SaaS

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A new chapter in the history of software was written in 1999 with the launch of Salesforce, a computer program for managing customer relations. Prior to the appearance of Salesforce, to run an application on a computer you typically had first to install it on that particular machine. With Salesforce there is no such local installation. Instead, users access the program through the internet, with data and program files stored on Salesforce servers.

Rudimentary forms of this method of software delivery have existed since the 1960s although Salesforce is credited with bringing it to the mass market, and with popularizing the term “software as a service”. Salesforce creator Marc Benioff says his goal was to make enterprise software “as easy as buying a book on Amazon.”

Fast-forward to the present

Software as a service, or SaaS as it is now known, is commonplace. Popular SaaS applications include:

This list represents just a fraction of the thousands of SaaS applications available today. More are on the way, with the SaaS market expected to be worth nearly $165 billion by the end of 2022, compared to a 2014 valuation of just under $24 billion, according to Transparency Market Research. The growing popularity of SaaS is credited to the many advantages it holds over traditional, on-premises software installations, including that it can be deployed and scaled much more quickly.

More software, more service

Consultancy Gartner predicts that by 2020 all new entrants into the software market, and 80% of legacy vendors, will offer a SaaS product. In fact, many analysts predict the “as a service” tagline will eventually disappear because eventually software will only be available online and never installed locally.

The future for software, then, is for it to look more and more like basic utilities we enjoy today such as water and electricity: consumable on demand at the flick of a switch, turn of a tap or click of a button.

Future for Sowtware

Explore the SaaS

Meet the companies that have deployed SaaS as part of digital transformation. Speak with the entrepreneurs, technologists and visionaries reimagining the future of software. Find out how to get the most out of Saas for your business and learn what’s up ahead for the SaaS industry.