Software as service revenue to grow at 28

Mumbai, Oct 23 (UNI) Worldwide software-as-a-service (SaaS) revenue in the enterprise application markets is on pace to surpass USD 6.4 billion in 2008, a 27 per cent increase from 2007 revenue of USD 5.1 billion, according to Gartner, Inc.

The market is expected to more than double with SaaS revenue reaching USD 14.8 billion in 2012.

Gartner defined SaaS as software that is owned, delivered and managed remotely by one or more providers. Its forecast is focused on enterprise application software and did not include the infrastructure software markets, such as application development and project and portfolio management (PPM); data management and integration; and IT operations software.

Gartner analysts in a report release here said the adoption of SaaS is growing and evolving within the enterprise application markets as new entrants challenge incumbents, popularity increases, and interest for platform as a service grows.

It said ''the popularity of the on-demand deployment model has increased significantly within the last four years. Initial concerns over security, response time, and service availability have diminished for many organisations as SaaS business and computing models have matured and adoption has become pervasive,'' said Sharon Mertz, research director at Gartner.

''Because the SaaS/on-demand market is 'hot', many suppliers are rebranding their hosting or application management or application outsourcing capabilities as SaaS/on-demand. The core proposition behind SaaS/on-demand is the delivery of multi-tenant service from a remote location over an internet protocol (IP) network via a subscription-based outsourcing contract'' he added.

Some of the key industry trends that contribute to the rapid growth of SaaS globally include businesses examining ways to reduce their IT capital expenditure budget, the increased availability of broadband which extends the viability of web-based service solutions globally, and the demand from businesses to rapidly implement software which supports a specific business need.

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