SIIA Members-only Issue Brief: Key Characteristics of a PaaS offering

Authored by Amit Manghani, SAP and Rachel Lyubovitzky, SaaShr.com

The Software-As-A-Service (SaaS) industry continues to grow rapidly. The success of SaaS is driving broad change across the technology industry. Software vendors, both large and small, are contemplating on how to adapt to the new paradigms of the SaaS market, while a large number of developers across the world are moving to SaaS application development.

One of the most significant implications of this broad based change is the emergence of a new kind of software platform. The increase in SaaS application consumption and development is driving the need for a new set of platform technologies built specifically to support SaaS. In this issue brief, we outline the key attributes/elements that characterize a “best-in-class” Platform-As-A- Service (PaaS) offering – a cloud-enabled application development platform.

SIIA members can download the full paper here.

For information about joining SIIA and the benefits of membership, contact Seth Dean.

SIIA CEO Interview with Bill Loss, SaaShr.com

What will the software industry look like in 3, 5, even 10 years from now? And what customer demands and business trends will drive changes in software products, how they’re developed, and the industry that provides them?


Given the dynamics of innovation and ever-changing user landscape, in many ways it’s difficult to predict what the software industry will look like in 3 years let alone 5 or 10 years. With this said, however, here are some thoughts for consideration.

Security: Security will ultimately be linked more often to an individual’s biometric markers. The trend continues towards multi-factor authentication where both physical and virtual considerations prevail. As advancements in security technology are achieved, cyber criminals will also continue to advance and keep this segment of the software industry ever-changing.

Private, Public and/or Hybrid Clouds: The existence of all three may very well be a reality for years to come. With most business decisions, associated risk must be well balanced with specific technology advancements to determine appropriate IT decisions. When it comes to private and public clouds, attention will remain focused around the sensitivity of intellectual property and related data which is collected, processed and stored. [Read more...]