New Service Provides Easy, Affordable and Secure Document Management Capabilities for Teams, Departments and Small and Medium Businesses

KnowledgeTreeLive Software as a Service Leverages Open Source, the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud and rPath Virtual Appliances

2008-03-20, KnowledgeTree

Posted by sharonpr 294 days ago (1)
Category: Computers - Open Source | Tags: open source knowledgetree linux saas

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA, March 20, 2008 – Small and medium businesses now have an easy and cost effective way to manage their documents with the general availability of KnowledgeTreeLive - a software as a service solution (SaaS) that utilizes open source and cloud computing to deliver a flexible and secure document management system.

Built on top of the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud™ (Amazon EC2) and the Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and delivered as a virtual appliance using rPath Linux Software Appliances, KnowledgeTreeLive provides customers with immediate access to KnowledgeTree’s powerful features without requiring any investment in their own infrastructure. It is the latest offering from KnowledgeTree - the fast-growing provider of Open Source document management software.

"Not too long ago, only large enterprises needed a robust document management system. Geographically dispersed teams and compliance challenges have now brought this challenge to small and medium-sized businesses," said Daniel Chalef, COO of KnowledgeTree. "With KnowledgeTreeLive, business owners can get up and running very quickly, with no extensive training and absolutely no up front investment in software or hardware. The system can grow right along with their business."

Powerful features backed by the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
KnowledgeTreeLive is a hosted, on-demand service delivered to any Internet-connected computer. The cloud computing-based SaaS application is built using virtual appliances and hosted within the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. Secure document storage is provided by the Amazon Simple Storage Service™. Together, this provides customers with the assurance that their document management system is always available, secure and running on redundant systems, ensuring business continuity.

KnowledgeTreeLive provides customers with the peace-of-mind that they’re not locked in: data can move seamlessly between KnowledgeTreeLive and the on-premise KnowledgeTree products, including the open source and commercially supported versions, both of which are run as traditional software on the customers' own servers.

New features of KnowledgeTreeLive include:

- Drag and Drop capabilities, including integration with Microsoft Office;

- A Windows desktop "hot folder" that enables users to fax, scan or save documents to the folder and have them simultaneously saved to their KnowledgeTreeLive repository;

- Integration with Zoho Office, an online office suite accessed via web browser;

- Publication of the KnowledgeTreeLive Web Service application programming interfaces (APIs) to enable developers to build mash-ups between various web applications.

"We chose KnowledgeTreeLive because it combines robust functionality with ease of use," said Kirk Gaburo CTO of WorkPlace Training, in Minneapolis, a provider of computer-based training, testing and documentation services. "Starting with no knowledge of the system, we were able to specify a folder hierarchy, create users, assign permissions and upload documents in less than thirty minutes. We are very pleased with the service."

“The goal of Amazon Web Services is to enable companies to develop innovative new products and services for their customers, without having to worry about the hassle and expense of maintaining a massive web-scale infrastructure on the back end”, said Steve Rabuchin, Director of Developer Relations for Amazon Web Services. “We’re pleased that KnowledgeTree’s document management system and rPath’s virtual appliance platform can be combined with Amazon Web Services to enable a new Software as a Service offering.”

"Virtual appliances are ideal for massively scalable application deployments that offer traditional application providers all of the benefits of Software as a Service, without the expense of re-architecting their application," said Billy Marshall, CEO and founder of rPath. "By leveraging virtual appliances and cloud computing, KnowledgeTree is able to offer its customers a hosted application that is easy to use, cost-effective and secure."

Availability and Pricing
KnowledgeTreeLive is available immediately at http://www.knowledgetree.com/live.
Pricing begins at $30 per user per month.

About KnowledgeTree
KnowledgeTree's vision is to make document management simple. With no vendor lock-in and with source code readily available, KnowledgeTree provides a more flexible, easy to use, and cost-effective alternative to proprietary document management applications.

The application's focus on ease of use and strong Microsoft Windows and Office integration toolset has made it a compelling, high-value document management solution for all organizations. The web-based and AJAX-enabled application is built on the popular open source LAMP (Apache/MySQL/PHP) stack and a community edition is released under the GPLv3. Commercial editions are available as single-click installers for Microsoft Windows and Linux, a software appliance and a novel Software-as-a-Service application running on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud.

Commercial customers include the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, DHL Global Mail, Société Générale Group, the State of Georgia Department of Audits, the European Space Agency, GlaxoSmithKline, Cable & Wireless, Mazda Motor Europe and Decathlon Stores.

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Contact: Bill Baker, Baker Communications Group
860-350-9100
wbaker@bakercg.com