Life & Work Humor: Monday, Monday..

Having another manic monday? Or just a Monday, Monday? let’s check in with Doug Savage and his chickens:

Read more here: http://www.savagechickens.com/blog/2007/11/monday.html

Agreed – Monday’s always suck, no matter which universe you live in! For some additional laughs check out the comments following the cartoon at it’s permalink above.

Tech Update: 9 things you need to know about SaaS.

There’s a nice write up about Software as a Service, or SaaS (S+S, Hosted applications, ASP) from Raven’s Brain. But first, what IS SaaS? From Webopedia come’s this definition “Short for Software as a Service, SaaS is a software delivery method that provides access to software and its functions remotely as a Web-based service.” The original post: Nine things you need to know about SaaS contains links to additional information and resources on SaaS. Here’s a clip of the first 5 items on the list:

1. What is SaaS?
   “Software as a service, sometimes known as on-demand software, is a new model for deploying business services … that requires the provider … to make access to the functionality available typically through a browser,” West says…
2. What about security? If our data is sharing a database with other organizations, possibly including competitors, how can we be sure we are safe?
   “The security solutions offered by SaaS vendors are quite excellent,” West says, and the danger of corporate espionage is virtually nonexistent. In some cases, some SaaS providers can even keep critical data inside firewalls for those clients who may require it. However, SaaS clearly isn’t the right solution for preserving the nation’s nuclear secrets…”
3. How do SaaS providers charge?
   “Typically, users pay as they consume the service on a subscription basis,” West says. “Pricing per user per month is the most common model. Pricing by transaction is another. There are a variety of metrics…”
4. What kinds of services do SaaS vendors provide, and how do they deliver those services?
   “…provide a wide variety of services spanning both end-user functionality and IT infrastructure, such as network security, e-mail and collaboration. The latest trend in service development is for SaaS vendors to provide entire sets of IT services — “everything a business could need” — on a unified platform, West says…”
5. Is SaaS mostly for SMBs, or does it have things to offer to large enterprises?
   Recently, SaaS penetration in the small-to-midsize business (SMB) market has been growing quickly, but penetration is happening in waves, West says. He estimates that the SaaS market may actually have greater penetration in large companies today, if one includes 2007 plans to implement SaaS solutions. 

Read more here: http://ravenyoung.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!17376F4C11A91E0E!3877.entry

Some great more great info on SaaS via CSC.com (image also courtesy of CSC): http://www.csc.com/mms/saas/en/index.jsp 

Tags: Web 2.0, SaaS, S+S, Software as a Service, Web Services, Software On Demand