SaaS in Government

I recently attended the SaaS Gov conference. Below are some findings from the event.

Three quick VERY basic definitions. ASP: Traditional COTS apps in a hosted environment. SOA: Any application that when broken down equates to services. SaaS: Essentially, SOA for hire; net centric software offered in a multitenant fashion.

I left with the impression that SaaS, while still young, will grow considerably in the near future. Government has been a bit more reserved in the adoption of SaaS. Security continues to be the major concern for government agencies. Ultimately, education regarding SaaS and multitenancy seems to be what is most needed to achieve a broader adoption. Items such as government employee attrition and constrained budgets are additional catalysts for future adoption. Many government IT leaders see SaaS as the conduit for true government-to-government collaboration with reduced operating costs and increased efficiencies due to reusability and intellectual property sharing between federal, state, and local agencies. An example of the reusability and sharing can be found at the link below.

Government-to-Government Application Exchange