When you hear the term SaaS what's the first thing that comes to mind?
- Do you roll your eyes?
- Do you wonder what it means?
- Do you think I want some of that?
- For ISV’s, SI’s, and Solution Providers – they are thinking of Liz Lemon’s line from 30 Rock "I want to go to there"
For some people the idea of SaaS is confusing. To many IT professionals SaaS it may be considered a blessing and a curse. Partially because many IT Pros have seen this before in the guise of hosting, in the guise of SOA, and for those that have been around for a long time in the guise of time sharing.
To many business people the idea behind SaaS is that it’s all goodness because their perception is that they can get the applications and solutions they need and only for as long as they need them.
As with many things in the tech industry there is a lot of confusion over what's real and what's not. What Forrester's Frank Gillett called "Cloud Spray" and I called “Cloud Washing.”
So, when I say SaaS you might say:
- PaaS – Platform as a Service
- IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service
- XaaS - this is my personal favorite. Where X marks the spot and encapsulates them all.
- If you need more see Glossary of SaaS Cousins By Krissi Danielson
According to IDC the XaaS market is going to grow threefold to $42 billion by 2012 and will account for 25% of IT spending growth.
So, the next time you hear SaaS what are you going to say?
What you say might change a little, but what you’ll hear will be an amalgamation of numerous terms tweaked and morphed to help specific ISV, IT and Solution providers best describe their wares. Are they all the same thing? Not necessarily, but there is a lot of overlap.
What’s going to drive awareness and adoption of XaaS?
It will be a combination of the vendors, solution providers, and end customers.
For ISV's, System Integrators and End Users --- when I say SaaS they'll say ... Yes, Please!
I have spent the better part of the last 16 years working in various aspects of the ECM space. I spent time at Kofax, Microsoft, FileNet, K2, and most recently Captaris (which was acquired by Open Text in Nov 2008). Prior to that I was a Unix VAR running my own company. Follow me on Twitter, check my blog, send email or find me on Facebook or LinkedIn.
** I am available for consulting projects and speaking engagements. My areas of emphasis are business development and alliance management at the Intersection of Enterprise Content Management and Social Media.
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