Software-as-a-Service has taken the IT world by storm, offering turnkey application deployment and less management headaches. But IT's job hasn't vanished -- it's changed. From managing application sprawl to customizing SaaS portals, from monitoring performance to ensuring tight security, this series of panels and presentations looks at the new role of IT teams in a SaaS world.
SaaS makes it easy to turn up a new application, often for little or no money up front. That ease of deployment is also a curse: It's not uncommon for companies to have dozens of SaaS relationships. The management overhead can quickly undermine any cost savings or operational advantages that SaaS offers. This panel will look at how rein in out-of-control SaaS deployments.
There's a new term in the SaaS dictionary: Software plus Service. Companies like Microsoft want to leverage their desktop dominance to marry the convenience of desktops with the ubiquity of on-demand services. Run-anywhere applications like Adobe AIR, as well as remote desktop technology, may mean your next SaaS application is a software/service hybrid. This panel of vendors discusses why Software plus Service is getting a closer look.
Switching software is hard enough to do when you run it in-house. But when you're moving from one SaaS provider to another, you face new challenges. You may not own your data; you may miss features you didn't know you were using; and custom code build for one SaaS platform may need rewriting on another. This panel of end-users who've made the jump shares lessons learned from SaaS migration.
Hosted applications vary from the specific to the adaptable. At one end of the spectrum are websites with one purpose; at the other, open platforms that let you build your own applications. Navigating the landscape of on-demand applications can be a challenge -- should you choose one comprehensive application suite, or best-of-breed portals? Do you need off-the-shelf functionality, or limitless flexibility? This session presents a taxonomy of on-demand applications so you can choose what works for your business.
