I was looking for a RegEx Expression that validates all US States in both upper and lowercase. I was only able to find ones that validated uppercase, so I created one for lowercase as well. Enjoy

Believe!

Every day I get an Google News Alert about SaaS. The funny thing is that at least once a week, I say a headline similar to Is SaaS Dead? Followed by 20 announcements for new SaaS product launches. It's time people stop asking if it's dead and talk about how alive SaaS and Cloud Computing is.

I always find it funny how the ads on the radio try to create urgency. Limited time! One Time Only! This Unique Offer! Get It While They Last! Blah, Blah, Blah.

If there was more demand than the inventory they had available, do you really think they would spend the money on the ads?

I have a theory that most advertising is the opposite of what they say. But that's a post for another time. 

I love programming. But I hate what it takes to program. I love the logic. The test that you have to pass every time you try and create something great. But I hate the times when you spend hours on stupid debugging tasks because either the tool does not work, you left a single value set to something when it needed to be something else, stylesheet crap, etc.

If programming was just the logic tests, how fun it would be. Too bad we need to take all the other stuff that comes with it.

A key question for the both the Software-as-a-Service and Cloud Computing Marketplace is when will big business adopt either of these approaches.  The answer, Now, Later and Never.

The IT shops inside of large businesses face many hurdles.  Unfortunately, in many large corporate IT environments, IT managers are not awarded for innovation, but rather for maintaining a status quo.  The risks are just too high to allow for dramatic experiments of even smaller changes.  Let me explain.Image you are an IT manager responsible for keeping a global ERP environment up and running.  As long the instance is available at reasonable performance, everyone is happy.  Unfortunately, no one sees the work around keeping the instance up.  Redundancy, firewall and load balance management, regular maintenance, patch application, back-up, etc.  Lots of moving pieces.  All they see is are my workers able to work.Now, let’s talk about moving pieces of this either into the cloud or supplementing with a SaaS application.  Now you are introducing change.  This requires new processes, new skills, some configuration changes.  All for what?  In the end, the end user doesn’t see a big change initially, and you’ve introduced a large amount of risk.  If the ERP system goes offline, the CFO is likely to know about it soon.  Why bother, as the immediate benefit just doesn’t outweigh the risk.

 But, the SaaS and Cloud Computing models have so many actual benefits, that big companies will begin to adopt these models.  They just won’t swap out legacy or existing applications.  They start with low visibility, lower priority, less mission critical applications.  Only after they see the big benefits of the SaaS model in terms of reduced implementation, maintenance and capital costs, will they start to look to legacy application upgrades to move into the SaaS model.

Wikipedia defines a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) as software that is licensed on demand.  This implies that the end user must pay for the software for the software to be SaaS.  I think this definition has changed.  Back in the day, they used to call software used by you, but hosted by someone else ASP (for Application Service Provider).  That term is no longer used and has been replaced by SaaS. 

Often, when people refer to SaaS applications, they point to SalesForce.com - which meets the Wikipedia definition, and Google Docs, which sometimes does.  You see, Google docs is free if you only want to use it for personal use and don't care what the URL is.  However, they do license it to business on a cost per user basis.  Is the free version not SaaS and the paid version SaaS?  Technically, Google licenses the application to the free users, so the Wikipedia definition is correct.  But Wikipedia also says that is does not matter if SaaS is delivered via ASP or is hosted locally.  Again implying that it's the payment model that defines SaaS.

Unfortunately for Wikipedia editors, they will soon have to update this definition.  For all practical purposes, the mainstream tech community has changed SaaS to mean what ASP used to mean.  Basically, software hosted by a 3rd party and accessed remotely.  The payment model is still inherent in the definition, but is secondary to the delivery method.

 I once took a class titled "The evolution of the English language."  It was a bad class and I took it for a filler credit, but I did learn that the meaning of words change over time and no dictionary can stop it.  In this case, I think the meaning has already changed in the common usage, now we just have to update Wikipedia.

