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Jason Wood

Interesting question. I don't take as much issue with his use of the consumer antivirus examples because I think we desperately need a broader understanding of what SaaS really is...

Is it an alternative delivery model?
Is it an alternative pricing structure?
Is it either or must it be both?

I'd say All of the Above, which is why it's simply foolish for anyone to postulate that SaaS as currently constituted (i.e., multi-tenant, single instance, hosted subscription) will somehow overtake conventional licensing and on premise distribution now, if ever.

Mark Crofton

Under Myth #8 - SaaS is only for corporate users, Kaplan states the following:

"Anyone who uses McAfee (MFE ) or Symantec (SYMC ) antivirus software to protect their home PCs likely uses their subscription and 'live update' features, which represent another example of SaaS."

Is this really SaaS in the same way as SFdC or NetSuite? My understanding is that the antivirus executable and libraries are still sitting on your harddrive. Isn't the "live update" essentially you downloading new libraries i.e. files? A bit of a stretch calling it Saas, isn't it?

Jason Wood

Mark, thanks so much for the catch. I've been having problems with the link button on typepad of late, didn't realize the hyperlink wasn't functional.

Mark Crofton

hey Jason, how about a link to the BW story?

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