The Cloud Solution That's Not Online

6th October 2014

The latest version of Sage Accounts (which they are confusingly officially calling "the New Sage Accounts" but unofficially still referring to as "2015") includes a capability to collaborate using the Cloud.  However this is not an online solution, even though it is a cloud solution.  This article sets out the differences between the collaboration mechanism in the latest software and that used in an online Cloud solution, such as the service available from Online50.

We have found that a number of users are confused over what the solution is, as they have assumed that a solution described to them as 'Cloud' is online.  However when users discover the nature of the solution, and the technical restrictions in using it, some have found that it is not suitable for their purposes.  Over the 5 weeks or so since the delayed launch of the software in September 2014 we have had a number of companies contacting us here at Online50 seeking clarification.  Some of these have been referred to us by Sage, others have found us via the web, and others are existing Online50 customers.

Before explaining things in more detail, here's a summary of the different approaches:

The new Sage 50 Accounts allows users in different locations to centrally lodge their updates to a local installation of Sage 50 Accounts on the 'Sage Drive' service so that updates made in different locations can be updated to other locations.  Users must have a full installation of Sage 50 Accounts on their device and so may only use PC's.

Online50 provides a fully managed service that runs the full version of Sage 50 and other software (such as Sage Payroll, Microsoft Office and many Sage Add-Ons) on Online50 infrastructure that can be accessed over the Internet by users using PC's, Macs and tablets.

How Sage 2015 Collaboration Works

Users can activate Sage Drive for a set of Sage company data (which we call a dataset) that is installed on their network.  Once this is activated any updates to the service need to obtain a 'token' from the Sage Drive service before they can go ahead.  This ensures that only one location can make an update at a time.  When the update has been made a record of the update is also lodged with the Sage Drive service.  Different locations can then apply that update (and must do so before they can make any further updates).  Each location that is accessing the dataset will have their own local installation of the dataset which could be on a local Windows PC or a Windows server.  Datasets can only be stored on Windows servers (not Network Attached Storage or other non-windows file shares).  This is because the data is accessed by the Sage Data Service, which is a Windows software service that runs on the Windows computer where the data is held.  As only Windows computers can run this software service, only Windows computers can store the dataset.  Different locations do not need to be continuously kept up-to-date, but users at these locations cannot update the systems unless they have applied all of the waiting updates to bring the data up to date.  This should allow users that do not have access to the Internet (perhaps they are on a train for example) to have read-only access to the data but we have not been able to test this.  Each location (local installation of the Sage dataset) could have multiple users if required.

This approach allows users to effectively share updates.  How well the service will work with a high volume of updates (especially from multiple locations) remains to be seen, but provided the Sage Drive service is properly run and resourced by Sage (1), and provided each location has a low latency connection to the Sage Drive service (2), the service should scale.

How an Online Solution Works

The fully managed Online50 service uses Sage software that has been installed onto centrally managed infrastructure.  This infrastructure provides the storage for the data as well as the computing power for running the application.  Users from different locations are able to connect to the Sage Accounts application which runs on the hosted (online) infrastructure, not on the user's device.  As the user's device does not need to run the application software the user can choose from a broad range of devices including Mac's, Apple and Android tablets, PCs and even phones (although the screens are a bit small!)  All operation on the data happens within the core infrastructure, and so only a small amount of bandwidth is needed.  There is no need for users to install or maintain software on their devices.  Users cannot access the live datasets except by being logged on to the service, although if they do have the application software installed locally they can take a backup of their data and use it off-line.  If software is used off-line there is no built in mechanism to synchronise changes, although if Sage Accounts 2015 is being used the Sage Drive service could be used in conjunction with the Online50 service.

Implications For Users

As the two services are not the same they will appeal to a different set of users.  For a comparison of commercial differences please see this section.  The chief areas of difference can be outlined as:

User Experience

There may be no difference in the User Experience.  Both systems provide access to the full features of the Windows software, and both allow integration with other software.  Users of the Sage Drive service will have to use a locally installed Windows application which means they must be using a Windows computer.  Users of Online50 are able to choose any device that is able to connect into the Online50 service.  All actions by all users occur in real time using Online50, whereas the changes must be lodged and copied using Sage Drive, and this may make the Sage Drive service slower as the volume of updates increases.  This is particularly pronounced if users want to restore a backup.  With Online50 all users other than the one restoring the backup must be out of the service to allow the backup to be restored (which has always been standard for Sage software).  Once the backup is restored on Online50 each user can them resume work on the correct data.  With Sage Drive it will be necessary to upload the data to Sage Drive as a new starting point and have each location download the data before they can resume operation.  Depending on the volume of data and the available bandwidth this may or may not be a problem.

