KnowledgeTree announced the launch of KnowledgeTreeLive, a software-as-a-service document management application built using the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud and the rPath virtual appliance platform. The provider of Open Source document management software for small to medium-sized organizations and departmental users, KnowledgeTreeLive on-demand document management service brings the powerful capabilities of the open source KnowledgeTree application to users wishing to subscribe to an easy to use, cost-effective and secure hosted application.

    KnowledgeTreeLive is a hosted edition of the KnowledgeTree Document Management Software. The KnowledgeTreeLive Software-as-a-Service application is available as both an On-demand Document Management Trial and as a commercial subscription service. KnowledgeTree is document management made simple: easily secure, share, track and manage the documents and records your organization depends on.

    The KnowledgeTreeLive service includes document management and collaboration features such as document versioning and auditing, metadata and content searching, workflow, tagging and tag clouds, RSS feeds and email triggers. With innovative technology from Amazon Web Services and rPath, KnowledgeTree was able to roll out a highly scalable SaaS document management solution without significant modifications to the KnowledgeTree on-premise application and without investing in extensive datacenter infrastructure.

    rPath's rBuilder made it easy for KnowledgeTree to transform their existing application into a virtual appliance that could be run on Amazon EC2. KnowledgeTree was able to create their virtual appliance images from the existing KnowledgeTree application; no modifications for multi-tenancy were required. Additionally, using rPath's rBuilder reduced the time to market and number of people required to develop a SaaS solution.

    Billy Marshall, rPath CEO and co-founder commented, "The unique combination of rBuilder plus Amazon EC2 provides an alternative approach to Software as a Service for application providers. This solution means KnowledgeTree can spend less time supporting their product and more time enhancing it, ultimately benefiting the end-user."

    "The KnowledgeTree Open Source application is downloaded over 14,000 times per month. We believe that a significant number of users of the free on-premise software would prefer to utilize a cost-effective hosted document management solution. Being open source means that our customers have peace of mind that they won't be locked in to a proprietary service," said Daniel Chalef, KnowledgeTree COO.

    The modular KnowledgeTree application was extended to utilize the Amazon Simple Storage Service, a vast and cost-effective storage service, for KnowledgeTree's user data. rPath's technology also reduces the costs associated with maintaining a SaaS solution with a large number of virtual appliances. Because rPath has been at the forefront of the software and virtual appliance form factor, it made building appliances for use on Amazon EC2 relatively simple.

    "Amazon EC2 was built with businesses like KnowledgeTree in mind," said Steve Rabuchin, Director of Developer Relations for Amazon Web Services. "Our technology eliminates the hassles of creating and managing a scalable, on-demand computing infrastructure."