Clay Tablet Saas: Built to Scale

Last week we announced the availability of the Saas version of our Clay Tablet product.

In reality, it’s a bit of a misnomer to call the Saas offering a “version” of the Clay Tablet software - version two was architected from the ground up to run in a Saas environment. In fact, the licensed product is actually a derivative of the Saas architecture, not the other way around as is common with many applications. Either way you look at it, what’s important to note is the fact that our Saas offering isn’t a stripped or watered down version of the enterprise licensed software. Both versions offer the same functionality and capabilities.

So why did we wait to launch the Saas version? The reality is with SaaS the application is often the easy part, it’s the business functions and considerations that come along with the service that add a lot of complexity to it.

In the context of our application, more than anything else we knew this application had to be able to scale - and not in the “hey, looks like there’s more volume going through the system - we should add another server next month” sense but scale in as close to real time as possible.

The Challenge of “Bursty”
In many ways translation is a very “bursty” event, especially in small to medium size businesses. New website, new collateral, etc. - get it finished and then send it all for translation at once.

For licensed software it’s not too big a deal, it would take a lot of content to swamp a single server, and even then it would generally just be a matter of processing time. In a Saas environment though, you need to add a zero (or two) to everything you consider. One client pushing 10 or 100 times their usual volume, not necessarily a big deal. 10% of your clients? 20%? And worst of all, you never know it’s coming.

At Clay Tablet, or goal is to make translation a utility for the enterprise*. When you turn on a light switch at home, you expect the light to come on and don’t want to worry about what is happening in the background to make sure that service is available when you need it. we believe, there’s no reason why a content manager should have to spend any time worrying about how they’re going to get their content translated. They should be able to click “translate” and know their content is going to the right vendor and will translated by one of the many skilled translators in our industry.

Over the next few days I’ll share some of our thoughts on the SaaS application and, more importantly, explain how our system has been built from the ground up to support not just your ongoing needs, but also the unpredictable needs of all of our clients, and help bring the reality of utility translation to the enterprise.

Next: Built to Scale. In Real Time.

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*A Utility, not a commodity. We recognize that while there are ongoing advancements in the technology that helps make translation happen, this is still very much a human powered industry. What we strive to do is make the processes between the people (content managers, translators and reviewers) in the content lifecycle as streamlined and reliable as possible.