More and more companies want to turn to cloud computing as an option, but a new report says telcos are struggling to decide the best way to get it done.
Telcos, as developers and vendors of services, must decide between using platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS) technologies, according to Light Reading.
The report says SaaS providers are focused on serving software (applications and utilities) to end customers from the cloud, while PaaS providers focus on making services available from the cloud for developer consumption and may or may not have a revenue model. There are also new approaches to service innovation out there, like service exposure and service syndication, which blur the boundaries between SaaS and PaaS.
This report also discusses new approaches to service innovation, such as service exposure and service syndication, which are blurring the boundaries between SaaS and PaaS. This is a complicated and confusing new market, underpinned by the slippery concept of the service delivery platform (SDP).
"SaaS has become entangled with the Web mashup movement," says Caroline Chappell, research analyst with Light Reading's Services Software Insider and author of the report. "This movement is all about turning any piece of software, whether it consists of information/content or scripted function, into a service for consumption by others using mashup technologies."
The large investments vendors are making in cloud-based PaaS/SaaS platforms, among other aspects, is likely to spur even more services in the cloud, Chappell states. "The trend toward the development and execution of services in the cloud has been gathering pace over the past year and is likely to accelerate," she says. "It is clear that cloud-based approaches to service creation and delivery – service incubation, service exposure, service aggregation, and service syndication – have the potential to drive new service revenue."
