Customers, especially small and medium businesses (SMBs), are increasingly adopting Software as a Service (SaaS) as their preferred model for procuring and consuming software. This makes lots of sense, as SaaS provides customers with many cost, productivity and flexibility benefits.
The problem today with most SaaS offerings, however, is that they are designed as self-contained silos. This of course makes sense, as much of the value of SaaS solutions stems from the fact that they are turnkey. Silos are OK for a single application, or even a small handful of apps. But the reality is that most businesses utilize a wide portfolio of software for different functions. And while businesses are embracing SaaS, few if any, will be able to move completely to the cloud. Most will end up with a hybrid environment, where some apps are hosted in the cloud, and some remain on-premise. Even those who plan to ultimately move entirely to the cloud cannot do so in one mass migration. They will need to phase out on-premise applications in a staggered approach, and will have to manage a heterogenous environment of hosted and on-premise software throughout the process.
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