With the Online50 service the speed of the operation of the software is not affected by the speed or quality of the Internet connection that is used to connect to it.  This is because the software and data are running in the same centrally hosted high performance data centres.  With Sage Drive a low quality Internet connection could create problems with passing the updates and slow down operation.  In practice this may not be a serious issue for all users as many users only make a few updates, and only updates are affected as all reading of data happens locally.

Local Installations

To use the Sage Drive service will require software running on the user's device that understands how to process the data and use the Sage Drive service, as well as having access to a local dataset.  (The dataset could be on a local network).  This restricts the choice of devices to those for which there is application software available.  At the time of writing this article there are rumours of tablet apps being made available for certain functions but no concrete details of those applications or when they might be available are available.  No details of how to write applications that can use Sage Drive have been made available to the Sage Developers community.

To use the Online50 service requires a device that can connect to the service.  The Online50 service uses widely used technology and there are a range of native and helper apps that can be used to connect.  This means that users have a much wider choice of device as they do not need to either store or process data on their device.  As the Online50 service hosts multiple applications other applications that users may require to integrate with Sage Accounts (for example to import Sales Orders from a webshop) can also be hosted and made available on the user's choice of device.

As a fully managed and accredited secure service it is not possible for software that is not hosted in the Online50 service to access data that is stored within it except through the use of published and secured APIs.  Online50 do operate a web services API that allows software that is not hosted within the Online50 network to access the Sage Accounts data held on it.  Details of this service is available to developers on request.

Managed Service

Sage Drive is provided and operated by Sage, but the data is processed on user's own Windows PCs.  There are no details available at the time of writing for the service level that Sage commits to for Sage Drive, but in any event problems with Internet connectivity or the user's own equipment would fall outside the scope of any agreement.  As the Sage Drive service is running on infrastructure that is not under the control of Sage (see Provider Ownership below) there may well be further exclusions from the Service Level Agreement (SLA).

The Online50 service is a fully managed service with all aspects of the service being the responsibility of a single provider.  The published SLA for the service stipulates a 7 minute recovery plan and provides for credits in the event of this not being achieved.  Although the standard SLA does exclude Internet connections from third parties and the user's own equipment it is possible to take Internet connections form Online50 and also to have Online50 manage in-house equipment so that every aspect is covered by a single agreement.

Connection Latency

For Sage Drive any of the local installations that need to make an update must obtain the update token from Sage Drive, and lodge their updates with Sage Drive.  This will require connection to the Sage Drive service and delays in this connection will slow down the update process.  The volume and frequency of updates will depend on the type of work being completed by the user.  Each update requires uploading the changes, and each location must download the changes made at other locations.  If one location is the main location at which uploads are made that location will be uploading far more data than it downloads.  If a location makes few updates it will be downloading more data than it uploads.  With most small businesses in the UK using asymmetric broadband service to connect to the Internet the model of downloading more than you upload fits the capabilities of their connection.

The Sage Drive service is implemented on the Amazon Cloud, which supports regional deployments to minimise latency.  For example a user in Los Angeles California could be directed to a deployment in North America, whereas a user in Singapore could be directed to a deployment that was more local to them.  It is unlikely that the Sage Drive service will support this feature for users in the same company as all updates must be lodged with the same Sage Drive service.  For this reason, and because Sage Accounts is primarily used in the UK, it is unlikely that Sage will have elected to use geographic distribution of data.

The Online50 service requires a continuous connection to operate.  Delays in this connection can impair the user's experience of the service, and the system may seem to be unresponsive.  However the volume of data that needs to be transferred is low and so a high bandwidth connection is not required.  Furthermore the typical pattern of use is that only a small amount of data is sent to the service (key presses and mouse clicks), and a larger (but still small) amount of data is received from the service (screen updates).  This pattern of use fits very well with the asymmetric broadband services used by most UK small businesses.

Causes & Cures for Connection Latency

Problems with connection latency are typically caused by some portion of the user's connection being overloaded resulting in data being queued.  This could be caused by the user themselves (multiple media streaming for example), by contention of connections at the exchange or by issues with an Internet router that is used to connect the user to an Online service.

