IT Management Software Vendors: Cover Your SaaS As Web 2.0 Comes Nearer

The expansion of the software-as-a-service (SaaS) business model appears to be inevitable. It is both Web 2.0 and business technology (BT) and reflects the wishes of business users to have more control over their IT. The success of new SaaS providers such as salesforce.com is seriously disrupting the business applications software market, and even SAP is now providing just such a solution for its customers. While this trend is generating an interesting new submarket of SaaS data centers in which IT management software vendors can flourish with their offerings, Forrester also anticipates that the IT management software market itself will face similar disruption. Several SaaS startups are already in this market, and the solutions they offer are compelling to both enterprises and small and medium-size businesses (SMBs). The incumbent software publishers are mainly ignoring this trend, as selling and delivering a mix of perpetual software licenses and providing SaaS presents a series of organizational, branding, marketing, and business challenges.