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To universally label the move from on-prem, perpetual licensing to SaaS as pure rent-seeking is to misunderstand how different kinds of software products are pu
by yannyu 9y ago
To universally label the move from on-prem, perpetual licensing to SaaS as pure rent-seeking is to misunderstand how different kinds of software products are purchased and used by different users.
As far as enterprise/business customers go, SaaS has been huge in reducing vendor lock-in and enabling customers to choose the best fit for their use case. SaaS has removed the huge costs of PoCs and initial adoption, meaning it's easier to evaluate vendors and switch when you're ready. You no longer have to buy the hardware to get the service up and running, or allocate as many employees to maintain the hardware and software. The explosion of vendors and competition in the SaaS space has forced more interoperability and customer-focused feature development than ever before.
SaaS has been great for pretty much all business customers. At this point, I don't think any but the largest companies, most specialized companies would rather build their own services at this point than try to purchase off the shelf when possible.
- frgtpsswrdlame 9y agoDamn I got a buzzword bingo on your second paragraph, holy crap man. Do you think a toll-road operator couldn't also describe all the benefits of a toll-road? Does that make it not rent-seeking? Look, we're on a (at least mildly) technical forum, we can be honest here - SaaS has been great for providers and sometimes great for customers. And I'm not talking about off-the-shelf vs built-in-house, I'm talking about billing method.
- yannyu 9y agoYou can attack the presentation of the content, but do you think anyone wants to go back to the days of dealing with Oracle and SAP charging you for perpetual license and support, and then also needing consulting by the hour from them or a Deloitte/Accenture? Things really sucked in enterprise software in the 90s, and SaaS has made a lot of things so much better. And I'm not talking about off-the-shelf vs built-in-house, I'm talking about billing method. In many cases, the billing method has influenced the way the products work and how they're developed.