SaaS (Software as a Service), where you rent software on a per use basis, likely hosted by a third party, is a great model for many applications.  Backoffice, workflow, content management, backup, etc.  The smaller the business, the better the return.  Not having to support a heavy infrastructure for these overhead items is usally a great benefit for SMB's.

SMB's often have great experiences with SasS and this may lead them to make a critical mistake.  SMB's may look to SaaS vendors to provide software that is delivered direct to the SMB's own customer's over the web.  While this may be an easy way to get a business started, once that business becomes enterprise class, SaaS has many drawbacks that could ultimately kill future growth. 

 Lack of control over features, capacity, security, customer data and usage statistics are just some of the issues.  In a future post, I'll discuss things you can do to help minimze the risk if you are forced, through budgetary or other reasons, to use SaaS for a core piece of customer used functionality.  Until then, avoid doing this if you can.

SaaS, where companies license their software on an on demand basis may be the ideal way to generate revenue?  This is because the model strikes a perfect equilibrium between the two main ways people have sold things in the past.

Let’s look at the two main models.  The first selling model is an on demand model where people buy what they need when they need it.  Let’s take an easy example, like Coca-Cola.  When you want a Coke, you walk into a store and buy one.  The Coke is inexpensive and easy to buy, and this is a reason why the model has worked.   But there is a big issue.  Every time a buyer walks in to buy a Coke, they have hundreds of other options to choose from (called consideration in marketing speak).  Not just Pepsi, but Gatorade, water, iced tea, milk, etc.  So to ensure that when a consumer is confronted with this choice, Coke spends a lot on advertising and marketing.  So do all the others, and let has led to Coke and Pepsi becoming some of the largest advertisers.  It’s expensive to have to re-sell your product over and over.

No let’s look at the other traditional way to sell something.  This is the enterprise (I call it the buy it all now) method.  Take Oracle as an example.  If you would like to run Oracle Enterprise Software, you must buy an enterprise license, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Then you must buy a certain number of seats, the hardware and the skill to install it.  It can cost millions.  Say you are a small-to-midsize business that is growing.  How many seats will you need?  How many servers, etc? It’s a big bet and a big upfront investment.  Because the potential purchasers are limited, Oracle only needs to market to raise awareness, but can use targeted sales tactics for consideration.  They lose many customers who just don’t have the ability to reach the bar Oracle sets for entry.

Enter SaaS.  SaaS removes the costs of both worlds.  By signing users up for a subscription, buyers are not confronted with a consideration decision every time they use the software or add a user.  SaaS vendors avoid the large marketing spend needed to maintain top-of-mind during the consideration process.  Also, because SaaS usually has a low cost of entry, the model helps to capture those who can’t or are unwilling to afford the entry price of the buy it all now model. 

SaaS vendors can charge a premium for this lower risk and convenience and this can lead to higher profit.  But because SaaS usually incorporates the hosting and support as well, the total cost of ownership to a buyer is often lower than the enterprise model. 

 We should all be amazed that enterprise vendors have not shifted more quickly to the SaaS model, but my lack of amazement would be another discussion entirely. 

 I think I read an article every day that lists the reasons not to use Cloud Computing or software delivered using a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) model.  Security, Performance, Reliability, Control, Privacy, et al.  I admit, all of these are concerns, and any company should weigh the issues before choosing these models for themselves.  That is not the issue.  The issue I have is that these articles write as if these issues will prevent the cloud computing and SaaS models from reaching mainstream acceptance.

Back in the early days of electricity, many people had electricity generators in their own homes.  Someone came along and proposed a centralized model.  There were many reasons why that model was "never going to work."  Some persist today with people having backup generators and other redundancy.  The electric chair was actually a PR stunt to show how dangerous AC current, served centrally, would be.  But eventually, the more efficient model won. 

When the web first came about, there were thousands of articles showing why commerce would fail over the internet, and some still say it will - I bet Jeff Bezos didn't listen.The bottom line here is, yes, cloud computing and SaaS will have their issues and growing pains.  But a model that can offer exponential economies of efficiency, features and scale, will ultimately be adopted.  All these issues are but minor speed bumps at the start of a long interstate.