Talk:Software as a service
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Needs clarification: "The applications Ellison founded, NetSuite and Salesforce.com"
According to the Salesforce.com article, "The company was founded in 1999 by former Oracle executive Marc Benioff"
Samparker 18:54, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
Larry Ellison founded Oracle, a database company. The software he created served as the basis for SaaS, in fact, Larry Ellison was one of the first to preach the virtues of Internet Software vs. Client Server Software. When he moved his entire company (consisting of thousands of databases) to a web-based infrastructure, he claims to have saved his company millions of dollars. --JennyRad 10:59, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
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[edit] Shortcomings
There are a couple of notable weaknesses in the SaaS model which should perhaps be mentioned.
1. Since the system is completely dependant upon the Internet connection of the client, if that Internet connection is disrupted for any reason the client loses all access to their applications and possibly data. This also means you have to be careful in choosing your SaaS provider -- if they have a single datacenter and that center is located in, say, New Orleans, you may lose access to your apps and data if another hurricane rolls thru.
2. The system is completely dependant upon the Internet connection of the client and no ISP is going to give you 100Mbps switched bandwidth to the SaaS site. There are all kinds of potential performance issues. An internal server may cost more to maintain, but it's also going to be considerably more responsive.
3. If the SaaS site is hosting your data how can you ensure that the data is secure? If you miss a payment on your hosting fee will they hold your corporate data hostage to force payment? If the SaaS company goes bankrupt or is somehow taken over are you going to have to fight to get control of your data again?
Obviously I'm not a great fan of the ASP/SaaS model for mission-critical applications. ---B- 22:44, 26 March 2006 (UTC)
- Many of the issues you raise are a function of the hosted nature of most SaaS offerings. The rise of virtualization technologies coupled with the emergence of the software appliance leads to the possibility of non-hosted SaaS - where the customer runs the entire stack on-site (or at their choice of co-lo facility) but the stack is still a black-box, maintained and supported by the SaaS vendor. Essentially, move the physical location of the SaaS system without changing any of the service and business model involved. Bpjadam 15:06, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] However
I agree with you that SaaS is obviously connection dependant, and the inherent risks that lie within that fact. However, more and more companies are becoming very web-oriented. The jobs that are part of this web-oriented structure can easily be identified as: Those who get to go home for the day, because the ISP is down. And currently, there are a lot of those already.
Currently, ISP's do not provide companies with that ultra-high-speed pipe, but as SaaS increases in popularity, so will the understanding of ISP's to these companies.
I don't agree with you on your third point. With respect to WrappedApps.com 's solution, only the applications themselves are hosted on the SaaS providers' servers, not data. And if data must be stored remotely, then most certainly a compan's IT legal experts would not sign a contract with any 'held-hostage' data clauses. As well, if a company can't afford to pay the fees for their employees to use the software, then there are some serious problems with that company, as SaaS should be more economical than buying high-cost multi-user licenses.
[edit] Development
I don't know where to add this in the article but i think it is interesting nonetheless:
in 2005 the market for SaaS had a size of about 3.35 bill.$; it is expected to grow to about 12 bill.$ by 2012 [The economist, April 22nd 2006; pp. 60-61]. --89.51.71.168 18:41, 29 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Also
One key point which must be made is that SaaS applications should include a multi-tenant architecture. Multi-tenant means that the database model is built to support several different entities on the same database, although those entities can never see each other's data. They share the database however, making the system more scalable at a far lower cost.
Multi-tenancy is not a new idea. In fact the original computer systems built for business, used this model. Think of ADP, as an example. Thousands of companies keep their information on the same database and machine at an ADP processing center; however, they never see each others data. Multi-tenancy is a key feature required for affordable, utility computing.
[edit] Payment Models
It seems to me that this page is missing a payment model: "pre-pay" or "pay-as-you-go", as it were. Works just like a pre-paid mobile phone or Oyster card or whatever. I only know about it from FORscene but I can't believe there aren't other specialist web-services using the model ... I just don't know of them. Anyone? --JennyRad 10:59, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] "SaaS providers"
IMO the list must be spllied by brief description which service exactly is provided. For example, Google is listed here. What kind of software it delivers to customers? List of Google products doesn't give a hint. `'mikka (t) 16:43, 3 October 2006 (UTC)
- I have removed the external links and added links to Wikipedia articles. We really don't want to open this list up to external links.—WAvegetarian•(talk) 19:07, 17 October 2006 (UTC)
ebdex is a SaaS company. Someone continues to delete it from this list and other pages. Who makes these decisions? And on what grounds? Ranaweeram 21:47, 6 November 2006 (UTC)
- Most probably on the grounds of low notability. Wikipedia is not Yellow Pages. `'mikkanarxi 00:58, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
- Please read the notability inclusion guidelines.—WAvegetarian•(talk) 22:11, 13 December 2006 (UTC)
IMO the list should be removed entirely, as otherwise we'll have nothing but endless debates on who does or doesn't qualify. Let the article be strictly about the practice of SaaS, and not be a linkfarm for providers. Fan-1967 17:00, 28 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] SaaS is a Business Model and an Industry and is thus much more than a "delivery method"
I'm a SaaS focused venture capitalist and I think this entry is a year or two out of date - some people still use the term this way but I don't think it reflects the most prevalent understanding of the term today. We have a database of 500 SaaS companies and have talked with many of them and few would agree with the definition this way. Lots of the old line client-server software people like to categorize it this way but that doesn't make it right. salesforce.com is so fundamentally different than an ASP it's not useful to put them under the same term. It's akin to calling "e-mail" a delivery method for a letter.
while the one-many distinction is important, it doesn't distinctively identify a SaaS company - an ASP, for example, could host and resell a multi-tenant app created by someone else but that wouldn't be SaaS, it would still be an ASP
to understand this best one needs to look from the perspective of the app provider not the consumer
ASP - a company delivering an application through the internet that they did not develop and do not own
SaaS - a company that developed a "net-native" or "web-native" (i.e. that is designed from inception for use by customers through the Internet) business application that is:
* Environment-centric in that is designed and implemented in only one operating system and database, * Multi-tenant in that multiple customers are served simultaneously in one instance of the application, and * Hosted in an Internet data center and not on the customer’s premise
Subscription pricing is common but not necessary (there are transaction based SaaS pricing models as well).
Client-server software companies that offer a hosted version of their application are thus not SaaS. That is just software delivered differently.
While companies such as Google and Yahoo! meet the technical definition above, SaaS is understood to refer to B2B applications not B2C
I'm new to wikipedia (as an editor not user) so I didn't want to just stick this in, but if a real wikipedian wants to do a bit of research I think you will find plenty of support for a modification of the definition along these lines. If nothing happens I'll dig through my stacks of industry research when i find the time and provide some supporting citations
There is a lot more that could be done to build out this entry, but until we get the basic def right it feels premature SaaSVC 04:35, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] SaaS Enablement for ISVs
The section SaaS Enablement for ISVs looks like a classical example of advertisement to me. If no one objects I'll remove the whole section altogether. --Pkchan 09:48, 26 February 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Guidance
- LitwareHR: A SaaS reference implementation meant for guidance purposes.(Ariel Schapiro 14:18, 20 March 2007 (UTC))
