The concept of cloud computing began as a shared resource of computing power. While the idea has been around for some time, the web-based technology required to support SaaS matured in the late 1990s. That’s when companies such as Salesforce—which was founded specifically to create cloud software—began offering traditional enterprise solutions, such as customer relationship management (CRM), through a SaaS model.
“computation may someday be organized as a public utility.” That’s what John McCarthy, a renowned computer scientist that won the Turing award for his work in artificial intelligence (AI), famously said, In a 1961 speech to MIT students.
SaaS and PaaS continue to grow as companies outsource non-core IT activities to service providers who can do them better. The cloud approach allows companies to develop end-to-end integrated solutions, leaving them to concentrate on what they do best. Long-term relationships will lead to innovation, as service providers grow the services provided and understand the needs of their customers.
The adoption of cloud computing and SaaS has brought about a major shift in the IT industry. With cloud technologies, companies are able to outsource non-core systems operations to service providers and avoid dealing with hardware maintenance, software updates, and software licensing. This approach is particularly valuable for companies that have limited in-house IT capabilities (since they may not have the staff or expertise to accomplish complicated tasks). As more companies adopt this approach, long-term relationships will develop between them – which will lead to innovation as customers’ needs grow and new solutions become available.
In the future, high-performance computing will help with a wide range of business uses, such as analyzing large volumes of customer data and monitoring application logs. SaaS may one day be able to help address critical challenges for business such as predicting which customers will churn or which cross-selling practices work best for your business.