SaaS Won't Succeed With Some Apps

Still, products where SaaS has taken hold of until further notice 50 percent of revenue amount to only 3 percent of the total software market, Forrester said.

There are clear and long-standing reasons why large software vendors have been slower to embrace SaaS, chief among them the lucrative and predictable streams of revenue provided by annual support fees for on-premises software.

SAP is planning to deliver a series of add-on SaaS extensions for its Business Suite software, during Oracle has said its upcoming Fusion Applications will be available in SaaS form if clients desire.

Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general research breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris's e-mail address is Chris_Kanaracus@idg.com