SOA Watch: Convergence of SOA and SaaS

SOA Watch: Convergence of SOA and SaaS By: David S. Linthicum

Clearly, SOA and SaaS are converging. The movement and direction are clear. Take, for instance, the rapid rise of SaaS. Based upon current trends, IDC predicts a compound growth rate of 20% per annum for SaaS, set against the overall software market, which is only growing at around 6% per annum. This leaves IDC in no doubt that there is a fundamental shift toward SaaS as a delivery mechanism, and its use within the notion of Web 2.0, and the convergence of SOA, Web 2.0, and SaaS.

What’s causing this shift? There are 5 primary drivers:

1. Purchasers believe that the current cost of traditional enterprise software is disproportionate to the value that it creates.

2. In these budget-conscious times, there is intense pressure to reduce the cost of acquisition and maintenance of software solutions (the on-going support and maintenance of solutions can often be four times the original capital cost).

3. Organizations are striving to reduce risk, and want a far more tangible relationship between software’s benefit and its cost.

4. The drive for reduced risk demands a much greater predictability of the running costs of the organization’s software solutions.

5. The value of solutions is no longer determined by the functionality available (in fact, most organizations are only using a small subset of the functions available in their software products), but by the feelings and experience of the users in the way that they use and interact with the solution. ...

Source: For more information, please visit http://www.soainstitute.org/articles/article/article/soa-watch-convergence-of-soa-and-saas.html