Fujitsu lures devs to new cloud store with 'SaaSification' sweeties

Wanna make some money, kids?

CeBit If selling software is one way to make money, selling other people's software is an even easier way to make money – just take a look at the App Store.

Fujitsu is importing the app store model into enterprise software, opening up a Business Solutions Store, where users can browse apps and buy subscriptions to software services by the day, week or month. It's also snappily titled The Independent Software Vendor Programme or The ISV Programme.

Fujitsu has already signed up 50 independent software vendors to sell business apps and programs through its store, and aims to have a further 100 hawking their wares there by the end of the year.

In a bid to woo more software developers, Fujitsu is helping them make their products cloud-ready in the "SaaSification Factory" – a Fujitsu-run stall at CeBit.

At the "SaaSification Factory", devs can learn how to move a data-centre-ready app to the cloud by rewriting it to Fujitsu's APIs. That can be accomplished in a matter of days rather than the years it would otherwise take to rewrite the entire source code for cloud deployment, said Marcel Schneider, managing director of Fujitsu Technology Solutions Germany, in a news conference at CeBit.

Deutsche Telekom has also hopped on the bandwagon, picking up three retail partners for its cloud store Business Marketplace. HP will launch a cloud shop called cCell later this week geared at small- and medium-sized enterprises. ®