IDG Contributor Network: 6 hidden liabilities of enterprise SaaS applications
The vendor data looks impressive. Last October, Microsoft announced commercial users of Office 365 had reached 120 million. Midway through last year, SaaS pioneer Salesforce said it had hit an annual run-rate of more than $10 billion USD. Analysts also confirm this big picture. Market intelligence firm IDC, for instance, expects SaaS to capture nearly two-thirds of the forecast $160 billion USD global public cloud services and infrastructure spend in 2018.
SaaS has transformed the way that businesses use software. It used to be corporate licenses and on-premises installations. Now a single business unit – or even end user – can get up and running with just a credit card and a browser. In our work with businesses looking to modernize, we find them almost uninterested in purchasing infrastructure or entering long-term contracts. Instead, if SaaS is an option, they’ll frequently take it as the preferred course. And if it doesn’t measure up, they’ll just change. For many enterprises, it can truly be that simple.