Communications and Technology Industry Research

A recent survey conducted by the web-hosting company, Hostway Corporation, shows that the growth in virtualization has increased the adoption of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS (News - Alert)) model.

 

According to the survey report, three-quarters of organizations revealed that server virtualization will drive adoption of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), in the future. 

 

For those who are new to server virtualization, it is the process of masking of server resources such as number and identity of individual physical servers, processors, and operating systems from server users. The server administrator utilizes a software application to divide one physical server into multiple isolated virtual environments/virtual private servers/instances.

 

Software as a service (SaaS) is a model of software deployment in which an application is hosted as a service and provided to the customers across the Internet. This eliminates the need to install and run the application on the customer's computer, thereby reducing software maintenance, ongoing operation, and support. There can be several factors that can drive SaaS.

 

The Hostway’s survey results depicted that over 60 percent of respondents have plans to adopt SaaS in some form, over the next five years. The report also shows that 45 percent believed that until now the technology had not taken off because of the lack of available advanced virtualization technologies.

 

According to the survey, the SaaS providers find it difficult to offer reliable software on demand services, before virtualization.

 

"Without virtualization the business model for SaaS would not be viable," said Neil Barton, director of Hostway, in a statement. "The business model for SaaS means you need to get a high level of utilization from the servers that the applications in the cloud sit on. Virtualization enables this. The message to application vendors is that you need to either SaaS-enable your applications yourself, or partner with people who can allow your applications to be offered as a service."