14 January 2022
SaaS, also known as “application as a service”, has become an integral part of the business processes of all modern companies. The transition to cloud solutions was impacted by Covid-19, which set the vector for the development of IT products. Today, most workflows are remote, which reduces the cost of maintaining offices and equipment for staff. Why is this so important for businesses? Let’s look at the key trends of 2021, outcomes, statistics about SaaS, and how these products affect the economy of companies.
10 Market Statistics of 2021: SaaS for Everyone
As the IT industry develops, its areas change together with it. This also applies to the Applications as a Service industry. According to O’Reilly, about 88% of 1,283 respondents confirmed using SaaS in 2021, and 49% combined cloud and on-premises solutions in their businesses.
SaaS Volume and Industry Growth Dynamics
Gartner reports that the cloud SaaS products market was estimated at $145.5 billion in 2021. According to forecasts, this figure is expected to grow by $25-$30 billion per year. It is associated with the trends of the next decade that will push businesses toward digitization.
Deploying software solutions in the cloud reduces the load on company hardware and increases operational efficiency. The broadband connection to the Web provides high productivity and instant access to working tools. Since SaaS offers a “lease” model for software, enterprises only pay when they use it. The responsibility for fixes and modernization of the products rests with developers.
The Level of Introducing SaaS in Business
As of 2021, an average of 110 cloud apps are used by employees of large companies every day. BetterCloud reports that this figure is up 37.5% compared to 2020. But these numbers do not fully correspond to reality because most employees use not only authorized services.
The integration of cloud solutions into business is much deeper than statistical research shows. Results include a list of trusted tools and platforms approved by management. In fact, employees often use additional services, such as DropBox. With such negligence, data leaks occur. Sure, it is a negative factor and an argument against the implementation of SaaS.
Security and Privacy Issues
Analysts from BetterCloud admit that 72% of data leaks happen unintentionally. According to the report, only 8% of information loss occurs due to outside interference, and 20% is sold by insiders purposely. Most security problems are associated with the inexperience of employees rather than the vulnerabilities of core SaaS products.
The main reason for leaks is software openness. Some companies do not implement authorization into products, so any information on the link is available to everyone who has it saved. Tracking user activities is also not widespread in internal business tools, so identifying violators is sometimes not easy.
Cloud Computing: Growth and Benefits
The total volume of the cloud computing market will grow to $831 billion by 2025, with a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 17.5%. This forecast was published by Report Linker. According to LogicMonitor, 27% of respondents believe that 95% of workflows will move to the cloud within 5 years. Another 20% talk about the difficulties of transformation, so the complete transition to remote workspaces will take at least 10 years. But skeptics (they represent 13% of the total) believe that a complete abandoning of local products is impossible.
Despite divergent opinions among leading business representatives, the first group appears more credible. SaaS is modernizing promptly, so most cloud products will soon develop new security and privacy algorithms and better tool interactions. Probably 2022 will show the demand for SaaS and change the opinion of skeptics about the effectiveness of the cloud.
Delivery Speed: From Three Days to a Business Day
Price Intelligently calculated that the average time to complete SaaS deployment has decreased by 50 hours over the past ten years. With modern methods of end-to-end development, testing, and implementation, cloud solutions can be seamlessly integrated into business systems in 7 hours of working time without distracting employees from the main processes.
The flexibility of the SaaS development approach has empowered experienced cloud IT distributors to reduce time to market for their apps. Automation sped up coding and optimization by 40%, allowing developers to accelerate testing and prepare their solutions for faster deployment, as McKinsey analysts admit.
Responsive SaaS Pricing: Trend or Necessity?
Pay-per-use is growing in popularity among SaaS vendors. According to Open View Partners, 45% of cloud developers use this model. It allows distributors to monetize their applications effectively. Customers can independently choose the subscription functionality, the amount of cloud storage, etc.
Pay-to-use is more efficient than other pricing models because it minimizes product abandonment rates. The flexibility of this solution allows even startups to order SaaS development services. It is a chance for young companies to test their products on the market due to low cost and high demand.
The Main Target Audience for SaaS
Interesting information was found in the report by O’Reilly: 20% of users of SaaS products are developers, 11% are technical management, and 7% of it turns out that these are managers, retailers, and other representatives of non-IT areas.
These statistics do not fully reveal the level of user engagement in SaaS products. Since such solutions are used to develop social media apps, shopping services, and entertainment resources, the factual information about users should look like this: 90% are content consumers, and only 10% are technical staff, directors, managers, etc. It underlines the importance of introducing SaaS into businesses, especially when it comes to customer focus and service optimization.
SaaS Increases Business Agility
A statistical report by Zippia states that 86% of respondents plan to move 100% from on-premises to the cloud. They believe it makes most business processes more flexible. Managers and ordinary employees can work remotely, and control over the workflow is performed automatically.
It is difficult to argue with this decision because the integration of cloud IT products really improves the agility of enterprises. It is especially true for IT companies and trade. SaaS provides IT with a wide range of tools for development and working with partners worldwide, while the trade sector receives ready-made products for commercial activities and communication with consumers.
Open Information and the Vector of SaaS Development for the Next Decade
According to DoControl, about 40% of data in SaaS systems is not managed. For example, a company with 500 employees may store over 50,000 documents in the cloud, but only authorized employees have links to them. Structured account hierarchy and personalized access levels help to keep things tidy. But only until a link to an important file falls into the hands of attackers.
The system won’t allow making changes to the document but will give carte blanche for downloading and editing it on any local device. Spreading critical information outside the company causes irreparable damage to the brand. It is almost impossible to track down a criminal due to the nature of the logs and their poor content.
That’s why the trend for developing SaaS solutions is gaining popularity. It can ensure the proper level of security and confidentiality of information.
SaaS Centralization and Consolidation Trend
Gartner experts concluded that 50% of SaaS companies will fully synchronize their products using management tools by 2026. It will reduce the burden on the IT staff that spend on average 40% of their time supporting the platform.
SaaS automation will optimize the interaction between the system and ordinary users. According to BetterCloud, only 45% of SaaS operations are now automated. Bold forecasts for the next three years promise to increase this figure to 80%. If you closely follow the pace of development of the IT sector in recent years, it becomes clear that these forecasts have great chances of successful implementation into reality.
Let’s Summarize
The market for SaaS products and startups is growing rapidly. Due to many access control issues, it has not yet reached its peak, but that will change in the coming years. Apps and systems based on cloud platforms are relatively cheap to implement and support, so they are the best option for developing MVPs and full-fledged complexes. Industry trends will raise SaaS quality even higher and bring the branch to the top of IT services.
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