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SaaS: On-Demand Platforms Start to Take Shape
As On-Demand / Software as a Service (SaaS) technologies and products become more accepted, platforms for hosting and developing these next-generation applications are starting to take shape.
Companies are beginning to feel more secure with third party companies managing critical data needed to run their businesses. While SaaS apps haven’t been perfect in delivering 99.99% uptime, company in-house systems typically don’t have a better performance record.
Salesforce.com deserves the credit for demonstrating the viability of the SaaS model. On-demand CRM applications from Salesforce and others have been successful in their ability to provide information often times to employees located in remote locations. But SaaS is also beginning to successfully move to serve application areas that are typically used primarily by your average office-bound employee. A good example is the on-demand ERP offering available by Workday, a company founded by Dave Duffield, founder of PeopleSoft.
Once the dynamics of a new software technology appear viable, platforms, tools and services to support development are sure to follow. And that’s what’s happening. Salesforce.com is leading that initiative too with thier Java-based Apex development platform.
Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, has plans to introduce Apex as the programming language for building on-demand applications to run within the Salesforce App-Exchange environment. Applications built with Apex can be exposed via WSDL as Web Services. Apex can also be used to customize or for building add-ons to existing Salesforce.com applications.
WebEx is trying to create a Salesforce-like Web Service ecosystem to compete, but Salesforce already has significant critical mass around their offerings that will make competition hard. Salesforce is once again determined to prove that this next level of the Web Service ecosystem model can work. And if they get it right, it is likely that they’ll see competition from companies like Amazon, Google and Microsoft.
