Here’s a question. What’s next for SaaS? The market has matured to the point where the debate is now about recognizing the full potential of Internet-based technology. An industry colleague (and fellow blogger), Josh Greenbaum, makes an interesting case about what the next phase might be.
Josh says, “The essence of the debate — which I contend seriously needs to be upgraded to reflect the real future of SaaS –is whether multi-tenancy or single-tenancy is the true path to enlightenment in SaaS. My curmudgeonly comment is this: Neither methodology will matter in a few short years, because the SaaS market is set to evolve beyond delivering a “faster-better-cheaper” version of on-premise enterprise software into delivering significant value above and beyond anything that on-premise can deliver today. And once that evolution truly sets in (and the market’s DNA is recombining constantly in the service of this ideal) these tenancy debates — which are basically about the cost-structure of competing with on-premise solutions — will cede their primacy to debates about the premiums that SaaS 2.0 solution providers will be able to charge their customers. At which point the basic cost issues that are fueling the great Debate 1.0 will be off the table.”
It’s great perspective. You can read Josh’s full blog entry here.