If a user has a problem with a connection latency issue their options to resolve the issue will depend on the cause of the problem.  Broadband connections are sold based on the theoretical download bandwidth available but this is not guaranteed.  Furthermore increasing the available download speed may not resolve the issue.  Connections which offer any kind of SLA are very much more expensive than typical broadband prices and are therefore beyond the expectation of price of most small business users.

Online50 are an ISP and are able to offer an Internet connection to users.  Their PDSL (the P stands for Prioritised) service is based on a standard asymmetric broadband service but implements optimisation at both ends of the connection to ensure that the data for the Online50 service is able to 'jump the queue' at both ends of the connection to maintain low latency performance as the link becomes more congested.  As the service is provided by Online50 the users data is delivered directly into Online50's own network, rather than having to route through the Internet from another provider, eliminating further sources of congestion.  As the service is based on a standard asymmetric broadband service it could still be subject to contention issues at the exchange, but in practice these are limited due to the niche nature of the PDSL service and the architecture of the underlying broadband infrastructure.

Data Sovereignty

Few users think about issues of data sovereignty, but there are significant differences between the two approaches.  The Sage Drive service uses data stored on the users own devices and the Amazon Cloud.  The jurisdiction that applies depends in part on the location of those devices, but also it should be noted that Amazon is a US controlled company and subject to the Patriot Act.  Users are responsible for the security of information on their devices, the standard Sage data does not support encryption, although with Windows it is possible to store the data on an encrypted file system.  The US Patriot Act requires any US controlled company to supply information held on its infrastructure to the US government when ordered to do so.  The US company is not permitted to inform the owner of that data that it has made this data available to the US government.  As Amazon is US controlled it must comply with the provisions of the Patriot Act.  Sage have reported that the user is able to encrypt all data that is stored on Sage Drive with an encryption key known only to that user.  This does provide a further element of protection.

The Online50 service only stores data on infrastructure that is owned and operated by Online50 Limited.  All of this infrastructure is located within the United Kingdom and so only UK legislation is applicable.  Users are able to take a backup of the data and if they do so the protection of that backup is the user's responsibility.

Provider Ownership

The Sage Drive service uses software developed by Sage and for which Sage has full rights to the Intellectual Property.  None of the infrastructure used to deliver the Sage Drive service is owned or operated by Sage, as Sage have taken the decision to use the Amazon Cloud to deliver the service.  This is not an uncommon approach, but users of the Sage Drive service are contracting with Sage, and will only have recourse to Sage with respect to the performance of the service.

The Online50 service provides access to a range of application software (including Sage 50 Accounts).  Individual application software will be owned by the producers of that software.  The system uses software developed by Online50 and for which Online50 owns the intellectual property rights as well as 'standard' operating system software from Microsoft to operate the service.  All hardware and infrastructure is owned and operated by Online50 Limited.

Commercial Differences

Sage Drive is available to users of 'The new Sage Accounts' only.  Sage are trying to make this available by annual subscription only, although it is possible to buy the software license for a one off fee.  It is currently expected that the monthly subscription fee will include the ability to use Sage Drive for no additional charge.  It is not clear whether users who pay for the software license using a one off fee will have to pay ongoing fees to use Sage Drive.  It is not clear whether changes in the way Sage Drive is implemented will force users to upgrade to newer versions in the future.  It is believed that the annual subscription charge will include access to all future versions as they are released and so it is not expected that users will have to pay more for upgrades in the future.  It is not known whether users will be obliged to take upgrades as they are released or if they will have an opportunity to wait for bug fixes before choosing to upgrade.

Online50 services are available on a calendar monthly subscription (there is no minimum term).  Users can choose to use any available software (Sage 50 Accounts is available in every version from version 8 onwards) subject to appropriate licensing.  Users that have a qualifying license for Sage 50 Accounts (version 2009 or newer) may use this license without having to upgrade.  Users may choose to rent a Sage 50 Accounts licenses as part of their service as Online50 are authorised by Sage to provide access to Sage software on a monthly subscription

Current costs to use these services for an existing Sage 50 Accounts Professional user are:

Sage Drive: £900 per year (single user annual subscription)

Online50: £59 per calendar month (single user calendar monthly subscription)

This article is based on information available at the time of writing: 6th October 2014.

(1) Provided the service is properly run and resourced by Sage There is no reason to assume that Sage would not properly resource and run the service.  The operation of the service depends on the proper operation of the Amazon Cloud and the user's access to that service depends on their Internet connection, both of which are outside the control of Sage.

(2) Provided the user has a low latency Internet connection The speed of any service that completes a transaction online will be affected by the latency of connections.  For more discussion of connection latency see Connection Latency above.