SOFTWARE: FROM PRODUCT TO SERVICE THE EVOLUTION OF A MODEL

Among the consequences of the Enterprise 2.0 family technologies’ growingpopularity, we can observe the rise of a set of new business models for the use and employment ofsoftware applications, some of them also applicable for infrastructure components. The mostpopular of these models is by far Software as a Service (also called SaaS). SaaS is a softwaredistribution model assuming the software applications are hosted and maintained by the vendor orthe distributor, the user access being granted exclusively by means of the Internet. The paper athand is a literature review and also an action research, meant to provide an objective and unbiasedcomparison of the two major software distribution models, and also to identify the strengths, theweaknesses and the favorite areas of applicability for each model. The paper is a part of a largerresearch performed by the author in the field of Enterprise 2.0 technologies.