SaaS makes $$$

Add comment April 5th, 2007 David Bush - Iasta

I was glad to see SDCExec devote a major story to SaaS in the latest issue, written by Liz Herbert, a senior analyst with Forrester Research. I also ran across an article in Managing Automation on the same topic (registration required), which had good insight, as well.

The SDCE article gives very good definitions of SaaS and also goes into the differences from its predecessor - ASP. Although the terms are frequently (and mistakenly) interchanged, there are major differences. ASPs generally are hosting 3rd party applications, have slower upgrade rates and have a single tenant architecture.

“Software-as-a-service has democratized the software industry from request for proposal (RFP) to purchase to roll-out, empowering business units by enabling them to buy, deploy and run software without IT involvement. With SaaS, line-of-business heads, ranging from the vice president of sales to the director of human resources (HR), can single-handedly own the purchase decision by taking advantage of free trial offers on Web sites to evaluate solutions and paying a monthly or quarterly rate low enough to stay off the corporate radar screen for requiring approvals. Additionally, the easier-to-use and easier-to-administer nature of most SaaS solutions means non-IT users can rely on point-and-click tools and wizards to set up and configure solutions. For many users, SaaS wizards for creating custom reports, changing roles and access rights, and building custom layouts means an end to waiting on an IT project list for days or weeks until resources become available.”

The article also has a supplement which is a great beginner course for the newest acronym hatchling - IaaS (Integration as a Service). It also helps the reader determine if IaaS is needed and what it can do for your own technology and SOA structure.

Entry Filed under: General, Technology, e-Sourcing Marketplace