SaaS Development in Los Angeles
Software as a Service, or SaaS, is quite simply an application that is run online. It may have begun online, or was taken online. Basically, SaaS enables a computer user to access an application without having to download and install it on his or her machine.
Los Angeles has been at the forefront of SaaS progress. Los Angeles is in a prime position to capitalize on all great developments regarding SaaS. For one, it has the required information technology infrastructure needed for operating a SaaS business. It has a steady supply of information technology graduates who look for jobs within the area’s SaaS business that’s currently numbering in the hundreds. It is no fluke that the world’s top grossing SaaS companies are either headquartered in and around Los Angeles: Oracle, Digital Insight, and the Trizetto Group. Los Angeles is also home to a lot of successful SaaS startups. As a matter of fact, the 2008 list of fastest growing companies in Los Angeles had more than its share of SaaS companies.
The business environment in Los Angeles has also been more conducive to SaaS companies, with a number of venture capitalist firms in the area that guarantees initial funding to most startups, and continuing capital to a lot of existing information technology firms in the area. The only question remaining is if the demand would match the potential.
The answer is a big and loud YES.
It is widely believed that the market for Software as a Service application matured in 2008, with more and more applications hitting the mainstream market. This was also the time when more and more enterprises and businesses were looking into a transfer to the SaaS platform. Estimates have put the annual market for SaaS applications worldwide to be at $6.4 billion and that is set to double in just four years. Recent studies have also shown that the migration—at least among larger companies—started at this high time. Kelton Research reported in June 2008 that around 75% of executives from big companies said that their companies have already adopted SaaS applications or plans to adopt SaaS applications in the near future.
On a national scale, SaaS has been given a boost by the rise of collaborative technologies and interoperability. The driving force behind both is the Internet, making SaaS a natural offshoot. SaaS has also seen a rise in the number of adopting companies, propelled in part by the participation of big names in offline and online computing—Google, IBM, Microsoft, etc.—have offered SaaS services and platforms.
Additionally, most enterprises and businesses nowadays will find SaaS more attractive. With the economy in a very dismal state, most companies will be balking at the upfront cost of buying, developing or maintaining software. SaaS is a very prominent fixture in cloud computing where it is the vendor who shoulders the cost of developing and deploying any infrastructure—software, programs, servers, etc.—instead of the end user. Further, the cost is not the only main reason why SaaS should be very popular in an economic recession, but also implementation and support issues. Availing of software as a service platform can ensure that the end user will have only experts and professionals, who know the infrastructure inside-out (sometimes, even the same ones who developed it), do the implementation, deployment, customization, maintenance, even repair and troubleshooting of the same. This not only takes away the headache of running the system, but also saves the end user in a myriad of costs, like hiring an expensive programmer, systems administrator, or other professionals to run the systems. Many people have likened cloud computing and SaaS to the electricity you receive from your local electric company wherein you enjoy the benefits of having electricity without knowing how power turbines, hydroelectric generators, windmills work to produce electricity nor anything about how electricity is supplied and distributed. All you need to know is how to pay for it, and the electric company will take care of everything.
All these are highlighted by the recent win of Barack Obama, who has vowed to limit offshore outsourcing to create jobs and bring jobs back home. The limit would make SaaS even more attractive because it functions in a manner that is very like outsourcing.
It may take a while before SaaS applications overtake PCs and rob it of its status as the center of the computing universe, but indicators are pointing to that direction. If not a full implementation of SaaS, companies are bound to look into this service to cut their costs and increase their efficiency. With this uptake, Los Angeles is bound to become known as the SaaS capital of the country, if not the world.