This statistic shows global expenditure on the Software as a Service (SaaS) market, including 50 percent of the Platform as a Service (PaaS) market, from 2015 to 2026. In 2018, spending on Software as a Service worldwide is forecast to reach 115 billion U.S. dollars.
Software as a Service - additional information
Together with Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS) is one of the three primary tiers of cloud computing, allowing a business to redirect resources away from IT hardware, software, and personnel expenses, and towards other needs.
Under the Software-as-a-Service model, service providers sell their clients access to application software and databases. The infrastructure, platforms (operating systems), and often the details of the software are then concealed from the customer, who typically connects to the service via a client program or web browser. The customer is not responsible for maintaining any of the hardware or resources, usually paying a per-user or per-use fee. This pricing model means that costs are flexible and scalable, allowing users to be added or removed as necessary.
At this time, Software as a Service generates approximately two-thirds of the revenue of the cloud computing market. While revenue growth in this area is not expected to slow greatly in the near future, the overall market share of cloud software services is expected to shrink in the face of increased cloud platform and infrastructure growth.
In the Software-as-a-Service market, the largest companies are currently Salesforce, Microsoft, Adobe, SAP, Oracle, and IBM. While Salesforce is currently the largest vendor of cloud infrastructure services, the market is presently less concentrated than the cloud infrastructure segment.
