I was helping someone choose a blogging platform today and they sent me a link for a possible choice. It was
Squarespace.
At first I thought, "This isn't a quick and dirty FREE blogging platform." I left the tab open and quickly setup a
Wordpress blog for them.
I came back to the
Squarespace site and went through their
product tour.
First off, I"m hestitant to 100% call them a Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS) because of two missing features, they don't have:
- Full Set of API
- Developer Module Ecoysystem
However they do have the beginning of a developer ecosystem. So I"m putting them halfway between SaaS and PaaS.
What really stood out is their presentation. The breakout in their product tour reflects the perfect SaaS and almost PaaS structure in my opinion:
- Overview - A simple overview of the service.
- Host - A confident review of the cloud hosting platform.
- Build - Builder tools that every site owner looks for.
- Design - Control over the design and layout of your site.
- Manage - Dashboard, management tools, and reporting.
- Support - Clear explanation that their is someone there to support you.
- Developer - Developer / Reseller ecosystem.
- IPhone - Top mobile platform application.
- Importer - Tool to migrate from existing platforms.
- Social - Top social network and social media integration.
I consider this an excellent example of PaaS standards. The only elements I would add are:
- Application Program Interface (API) - A RESTFul API to be able to get at all aspects of platform and services.
- Developer Module Ecosystem - An ecosystem where developers can build custom code modules for the clients, similar to Wordpress Plugins. =
- Android - Application and support for Android mobile platform.
With a robust developer ecoystem that has reseller tools, template system, and development modules it would truly be dubbed a high quality
Platform as a Service (PaaS).
They have the greatest explanation of why they aren't FREE. "
Squarespace provides a premium, time saving service and charges for it.".
Its nice to see a quality platform running in the clouds, I predict good things for
Squarespace.
