AWS open-source tool that turns on-prem software into SaaS

AWS has announced that it’s releasing a tool called AWS SaaS Boost that turns on-prem software into SaaS as open-source, distributed under the Apache 2.0 license.

The tool was first announced at the AWS re: Invent conference last year, and it’s designed to help companies transform their on-prem software into cloud-based software as a service.

In the charter for the software released by Amazon, the company says its mission “is to create a community-driven suite of extensible building blocks for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) builders. Our goal is to foster an open environment for developing and sharing reusable code that accelerates the ability to deliver and operate multi-tenant SaaS solutions on AWS.”

This implies that users can sign up to the platform and tweak the app in a multi-tenant cloud context. Even though it’s open-source, it is designed to get users to move their application into the AWS system where they can access some AWS services such as AWS CloudFormation, AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), Amazon Route 53, Elastic Load Balancing, AWS Lambda (Amazon’s serverless tool), and Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon’s Kubernetes Service).

Making it open source gives companies that would need this kind of service access to the source code, giving them a comfort level and an ability to contribute to the project to expand upon the base product and give back to the community. That makes it a win for users who get flexibility and the benefit of a community behind the tool, and a win for AWS, which gets that community working on the tool to improve and enhance it over time.

In a blog post, Andrian De Luca explained the rationale behind Amazon’s intention to open source SaaS Boost “Our objective with AWS SaaS Boost is to get great quality software based on years of experience in the hands of as many developers and companies as possible. Because SaaS Boost is open source software, anyone can help improve it.”

“Through a community of builders, we hope to develop features faster, integrate with a wide range of SaaS software, and provide a high-quality solution for our customers regardless of company size or location,” he concluded.

This new announcement is coming weeks after Amazon open-sourced its Deep Racer device software, which runs its machine-learning fueled mini race cars.

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