharpcloud was a any event. The application keeps entrepreneurial environment that
a log of these changes and puts startup companies on a level
bit of a departure comments so that the creator playing field with the majors.
for us, but with can review the revisions. sharpcloud is an example of
that.”
Windows Azure, Collaborating with Fujitsu
In addition to offering the Within a few months from the
we know they have sharpcloud service under its own startup of sharpcloud, the
the resources to name, the company has technology is being used by
established a relationship with government and large corporate
deliver on their Fujitsu that is bringing the service users across the United States,
to customers of that global Europe, and Asia.
promises.” technology provider. Fujitsu has
Marc Silvester, Global Chief taken the sharpcloud technology Benefits
Technology Officer, Fujitsu and made it the centerpiece of its By making use of the Windows
FutureScape consultancy Azure platform, sharpcloud
solution, which also includes gained the scalability and security
strategy workshops and it needed for its service and
executive-level briefings. Fujitsu brought that service to market
finds that the sharpcloud service quickly and cost effectively. Khan
has helped reduce the planning estimates that, without the
phase of major projects for its burden of maintaining cloud
customers by 75 percent—from servers, sharpcloud was 200 to
six months down to six weeks— 300 percent more productive
and accelerated the overall rate than it would have been had it
of project development by about stayed on Amazon, saving the
30 percent. company U.S.$400,000 to
$500,000 a year.
“We are a pretty big
organization, and we’re used to Scales to Support Millions
partnering with other big sharpcloud is a startup company
organizations,” says Marc that needed the technical
Silvester, Global Chief Technology resources and infrastructure of a
Officer for Fujitsu. “So partnering vast enterprise in order to
with sharpcloud was a bit of a provide the global scalability that
departure for us, but with its customers would need to
Windows Azure, we know they access the solution from
have the resources to deliver on anywhere in the world. Windows
their promises. We believe that Azure provided this infrastructure
cloud computing will usher in a at an affordable price.
new era of more dynamic,
instantaneous computing. We see

8. “If you’re using The benefit to sharpcloud is weren’t spending on the
incalculable, according to Khan. development of our service.”
Microsoft tools to “Before Windows Azure, we
could not have released our Britcliffe also found that the
create a Microsoft- service and have it scale Microsoft tools he used, most
based service, it exponentially to a large number notably the Visual Studio 2008
of potential users,” he says. “We development system,
just makes sense wouldn’t exist if we had to build interoperated better with
out this level of server capability Windows Azure than it did with
to do so in a ourselves. Windows Azure makes Amazon, leading to faster,
Microsoft-based it possible for us to scale the smoother development. “If
service as needed, using—and you’re using Microsoft tools to
cloud paying—only for what we need.” create a Microsoft-based service,
it just makes sense to do so in a
environment.” Reduces Time-to-Market, Cost of Microsoft-based cloud
Andrew Britcliffe, Chief Software Development environment.”
Architect and Co-Founder, Time-to-market was a crucial
sharpcloud factor for sharpcloud, which sharpcloud used Windows Azure
intended to establish its to expedite development in other
reputation in part by being first to ways, as well. For example,
offer a social-networking Britcliffe notes that Windows
development tool for road maps. Azure supported the Agile
Windows Azure provided development method that
advantages of agility and speed sharpcloud used to bring its
not only over traditional service to market. “With
development methods, but also Windows Azure, we could quickly
over the Amazon Web Services deploy working instances of the
environment in which the service, get feedback from users,
company began to develop its and create new iterations,
service. without having to set up test and
development servers.”
“The ability to expedite
development on Windows Azure The ability to develop code
was a key difference from our locally, using Windows Azure
experience with Amazon,” says development fabric, saved
Britcliffe. “Windows Azure just sharpcloud time and money.
works, and you don’t have to “Any time you’re using the cloud
worry or even think about it. for development, you’re being
Amazon requires a much higher charged for that time,” says
degree of maintenance from its Britcliffe. “With Windows Azure,
customers—we had to update we did our development work
servers and maintain the locally and only went to the cloud
environment, and any time we when we were running test
spent doing that was time we versions of the application. It

9. saved us a significant amount of
money—very significant for a
startup company.”
And because the fabric provided
a consistent model of the cloud
environment, Britcliffe could be
confident that what he developed
locally would look and run as
expected when transferred to the
cloud.
Enhances Credibility with Major
Corporations
By using the Windows Azure
platform, sharpcloud gained
credibility with major corporations
—its potential customers—that it
would not have had otherwise.
The relationship with Fujitsu is just
one example of what Khan says
is a broader response from the
business community.
“With cloud computing, there’s
almost always a concern about
the security of the customer’s
data,” says Khan. “Certainly, we
were somewhat concerned about
how our customers perceived
their data security on Amazon.
But with Microsoft, we’re not
worried. And our potential
customers aren’t worried.
There’s a high degree of comfort
with Microsoft in the corporate
environment, and that comfort
extends even to startups, like
sharpcloud, that rely on Microsoft
for cloud computing.”
For additional resources, please
see: Windows Azure Learning
Center

10. For More Information Windows Azure Platform • Microsoft SQL Azure. Microsoft
For more information about The Windows Azure platform SQL Azure offers the first
Microsoft products and provides an excellent foundation cloud-based relational and
services, call the Microsoft for expanding online product and self-managed database
Sales Information Center at service offerings. The main service built on Microsoft SQL
(800) 426-9400. In Canada, call components include: Server 2008 technologies.
the Microsoft Canada • Windows Azure. Windows Azure To learn more about the Windows
Information Centre at (877) is the development, service Azure platform, visit:
568-2495. Customers in the hosting, and service www.windowsazure.com
United States and Canada who management environment for
are deaf or hard-of-hearing can the Windows Azure platform.
reach Microsoft text telephone Windows Azure provides
(TTY/TDD) services at (800) developers with on-demand
892-5234. Outside the 50 compute and storage to host,
United States and Canada, scale, and manage Web
please contact your local applications on the Internet
Microsoft subsidiary. To access through Microsoft data
information using the World centers. In addition, Windows
Wide Web, go to: Azure serves developers’
www.microsoft.com connectivity needs through
the following services.
For more information about • Windows Azure AppFabric.
sharpcloud, call + 44 01483 Windows Azure AppFabric
565522, contact enables users to build and
hello@sharpcloud.com, or visit manage applications more
the Web site at: easily both on-premises and
www.sharpcloud.com in the cloud.
• The AppFabric Service Bus
connects services and
applications across network
boundaries to help
developers build distributed
applications.
• The AppFabric Access Control
provides federated, claims-
based access control for
REST Web services.
Software and Services • Services
• Windows Azure Platform • Microsoft Front Runner for
• Windows Azure Windows Azure Platform
• Microsoft Visual Studio • Microsoft BizSpark
• Microsoft Visual Studio Team • Technologies
System 2008 Team Suite • Microsoft .NET Framework
• Microsoft Expression 3.5
• Microsoft Expression Blend • Microsoft Silverlight 3
This case study is for informational 3
purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO
WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN
THIS SUMMARY.
Document published March 2010