A Key-Point-Definition of SaaS
The key to making sense of SaaS is understanding the process of transformation that software goes through once you move it off the customer’s premises and host it on the internet.
As has happened with so many terms in the IT industry, the definition of software-as-a-service, or SaaS, has and always will be, a very broadly defined term, and therefore it’s inevitable that there will be many different subcategories of SaaS. That creates plenty of potential for misunderstanding and confusion, of course. The key to making sense of SaaS is see it in terms of the journey a software developer or architect might take as they plunge further and deeper into the SaaS model. At the outset, the product they’ll create looks very similar to conventional licensed software. At the end of their journey, it may not look like software at all. That’s the extent of the spectrum that SaaS covers. No wonder people often have difficulty categorizing SaaS or making comparisons between SaaS offerings. If they’re dealing with different ends of the spectrum, there may be no useful comparison to be made at all. So let’s embark on this journey and map out where it leads.
Read the rest of this entry January 4th, 2008
