Packaged Apps In The Cloud: Cost Of Ownership Models Evolve Toward The Transparency Of SaaS

Business process professionals responsible for packaged applications often have difficulty in getting their arms around the total costs of ownership of their business solutions. SaaS simplifies the cost of ownership equation, but most packaged applications are still being deployed as licensed on-premises solutions. Traditional on-premises software vendors are restructuring their deployment options to deliver part of the package in the form of infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), commonly referred to as "cloud computing," which is a virtualized hosting offering. Yet few licensed software vendors complete the picture of cost transparency for the end customer by bundling usage, maintenance, managed services, upgrades, and user support, which SaaS delivers today. As the market evolves, the software vendor deployment offerings will become more complete.