SaaScon 2007 -- SaaS is here to stay
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Is SaaS Ready for the Mainstream?
Posted by John Hegstrom in: Informatica On Demand > Integration
I recently read an article “Is the Mainstream Ready for SaaS?” published in IT-Director.com. I believe that the advantages of SaaS provide some real advantages for mainstream IT departments.
It's clear that IT departments are increasingly under pressure to reduce costs. A large percentage of IT budget goes to operations and maintenance of hardware, software, and infrastructure. As the cost of supporting infrastructure increases faster than the overall IT budget there is less money to spend on new applications and features.
SaaS providers operate their software in their own data centers. They manage the hardware, software, and infrastructure. Customers don't need to be concerned with upgrading software, doing tape backups, server monitoring, hardware maintenance, or other low-level tasks. This allows the IT staff to spend more of their time on value-add activities, such as business process design, end user enablement, and business intelligence.
I agree with the statement in the article about businesses wanting access to applications wherever they are located. Enlightened IT departments will embrace SaaS because it allows them to spend less time and money on IT infrastructure support and more time and money on value-add business services. They will also welcome data and business process integration, allowing their companies to gain a strategic advantage from their data, regardless of whether it resides inside or outside their firewall.
By adopting SaaS, customers are finding new challenges to making the most of their data. It’s up to the software vendors to understand those challenges and make the solutions attractive, affordable, and credible.
