The Software as a Service (SaaS) model has come a long way since its early days in the 90s when Application Service Providers (ASPs) used to have really hard time convincing customers to buy business critical software in the form of a hosted solution.
Issues such as delivery, performance, security, integration and customization associated with the SaaS methodology proved to be major hurdles in its mass adoption by the customer community.
However, the current decade is ushering in a new era of renewed interest in SaaS with companies around the globe beginning to realize the 'business sense' in it and the value it offers.
The primary dogma that once prevailed in customer mindsets was regarding the security concerns associated with SaaS delivery method. The idea of putting mission critical data into an unknown server belonging to a third party was a 'no-no' to many organizations. However, that fear is fast going away.
"Though security concerns continue to come up in our annual SaaS surveys, we at IDC believe that the importance that's given to them is somewhat cyclical in nature," said Erin Traudt, Research Analyst, SaaS Research IDC when quizzed about security concerns normally associated with SaaS model.
Traudt informed that some other issues such as customization, integration, functionality of the hosted applications and service provider reliability/ viability also figure prominently in the annual SaaS surveys .
Some SaaS advocates argue that security and privacy concerns can be associated with any model and not just SaaS, because a purchased application can be just as vulnerable to security threats as an application remotely hosted by a service provider. Hence customers need to select SaaS firms carefully and go for one of which they are fully aware.
"We believe companies should not take privacy or security lightly when leveraging SaaS and that they should ask their provider relevant questions, but after taking the necessary precautions the risk is acceptable and manageable," said Dane Anderson, Research VP, Springboard Research.
Fears associated with 'multi-tenant' nature of SaaS also tend to keep popping up from time to time. Multi-tenancy essentially means that one instance of the software can support multiple users across multiple companies and hence customers worry for the security of their data.
Providers can solve this by creating a separate security domain and offer private version of the solution designed especially for a particular organization. This will work well in larger organizations with many users and large transaction volumes.
Integration of applications offered through SaaS with a company's locally installed applications and hardware devices is another area, which tends to arouse doubts in buyers' minds. Anderson believes that it is and will be a key requirement for SaaS vendors to address in the future.
"Integration will be key requirement for SaaS vendors to address in the future. It is not necessarily poor today and SaaS providers have made steady gains, but more progress needs to be made to change customer's outlook," concluded Anderson.
