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.

SaaS vs. In-House Application Development

 

As the cost of hosting hardware and connectivity goes down and web-based services such as Google Docs, Zoho, or Picnick became more available, the idea of using the Web as an alternative to desktop productivity became more popular. These developments in the past couple of years have made doing everything online and storing nearly everything online made web-based services more popular, such that when SaaS first came into view, it became relatively easy to sell it both as an idea and as a practice that is necessity to business operations.

Still, much of businesses that have sizable IT departments prefer to do it “old skul” and create things in-house and going so far as hiring consultants to develop applications both on-shore and offshore. What gives?

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Top 10 Reasons Why SaaS Will Dominate The New Age

 

Innovation in software is a key driver toward the onset of modern technology. In the same manner, the upsurge of Web-based services and technologies are a pivotal factor. As such, Software as a service or SaaS has effected a change in software technology for companies and organizations of varied sizes. SaaS has opened up opportunities for otherwise traditional business solutions. 

SaaS has made both small-scale trade organizations and large corporations recognize that there are other options to approach the software and technology aspect of their businesses.  As it gains the nod of most mainstream opinions, SaaS is taking an upsurge.  Software analyst Jeff Kaplan has pointed out how SaaS is widely accepted by most users and getting good reviews from the likes of famed Information Technology business guru Nicholas Carr to software application peers at the Wall Street.

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Software On The Move: Benefits of SaaS Products for Mobile Users

The Information Technology’s mobile ecosystem covers a variety of moving parts, such as devices, carriers, back-end data, firmware versions, and the Internet. Given these element and a combination of the inherent dissimilar features of desktop or Web-based applications and mobile applications can possibly make the mobility aspect of software appear too multifarious. As this is a probable case, this mobile software scenario can in fact be made simpler. Read the rest of this entry »

Supporting SaaS

Traditionally, software providers have delivered software solutions through installing them on client computers and networks. In the recent times, however, clients have been requesting for Software as a Service for the more reasonable cost it offers and the lesser complex process involved in internally running the system. Read the rest of this entry »

Deploying SaaS

The deployment of Software as a Service or SaaS should be guided with business requirements, timelines and objectives that are clearly defined. Understanding these for a successful outcome is key.
Besides the formation of an able delivery team, defining and understanding the infrastructure that is needed for the delivery of SaaS application is a significant part of successful deployment. Specifically, this pertains to the procurement of the infrastructure needed and the software required. Infrastructure enables a business to deploy Internet-based applications and SaaS more quickly, more securely, of better quality while being cost-effective, regardless of the application lifecycle or stage. Read the rest of this entry »

Scoping a SaaS Project

Software as a Service or “SaaS” a revolutionary software “software-on-demand” model that operates through user subscription simply shifts away from the conventional way of delivering software. As most clients attest, the SaaS model is less burdensome with regards to the deployment or implementation of the software and its related management, as opposed to the customary model.

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Why SaaS?

Service as a Software, the popularized Web-based software delivery model, has become a household word in the Information Technology and software world. Customers and vendor markets have attested that SaaS’ benefits outweigh its downsides, creating for SaaS a skyrocketing hype. Read the rest of this entry »

Web 3.0 And On Demand Software

Authorities of the Information Technology and software industries will assert that any product’s Version 2.0 are likely staging post that is short-lived and is on its way to V 3.0 that is considered as ultimately hitting the mark. As a classic instance, Microsoft Windows V 1.0 was filled with bugs that it was almost unworthy of any use. In the advent of Windows 2.0, certain problems were fixed, although still unable to escape numerous problems. When Windows V 3.0 was launched in the year 1990, almost 100% of those problems besetting Windows have been addressed. It was, as analysts called it, an instantaneous success. Read the rest of this entry »

SaaS Development And Hosting

The development of Software as a  Service or SaaS, and its subsequent hosting, is driven by the blend of bandwidth that has become more abundant than ever, the more powerful processors and cheaper storage – which are giving more options for the design, deployment and use of software in computers and on servers, in commercial data centers and other devices. In this respect, business solutions can now be provided and consumed through these for a more engaging user experience and better business value. Read the rest of this entry »

Everything you need to know about SaaS Development