News & Views

April 21, 2010 from destination CRM – “In the nine years since its founding, NetSuite, a provider of business management software suites hosted in the cloud, has witnessed firsthand — and benefitted from — the software industry’s affair with cloud computing. In the early 2000s, pundits squabbled over the technology’s promise, whether enterprises would choose to access their information via a browser instead of through desktop software, if data was truly secure, and, lastly, if it was possible for businesses to make money with software-as-a-service (SaaS).

“Every myth that popped up was soon knocked down,” said NetSuite Chief Executive Officer Zach Nelson, at the company’s annual SuiteCloud partner conference here last week.

These days, however, an emerging new wave of cloud computing has brought with it a new wave of myths.” The myths are:

1. Complex processes don’t run in the cloud
2. Customization is the Achilles’ heel of cloud applications
3. Channels don’t exist for cloud applications”

180 View – I agree with one qualification and that is SaaS customizations are possible only outside of source code. Other SaaS concerns are:

• There is “the risk that data may be disclosed to the government of the jurisdiction in which their data is held by the vendor, possibly without their knowledge or consent. For example, the USA PATRIOT Act permits the U.S. federal government to seek a court order for disclosure of electronic records, often without permitting notice to the user.” For more, see “Canada: Peering Through The Cloud – Cloud Computing: Many Benefits But There Are Some Legal Issues To Consider” published January 26, 2010 (http://www.mondaq.com/canada/article.asp?articleid=92818)
• You may not find all the functionality you need as SaaS is relatively new compared to the more mature products available on a license basis.
• You need to consider SaaS costs over a long period of time to do a proper Total Cost of Ownership.
• SaaS is not as compelling for those organizations that already have IT resources and infrastructure in place for other applications.