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We are dependent on food and water, which requires ongoing support from a vendor. The problem is in having a trustworthy vendor or a healthy marketplace of alt

• TeMPOraL 5y ago
  That's true. We're all dependent on plenty of services. But the difference between those and SaaS is that they're all commodity services. This means you have a steady selection of service providers, all providing equivalent service, and there's no risk with any individual provider disappearing - you can just switch over to a different one, and get the same thing. An important aspect of most SaaS businesses is that they're not commodities. It's a core part of most SaaS business models - they're purposefully sticky. When you become dependent on one, and it shuts down, or gets acquired, or decides to discontinue the features you care about, there usually is no drop-in replacement. There may not be a replacement at all, for the combination of features you need. And whatever alternative you find, migrating all your data is usually difficult, and often not possible.