Survey: SaaS on the development agenda

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Over half of all developers expect to work with software-as-as-service (SaaS) programs this year, according to the latest survey findings.

Half of the 1,300 developers questioned in the Evans Data Global Development Survey expected to work on programs delivered using a SaaS model during the next 12 months.

Adoption expectation was strongest in the Asia-Pacific region, although the number of developers currently working on SaaS implementations was highest in the US, where 30 per cent said it was part of their current development efforts.

In the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, fewer developers said they were currently developing SaaS applications, but 53 per cent said they expected to be doing so within 12 months.

The survey results reaffirmed the success of the SaaS concept in replacing the traditional model of business applications being run in house with traditional software licences, suggested John Andrews, president and chief executive of Evans Data.

“SaaS is delivering on the promise of rapid deployment, limited upfront investment in capital and staffing, plus a reduction in the software management responsibility all making SaaS a very desirable alternative to software on a user’s premise," he added.

For all its hype, cloud computing emerged as having less tangible traction as far as research and development (R&D) is concerned than SaaS, with fewer than 10 per cent of developers using cloud services.

But over a quarter had plans to use cloud services at some point, and in the Asia-Pacific region the number expecting reached almost half. And the main, international barrier to adoption was cited as security.

In terms of regional variations, the survey revealed that more EMEA-based developers use VMware tools for virtualisation than in any other region, although Microsoft tools came in a close second, and both were far ahead of all other technology brands in use.

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