3 ms·

SaaS is such a tiny niche relative to overall software use, particularly for power users and 'hard engineering' jobs (e.g. not another Uber for X). Basically e

SaaS is such a tiny niche relative to overall software use, particularly for power users and 'hard engineering' jobs (e.g. not another Uber for X). Basically every company that's been around or plans to be around for more than a few years is primarily self hosted. Chat and email, e.g. stuff that's tangential to the work, might be outsourced, and they might use (the equivalent of) EC2 and S3 but ultimately it's your software running on your VM's. Scrappy startups that don't actually make any money but are trying to thrash something together quickly to convince a greater fool tend to use way more.

sansnomme 7y ago
And yet companies like Autodesk are pivoting towards subscription too. They are about as "hard engineering" as you can get, literally.
- jerf 7y ago
  Are they doing it because their customers are demanding it, or because Autodesk's business people are demanding it? I honestly don't know, so that is an honest question. I would love to hear from Autodesk customers on that topic. The former is possible. But the latter is too. Businesses love subscription revenue for all kinds of reasons, including just that it makes the accounting work out well. They might be willing to even make their customers take a bit of a hit relative to what they want to force something into a subscription model for their own needs.
  - kristianc 7y ago
    They’re largely doing it because as a contractor having to go back and forth between the construction site and a trailer / office to access items like drawings in on-prem software is a PITA and leads to errors and rework. It also carries enormous risk of anything happens to the device with the data on it. Employee that just got fired drops laptop with project plans in an oil drum on the way out? Yeah that happens. All of the big players in construction project management are cloud and mobile and anyone that tried to pitch anything different would be at a substantial disadvantage for all but the smallest contractors.

sansnomme 7y ago

And yet companies like Autodesk are pivoting towards subscription too. They are about as "hard engineering" as you can get, literally.

jerf 7y ago
Are they doing it because their customers are demanding it, or because Autodesk's business people are demanding it? I honestly don't know, so that is an honest question. I would love to hear from Autodesk customers on that topic. The former is possible. But the latter is too. Businesses love subscription revenue for all kinds of reasons, including just that it makes the accounting work out well. They might be willing to even make their customers take a bit of a hit relative to what they want to force something into a subscription model for their own needs.
- kristianc 7y ago
  They’re largely doing it because as a contractor having to go back and forth between the construction site and a trailer / office to access items like drawings in on-prem software is a PITA and leads to errors and rework. It also carries enormous risk of anything happens to the device with the data on it. Employee that just got fired drops laptop with project plans in an oil drum on the way out? Yeah that happens. All of the big players in construction project management are cloud and mobile and anyone that tried to pitch anything different would be at a substantial disadvantage for all but the smallest contractors.