SAAS vs travel

I found this interesting post at SQL Performance.

In some sense it does make sense comparing SAAS to a taxi. You want to get to a place, you don't care about the make, how it is run etc. You agree on certain response times, cost etc. and focus on getting to the place.

You also get some of the same disadvantages, you have limited control on how the car looks, how fast it can go, how fast it can respond to changes in your plans etc. You may also be left in the lurch once in a while when your taxi just does not turn up at the right time.

Also if you plan to take the taxi to work everyday, you are looking at a very costly proposition. You usually use the taxi when the travel is not core to your business. When your business depends on it, most probably it is cheaper and definitely safer to get your own car, even if it means a little bit extra up-front.

Comments

[Ashish]

Comparison is incorrect. Last para, is completely wrong. In long term, SAAS is a lot cheaper (compared with in house maintenance/support of applications).

hey, please correct the same.

[Anand]

Depends on what you actually use SAAS for. If the application is the core of your business and you are a big enterprise, then you may actually find it cheaper in the long run to host your own app. It give you higher flexibility from a customization perspective, more control on up times etc and also higher security and confidentiality of data. Your overall cost includes all of this, not only of software and hardware costs.