Great line in this article: In other words, IBM knows how to make money whichever way the wind blows.
This is really true. IBM can give with one hand and take with the other - they really excel at this due to their scope.
And whilst Cloud Computing and SaaS feel like relatively new emerging technologies, IBM has been pushing their "On Demand" mantra/brand for years (since 2002). So even if it's not necessarily apparent in some cases, I think they are well geared for this kind of market change.
Is SaaS a model where you can actually get more out of your paying users?
Sure there's lots of free SaaS. But generally speaking, it seems that software vendors are getting a little bit more (per user) from SaaS then the installed equivalent when they do get paid.
> But generally speaking, it seems that software vendors are getting a little bit more (per user) from SaaS then the installed equivalent when they do get paid.
Maybe, but there are economies of scale with SaaS.
User's don't want to worry about servers, hosting, data centers, backups etc - I see this even with large corporates that already run their own significant infrastructure (e.g. Banks). These companies want to exit being IT shops. Then there are companies that never had this as a core competency in the first place (e.g. No blanket rule - But probably a lot of primary industries, manufacturing, logistics).
In many cases... Even if the software cost was all equal, SaaS can still offer a service cheaper than the user running it themselves.
There is a time value of money aspect: a traditional licensing model gives you a large chunk of cash in month one compared to SaaS' first month. SaaS big benefit for startups is that it allows you to see what customers are doing with your product and you can learn faster than an appliance or on premises model.
Hypothetically, if certain class (say accounting software) made the transitions to the web without upsetting the hierarchy of vendors, would a vendor be better off?
This is really true. IBM can give with one hand and take with the other - they really excel at this due to their scope.
And whilst Cloud Computing and SaaS feel like relatively new emerging technologies, IBM has been pushing their "On Demand" mantra/brand for years (since 2002). So even if it's not necessarily apparent in some cases, I think they are well geared for this kind of market change.