IDC: Open source, SaaS top disruptors in Asia

One of the things I have been struggling with is how/if SaaS is anything more than a service–meaning can SaaS APIs/apps be redistributed/forked etc. and if so how would that work (see Matt’s post on this topic. And to the extent that SaaS vendors open source some level of the code necessary how does the model work for them.

One thing I do see on the horizon is the further death of software that is either not open or not available on-demand. We’re probably a few years and a fair amount of bandwidth away from that world but you can see the architecture taking shape and the desire for SaaS immediacy and open source control driving further up the stack.

I’ve also been spending much of recent drive time (Palo Alto 2x per week) trying to decide if you could go fully SaaS. My latest conclusion is that you could go totally (or near totally) SaaS if you are moving to an SOA. Otherwise there is a fundamental disconnect between the data store, the access method and the usability.

From the IDC analyst:

“It’s not just about having the [SaaS] technology, it’s about having the right delivery system that customers want,” she noted.

I’m also trying to figure if there is a license scheme similar to OSS for developers to contribute back or create derivatives or otherwise. So far I am thinking that it doesn’t make sense. Essentially SaaS is just a data management tool and there is no obvious way to mash multiple SaaS apps together (you can pull data, but not always functionality.) The closest thing I have seen is how OpSource created a backbone for SaaS providers to build on top of. Otherwise the methods by which to move data from one app to another are standards-based but not standard (if that makes sense>)