Success story
Adobe enhances the customer experience with the cloud
Fast facts
- Industry: Software
- Region: Worldwide
- Headquarters: San Jose, CA
- Company size: 13,500 employees
Overview
As a leader in digital media, Adobe knew it could serve customers better with new cloud-based offerings. It wanted to provide cloud access to its sandbox—where customers create applications with Adobe products—and offer a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) option for customers to easily deploy their solutions. Adobe did it all with Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® and Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Red Hat gives Adobe a flexible IT canvas
Adobe uses Red Hat Enterprise Linux and AWS to offer customers access to sandbox resources and a SaaS option for deploying Adobe-based solutions.
The path to success
Challenge: Give customers an easier way to buy software
Adobe is well-known worldwide for its software, which for years was mainly shrink-wrapped and sold in stores. In 2007, Mitch Nelson, director of managed services, began a shift to the cloud. At the time, the cloud was a relatively new concept, but Nelson knew what was coming.
Customers began demanding easy, convenient software delivery in the cloud. Adobe had to quickly address this radical shift to protect its very survival. Nelson—with an eye on cutting costs and increasing revenue—moved to expand Adobe offerings, including easier access to Adobe sandbox resources and a new SaaS option for custom apps.
His challenge was to find the best technology for the job.
Case study
Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Amazon Web Services help Adobe offer cloud-based solutions
Solution: Deploy a cloud technology customers trust
By implementing the secure, agile, and scalable Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system, Adobe gave customers easy access to the Adobe LiveCycle sandbox while at their own customer site or in the cloud. There they can experiment, evaluate, and prototype new solutions with Adobe products.
Thanks to the flexibility of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Adobe also developed a SaaS option that uses AWS to help customers deploy their Adobe-based solutions much faster. "In the cloud, Red Hat makes absolute sense,” Nelson says. "It's the obvious choice and one we've never regretted."
Results: Give customers the speed they need
Now customers can easily get up and running in the Adobe sandbox and promptly deploy their newly built apps. "Instead of waiting 2 or 3 months to deploy their custom apps, we can now deploy them in 2 or 3 days. Wow, what a change compared to 5 years ago!" Nelson says.
The new SaaS deployment also gives customers subscription-based pricing and scalability, while supplying Adobe with a new recurring revenue stream. "The cloud really increases our time-to-market capabilities and our ability to deliver value to customers quickly," Nelson says.