SaaS adoption a major technology trend
Friday, December 30, 2011 4:56:47 PM
Cloud computing adoption increased significantly during the past year, but as enterprises discover more of the cloud's numerous capabilities and benefits, several experts believe Software-as-a-Service growth will skyrocket.
SaaS is an IT model in which enterprises access various applications hosted by a vendor, usually in a cloud environment, allowing businesses and their employees to use and share software remotely for a low cost.
Several experts and research reports have recently predicted SaaS adoption among enterprises will accelerate in 2012 and beyond. According to Forbes, cloud computing, SaaS and big data will account for 80 percent of IT spending growth between 2011 and 2020. Meanwhile, a Gartner survey revealed that 95 percent of organizations anticipate growing or maintaining their SaaS budget.
Synergy Research Group, a market analytics firm, recently forecasted that SaaS, along with Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service, will drive future IT spending considerably as businesses further realize the productivity gains cloud services can provide.
"Cloud unleashes the power of utility computing that has never been seen before and it becomes a game changer when matched with advanced communications and applications," said Jeremy Duke, founder of Synergy Research Group. "From small start ups being able to access massive scale computing facilities to new cloud-based consumer services, cloud will continue to open up a wealth of opportunities for innovation."
Many experts believe SaaS can be especially beneficial for small businesses, which often lack sufficient IT budgets, resources and staff to construct and manage their own shared network of applications. According to a recent In-Stat study, small companies make up more than half of the IaaS and SaaS market, and both services will continue rapid expansion throughout the next few years.
Increasing mobility is a top reason enterprises adopt SaaS, and many companies will use cloud services on smartphones and tablets as businesses increasingly implement mobile devices for everyday work functions. A recent Yankee Group survey found that mobility is the top driver of SaaS adoption for 48 percent of companies, and 38 percent of businesses expect more than half of their business applications will be cloud-based within three years.
"Mobility is the driving force to cloud adoption," said George Hamilton, Yankee Group's principal analyst. "Despite worries that the cloud reality would not match the media hype, we're seeing enterprises raise their spending and set their sights on cloud and mobile productivity."
-McAfee Cloud Security
