Nearly 90% of organisations expect to maintain or grow their
usage of software-as-a-service (SaaS), says analyst Gartner.
Firms cite cost-effectiveness along with ease and speed of
deployment as primary reasons for SaaS adoption, according to a
Gartner survey of 260 firms
across eight countries.
Replacement of on-premises solutions and net-new implementations
were cited as major drivers of future deployments.
More than one-third of respondents indicated that they had plans
to move from on-premises to
SaaS. The key drivers cited included total cost of ownership
(TCO), and unmet performance expectations with on-premises
solutions, in addition to changes in sourcing strategy.
Organisations participating in the survey were either currently
using SaaS, or planned to use it within the next 12 months.
"Use of SaaS has been evolving during the past decade and the
SaaS model has become increasingly popular over the past three or
four years," said Sharon Mertz, an analyst at Gartner.
"Our survey indicates that more than 40% of organisations have
used SaaS for more than three years, implying a growing fluency
with the model within the end-user base.
"Users are demanding higher levels of functionality, sometimes
prompting organisations to renegotiate their contracts early to opt
for more feature-rich solutions, or to add more users as the
organisational footprint expands," said Mertz.