SaaS, SOA and FLOSS

This is not a Google trap nor is it my attempt for the title of the "most obfuscated blog title"

There seems to be an agreement that the current proprietery software licensing model is in a bind. Vendors are are not making enough money and users are not getting enough functionality and security for thief money. Getting users to upgrade is becoming harder, not only because of the direct price of upgrading, but because of the indirect costs of deploying and training.

Software as a Service is hailed as the solution. This is not a new concept, Larry Allison's NC (Network Computer) and Sun's Java have made this promise before. The Application Service Provider (ASP) model was hyped for a while, but never gained momentum into mainstream IT.

The basic idea is very simple. The functionality of the PC will be replaced by the browser. Software will be deployed in the vendors data center, and the client will have access to the latest and greatest version of the software on a flexible subscription, or per use pricing model.

Unlike the NC and ASP models, SaaS is seems to have some thing going for it:

• Broadband and high speed connections are now almost utilities
• Web 2.0 technologies, mainly AJAX type web elements, allow for dynamic content inside web pages
• Cross-site APIs allow for the enrichment of information and knowledge from multiple provides

But can traditional proprietary software vendors build for a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)?

Traditional Proprietary Software vendors depend on client lock-in. This is done not only by using proprietary data formats and APIs, but more so by building a community of Independent Software Vendors (ISV) and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) dedicated to the proprietary solution.

Who will be the SaaS vendors? Will your next ERP come from Google/Yahoo or from Oracle/SAP? Maybe the current ISV will change their channeling to the new SaaS route?

The interesting payers are in my opinion, the Free/Libre Open-Source Software solutions. Zimbra in collaboration and SugerCRM in Customer Relation Management offer both the traditional "In-House" and the "Hosted" SaaS models, but with a twists.

• Being open-source, you can always open-out from the SaaS model.
• Open-Source allows both for ISV support, ad-hoc development and DIY approach
• The open-source model allows for the developing company to save support and development by cooperating with its users and community. This is not only due to the "outsource" of development work to the community, but also due to the fact that licence management and market targeted software packaging costs are reduced.
• Community work advocates and promotes open standards, further increasing the value of FLOSS
• Open-source licensing reduces need to segmentation of markets,
  licencing schemes and pricing. This simplifies risk analysis both for the client and the vendor.

It is no wonder that both Google and Yahoo promote open-source work, each in their own way.

The true value of SaaS is still to be determined. Enterprises still have a high stack in their in-house data centers. SMBs are still waiting for utility grade communications and service level agreements (SLA) from their Internet service providers (ISP).