This article is a failed attempt to deny that the SAAS movement IS a revolution. In the enterprise business application software world SAAS products like Netsuite, Salesforce win over on-premise, client server (Yes, both SAP and Oracle, among others, STILL sell traditional client server applications (e.g. Oracle Demantra)) applications because of lower (if not zero) upfront investments, predictable and lower costs, reduced maintenance and newer web technologies. In the world of enterprise productivity applications like word processors, spreadsheets etc., SAAS (like Google documents) wins for the same reasons. As for issues like corporate data privacy, security, regulatory compliance, records management – these are issues that are just as challenging for on-premise, desktop apps as they are for SAAS – these are business issues that can be handled by SAAS. With regard to the hybrid model mentioned in the article, yes – companies will be forced to adopt the hybrid model since many of them have to support their older apps. I have been in the enterprise apps business for 18 years – I can see the advantages of SAAS over the older model. Of course, legacy companies like Microsoft, Oracle, SAP etc. have every reason to continue to throw F.U.D (fear, uncertainty and doubt) to thwart the SAAS movement – they have to protect their revenue streams, they are unable to innovate in the area of products and so they are trying other means to sustain their businesses – e.g., acquisitions. It’s not yet game over for them, but let’s be honest about the real deal – SAAS is winning and SAAS is a revolution!

I guess my point is that SaaS in particular is a move to a user-centric and solution-centric design model that does in fact change the paradigm of software.
Finally it’s no longer about the software but about raw and unconstrained data that users can manipulate at will.

So I do think we are seeing a revolution – not in the products we’re using – but in what those products will do for us

Cheers!