13 Jan 2009

More firms expected to use SaaS in 2009

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) adoption appears likely to increase among businesses after a survey has shown that more IT developers are anticipating work on the technology this year.

A global survey conducted by Evans Data found that 52 per cent of developers expect to work on SaaS in 2009, with a surge in development expected in the Asia-Pacific region.

Currently North America has the highest adoption rate with 30 per cent of developers already working on SaaS, the study showed.

Meanwhile, 53 per cent of firms in Europe, the Middle East and Africa said they anticipated increased SaaS implementation over the next 12 months.

On the results, Evans Data president John Andrews said: "These SaaS results definitely reaffirm the success of this concept in replacing the traditional model of business applications being run in house with traditional software licenses."

The findings follow a recent survey of medium to large-sized enterprises by THINKstrategies and Cutter Consortium.

Published in October, their research found that use of SaaS applications hit 63 per cent in 2008, up from 32 per cent the previous year.