SaaS Integration that Benefits End Customers on AWS – Atlassian and Boundary

Editor’s note: in honor of the official launch of the AWS SaaS Partner Program, we’re going to have a number of posts in the next week devoted to SaaS on AWS. Enjoy! 

Software as a Service (SaaS) is a software delivery model for distributing software over the Internet. SaaS solutions are typically based on a subscription model, and provide end users with simplicity and flexibility both in terms of deployment and pricing options. AWS is committed to supporting our APN Partners as they develop SaaS solutions on the AWS platform. Today we’d like to showcase two such partners, Atlassian and Boundary, who have used AWS to scale their businesses and also work better together.

Atlassian is an APN Technology Partner and inaugural SaaS Program Partner who develops and deploys HipChat on AWS. HipChat, a unique team communication SaaS solution used extensively by developers, provides group chat, video, and voice available across every device. In HipChat, Atlassian saw the opportunity to combine productivity with fun and to enable teams to work better together.

The team has worked closely with a number of APN Technology Partners who have developed HipChat integrations for their own products, enabling mutual customers to leverage both solutions in a powerful way. One such
APN Partner is Boundary, a company who provides a SaaS monitoring solution hosted on AWS.

Why SaaS on AWS

For HipChat, AWS provides the scalability they need. “SaaS allows our customers to simply sign up on our website and within seconds, they are up using the solution,” said Moosa Choudhry, development manager at HipChat. “For the HipChat team, a SaaS approach offers the best way to get to market quickly, reach customers of all sizes, and not have to worry about the underlying infrastructure on a day-to-day basis.”

The company chose the AWS platform to develop its SaaS solution on because of the scalability, availability, and security the AWS platform is designed to provide. “AWS simplifies deployment, and reduces customer acquisition costs,” explained Steve Goldsmith, head of engineering at HipChat. “It’s simple to get started with AWS, and to grow as the product grows. In this way, AWS allows us to future-proof our architecture.”

By using AWS Services such as Amazon Relational Database (Amazon RDS) and Amazon ElastiCache, the Atlassian engineering team is relieved of some of the burden of managing and maintaining its own MySQL and Redis services. HipChat is also spread across multiple AWS Availability Zones, strengthening reliability.

The Boundary Integration

As many APN Partners develop SaaS solutions on AWS, they identify other APN Partners who’ve developed services, tools, and SaaS solutions that can integrate with their SaaS offering, ultimately providing end users with an even better end product. Atlassian and Boundary both identified the benefits that working together could bring to end users, and how each of their offerings could be enriched through product integration.

“When we built our alert notifications, we identified many of the leading next-generation SaaS communications platforms. HipChat arrived earlier than most, has been very successful, and is popular among our users. Due to the popularity of the service, we made developing a HipChat integration a high priority,” said Pavel Hardak, director of product management at Boundary.

While Boundary has been an Atlassian customer since 2011, the two companies started discussing the possibilities of integration in 2014. “What kicked off our business relationship was a meeting at the 2014 re:Invent Conference in Las Vegas,” said Choudhry. “This was an opportunity to talk more about how our products that run on AWS are even better when integrated. After this meeting, the Boundary team productized its HipChat integration. Our Boundary integration enables our mutual customers to leverage our solutions and do so in conjunction. By integrating, they can use both products in an even more powerful way.”

Benefits for End Customers

The Boundary integration provides HipChat users with important notifications and alerts. “Our relationship with Boundary is centered on our mutual developer customers,” said Michael Lauricella, director of business development at HipChat. “One key reason teams love HipChat is that it can be extended to work with other solutions through its APIs. Boundary’s integration with HipChat, using REST APIs, allows mission critical notifications to be placed directly in front of the right team where they can immediately communicate about the issue. Contrast this with having the notification get lost in a sea of emails where no one is sure who is doing what.”

The Boundary team has seen a number of benefits accrue for its customers through its integration with HipChat, particularly in cost savings and reduced time to deployment for customers by not having to install software on-premises. “Our shared customers benefit from this integration without having to install the software on-premises, improving time to value, and keeping costs low,” said Hardak.

What’s Next?

Atlassian believes there is still a lot of room to educate customers on the benefits of the integration with Boundary. “HipChat continues to evolve and so, too, will the ways in which HipChat enables Boundary to integrate with it,” said Lauricella. “There are also still many opportunities to better communicate the value of how our solutions work together.”

As HipChat grows, the Atlassian team plans to continue to expand its presence with other APN Partners and increase the scope of Partner product integrations with HipChat, all enabled through the SaaS delivery model. “We have a number of great APN Partners that integrate with HipChat who also have their service hosted on AWS, such as PagerDuty,” explained Lauricella. “The value proposition is simple: by being SaaS solutions, we can focus on making great solutions that work even better together. It’s about focus, and our focus is on building amazing applications that delight customers.”

Learn more about the AWS SaaS Partner Program here.