Software as a Service—the rent-an-application approach to IT also known as application service providers—hasn't made as much headway as its distant cousin services-oriented architecture. Whereas nearly six of ten of respondents to our most recent survey of business-technology leaders employ Web services or SOA, only 44 percent use SaaS or ASPs.

The only two SaaS used by at least one-quarter of our respondents are customer relationship management and human resources applications.

Despite the disappointment of some SaaS users, nearly two-thirds of our respondents say SaaS is at least as secure as conventional software and more than 70 percent expect to increase their use of these and other services.

Bottom line: Walk, don't run. There's enough failure and concern to warrant care and caution.

In this story:
Research Study: Software as a Service
July 2007 Research Slideshow: Software as a Service
Methodology: How the Web Services/SOA Survey was Done

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