Zuora, a subscription billing company, announces today the release of Z-Commerce for the Cloud. Z-Commerce enables cloud providers to automate metering, pricing, and billing.
According to Zuora CEO Tien Tzuo, cloud computing is a disruptive technology that requires enterprises to become part of what he calls “the subscription economy.” While purchasing servers and computing hardware was a marker of the “ownership model,” Tzuo argues that cloud computing requires a different business model, one that emphasizes pay-as-you-go.
Pricing models for Z-Commerce for the Cloud include charging based on demand, reservation, location-based, and off-peak pricing, and can handle cloud service and software-as-a-service billing. Z-Commerce also features a private cloud billing setup for IT departments that need to implement departmental charge-backs.
Zuora contends that the lack of a billing infrastructure for the cloud has made it nearly impossible for many providers to effectively bring their offerings to market and see Z-Commerce for the Cloud as filling this gap.
Zuora announced earlier this week that it would be participating in Microsoft’s Azure Technology Adoption Program. “Cloud computing opens up worlds of new opportunity for commerce,” said Dianne O’Brien, senior director of business strategy for Windows Azure. “But in order to seize those opportunities and thrive in this new model, we need commerce systems that enable us ability to meter, price, and bill for usage in the cloud.”
According to Tzuo, “We’ve spent a full year working with cloud leaders such as EMC and VMware to understand the needs of both cloud providers and their customers. Now, we’ve delivered a platform with all the metering, pricing, and billing capabilities required for the cloud to fully live up to its promise.”
