How SaaS is like Star Trek: The Next Generation

Posted by Sean on February 28, 2010

Like most geeks, I’m a fan of Star Trek.  But, when I first saw Star Trek: The Next Generation, I didn’t like the new model of the Enterprise. It was disturbingly new and different.  It bugged me so much, I almost stopped watching STTNG.  But, I gave the new show a chance and soon became as big a fan of STTNG as I was of the original series. The funny thing is that now, when I look at the model of the Enterprise from the original series, it looks clunky and old.

There are probably a lot of people right now that are looking at SaaS the same way I looked at the new model of the Enterprise.  It makes them uncomfortable because it is new and different.  They are wondering why and how should they move to the cloud? What these people need to know is that SaaS is not as mysterious as it seems. In fact, it’s really just a new way to consume or deliver a solution as opposed to building it and managing it on premise, from CRM to ERP to b2b integration solutions.

And there are many benefits of SaaS over on-premise products. Since SaaS is a cloud-based solution delivered as a service, it means there is no hardware or software to install, and no extensive training for your IT staff and users. Also, most SaaS solutions are subscription based, so you don’t have to justify a huge bite out of your Capex budget to kick off a project. It’s also easier to start small and grow with SaaS. For example, many of our customers start with solving an integration pain with one or two customers or partners for a cost-effective monthly amount, and then add more connections when they’re ready.

I’m betting that if you give SaaS a chance, you will soon look back on the way you were doing things before and think how clunky and old those ways now seem.  SaaS is just the next generation of software.

You might even have more time to watch STTNG instead of managing clunky software solutions in your infrastructure:  http://tv.blinkx.com/show/star-trek-the-next-generation-tng/u4CtRP5nMS2zfFN_.

Tags: Cloud Integration Platform, SaaS, Star Trek, STTNG

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