SaaS Defined

I am the SaaS Master. This is tongue in cheek of course, however there is an awful lot of discussion lately around the notion that SaaS is taking over the world. I am endeavoring to define what exactly SaaS means. This seems like a reasonable starting point.

This definition is from wikipedia:

"Software as a service (SaaS) is a software application delivery model where a software vendor develops a web-native software application and hosts and operates (either independently or through a a third-party) the application for use by its customers over the Internet. Customers do not pay for owning the software itself but rather for using it. They use it through an API accessible over the Web and often written using Web Service or REST. The term SaaS has become the industry preferred term, generally replacing the earlier terms Application Service Provider (ASP) and On-Demand."

This sounds simple enough, although I have some doubts around the issue of Web Service / REST as requisite to be considered SaaS but I will leave these doubts aside for the moment. I don't have any doubt that to be a successful SaaS organization this would be required, but to make this part of the definition seems to be limiting.

The key concepts here are the delivery over the internet, developed and hosted by a vendor, possibly some ability for the application to be extended in some manner using APIs and the notion of a fee to access the application as opposed to a one time cost to own a copy.

What I think it interesting is that the ASP term is being used in a manner that indicates it is interchangeable with SaaS. I am not so convinced that is true.

Over the next few posts I want to explore how each of those key concepts actually work as well as the differences between SaaS and an ASP organization.