The "Google Communications Intelligence Report 2009" contends that the outlook is cheery for cloud computing and software-as-a-service. Fears of SaaS replacing IT departments appear to be wildly exaggerated; Google suggests that cloud applications do the opposite, enabling IT departments to fulfill benchmarks of success and meet internal expectations.

November 05, 2009 - by Adam Bullock

I've always been a little surprised at the fear of using a hosted service because many individuals have already been using them, and perhaps they just haven't realized it. According to a cited statistic within the report from the Pew Research Center, 69% of Americans are using hosted services in 2009. Did you log on to your Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo! email account this morning?

If so, congratulations cloud pioneer! It wasn't that scary, was it?

As SaaS vendors mature and establish a track record, fear has been replaced by understanding and adoption. According to Google research, 50% of companies that were not using hosted applications (but were aware of them) said they would be considering partial or full SaaS implementation in the next 12 months.

The satisfaction level of those using SaaS is higher than those aware of SaaS but not using it, as well as those not aware nor using it. For messaging applications, email security and web security services, the satisfaction level of those using SaaS compared with those aware of (but not using it) was, on average, about 5% higher for each. While those unaware of SaaS nor using it had an average satisfaction level 15% lower than those companies using SaaS. Ultimately, regardless of whether or not someone had heard of SaaS, those using software-as-a-service were more satisfied with their solution than those not using that kind of platform, period.

Using hosted email solutions helps increase IT department satisfaction, and it can also reduce maintenance costs and free up IT resources to focus on more strategic initiatives. This helps your IT department work on improving efficiency instead of addressing in-house hardware issues. And even while cost ranked lower has a motivator for companies to deploy SaaS, Google suggests that hosted solutions have a lower total cost of ownership than their on-premise alternatives.

Adam Bullock is the digital media specialist for Smarsh and veteran blogger. In previous stops in his professional career, Adam has spent time with an Internet marketing firm as a project manager as well as a leading domain name registrar. For more information, contact him at abullock [at] smarsh.com