Shikarishambu on Software & Related Services

I think it is going to rain… I am not sure what. Everyone is talking about clouds these days. I mean cloud computing. It seems it was just the other day that every one was talking about SaaS – software as a service. Now, even Salesforce, the company that has a legitimate claim to the honor of starting SaaS is talking about cloud computing with its Force.com platform. And, they are not the only one who seem to mixing the two.While there are similarities between cloud computing and SaaS, I think there are big differences.

SaaS, started off as a way for companies (usually, small to mid size) to have sophisticated applications without incurring the capital and ongoing infrastructure and man power costs. Basically, you rent the application. So, your initial costs are low and remain constant. You do not need to have servers, server management software and personnel in-house. You might not even need in-house development staff.You get access to the latest updates and upgrades of the software.

Now, SaaS worked fine when the application met all the needs of the customers and was siloed. Total number of applications that fit this profile = 0 (zero). Sooner or later everyone wanted to customize some or all of the application. They also wanted to integrate this application with other applications and processes. Lo and behold – we now have a need for a development platform and developers (or, consultants). In Salesforce’s case the first one is called force.com.

Cloud computing takes this further – it is a platform without a defined application. It is like the utilities – you pay for what you use and you decide how to use it. It is great for situations where there is going to be spike/ significant variation in infrastructure needs – e.g. software distribution, CPU power to index large content etc… However, the application has to be built by the user. So, it might not be for small and medium businesses.