Why many product companies moving to SAAS?

SAAS - Software as a Service

This is an evolving model of software services. Till now, most of the software companies are selling their products based on number of nodes/computers.

For example, if you purchase Microsoft Office's product you can install it only on one computer. If you want to use it on other computer then you will have to purchase separate license for that. Likewise, any software you name be it Oracle, VB, Outlook, etc. You need to install them separately and all need separate licenses. So, if you have 1000 computers then you will have to purchase 1000 licenses each for individual computer.

Apart from purchasing the products separately, the big headache is the maintenance and upgrade. It is very costly. So, now as a result SaaS is evolving. Here, Saas is nothing but having a software installed in one particular server and accessing it from clients. Here, the maintenance and upgrade is centralized so it is very easy to manage. Only one copy of software is required and the users can access this software from their workstations just using a web browser like IE, Mozilla, etc.

The only big requirement here is that the server where the software is running should be running continuously. If it is turned off then no workstations can have access to the software. Because of this many Small and Medium size Business organizations like to have these kind of Software in their Hosting Providers (ISP like) servers.

The key characteristics of SaaS software, according to analyst IDC include:

• Network-based access to, and management of, commercially available (e.g., not custom) software
• Activities that are managed from central locations rather than at each customer's site, enabling customers to access applications remotely via the Web
• Application delivery that typically is closer to a one-to-many model (single instance, multi-tenant architecture) than to a one-to-one model, including architecture, pricing, partnering, and management characteristics

Many software giants like Microsoft, Google already started bringing this SaaS model. In competition with these companies there are many other product companies like AdventNet are in the process of releasing their products (software) as Service.

Under the brand of Zoho, AdventNet offers various office applications as alternates to Microsoft's applications. Some of the software that are offered as service as Zoho Writer (Word Processor), Zoho Show (Presentation program), Zoho Sheet (Spreadsheet program), Zoho CRM, Zoho Planner, and many other.

They are also in the process of offering their Web-based collaboration product Zoho Virtual Office as a service. This Zoho Virtual Office seems to have many important tools like Email client, Document storage, Calendar, Task Manager, Contacts Manager, etc. And all these tool/components of Zoho Virtual Office are available for both personal and groups.

Many internet bloggers have predicted that this SaaS model will be used by everyone in the years to come...

A simple analysis on Web 2.0

What is Web 2.0? Is it only a buzz word or something more than that? Web 2.0 doesn't have a standard definition as t is a cluster of ideas rather than anything clear-cut. Web 2.0 technologies bear strange names like wikis, blogs, RSS, AJAX, etc., and most of them mention a lot about how Software as a Service can be used effectively for unstructured data and collaboration.

The ability of Web 2.0 to scale up to many users, better use of bandwidth, ease of use and cost effectiveness indicates that the traditional method of selling big corporate software applications as multimilion-dollar packages that take years to implement is broken. Most of the enterprises are fine with using Software as a Service except some groups like financial institutions who feel insecurity for having their data outside their corporate's firewall. It is also a big concern that storing and accessing data over Internet is often not secure from hackers or rivals.

Just how PCs have made their way into the companies through the back door, so it is going to be with Web 2.0 services. It is not that Package software era is dead but advantage of using software as a service is huge. This portends a real big change in the software industry. And many of the product companies are changing their businesses to a service company and put their software online.

What a Software as a Service has to offer?
Using it is as a model of software delivery/service, the software providers can:
* Prevent Piracy
* Earn recurring profits by means of subscription
* Reduce overheads on sales and make sales easier
* Cut middle men in distribution and retailing

And as a consumer, they have following benefits:
* Need not to worry about installation
* Need not to worry maintenance
* Cost effective.

The only concern that a Software as a Service need to address is the Data Security of the users.