It is my pleasure this week to introduce Christopher Poelker of FalconStor Software to our listeners. Chris Poelker is the author of Storage Area Networks for Dummies, and has over 30 years of experience architecting storage, backup and disaster recovery solutions. Chris specializes in storage virtualization and data protection, and is currently the vice president of Enterprise Solutions at FalconStor Software.

I had a conversation with Chris before the show, and I have to admit, it took me a little time to see where we might take the interview. But consider this – one of the basic tenets of developing a SaaS product is “don’t build what you don’t need to.” If the feature doesn’t add to core value or if it is available already in the marketplace, leverage what exists whenever possible.

The software that FalconStor provides is a case study to this point. In many business-to-business applications the storage, retention and control of customer data is not only critical it is regulated. How do you deliver a service in this market without getting into that issue more deeply than you would like? Are there other services you could offer that would make your product richer but not take you away from concentrating on your core value to your users?

It is an interesting question and a sample of one of the many kinds of issues Jim Geisman of Software Pricing Partners will be discussing at our upcoming workshop in San Francisco, May 13th , 2010. http://blog.sciodev.com/2010/04/12/saas-develop-price-operate-and-succeed/

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