Software as a service (SaaS) will have a role in the future of IT, but not the dominant future that was first thought, according to Gartner, Inc. Organisations should carefully assess their software needs in light of the current promises delivered on by SaaS.
“In 2009, within enterprise applications, SaaS represented 3.4 per cent of total enterprise spending, slightly up from 2008 at 2.8 per cent,” said David Cearley, vice president and fellow at Gartner. Gartner predicts that the global enterprise applications software market will reach $8.8 billion in 2010.
From a market perspective, most of the spending for SaaS is occurring in content, collaboration and communication and the customer relationship management markets. Collectively, they represented 65 per cent of the global enterprise applications software market in 2009.
Many of the bad practices that occurred in the on-premises world are now moving their way into SaaS, says the analyst firm. The biggest example is shelfware. “Shelfware as a service is the concept of paying for a software subscription that is not being accessed by an end user,” said Mr Cearley. “This most commonly occurs in large organisations, but it could happen to any company, especially those that have downsized their workforce, or one that has oversubscribed to trigger a volume discount.”
“SaaS may not have delivered on its early grand promises - of the current SaaS deployments we estimate that a total of 90 per cent of SaaS deployments are not pay-per-use -, but it has re-energised the software market and added choice. SaaS does not solve all the challenges of software delivery, but can provide advantages based on the specific circumstances of a deployment as it is quicker to implement and configure for less-complex problems,” Cearley added.
