Wake up, IT, and get a grip on SaaS

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: Paul Venezia.

From the mainframe days to the client-server model to VoIP phone systems to mobile devices and BYOD, IT has grown to accommodate the needs of the organization. As the workplace became more computerized, IT grew to encompass and manage those new frontiers. Year after year, IT saw nothing but increase in scope.

But today, with the percolation of SaaS vendors, IT is seeing business units heading outside of the IT organization for solutions, for better or for worse. For the very first time, IT is seeing its footprint reduced. On the face of it, this should make IT’s job easier. Rather than meeting with IT to define the hardware and software requirements to implement a new solution for a business unit, the business manager — or any employee — can drop a credit card number into a SaaS portal and start using a hosted service immediately. IT doesn’t even need to know this is happening…

Everyone would seem to be happier: The business unit gets what it thinks it needs quickly and without running through the IT gauntlet, and IT doesn’t have to build and support systems tasked with running that app. In an ideal world, this is ultimately good for everyone. However, reality has a way of ruining a seemingly good thing…

Read more from the source @ http://www.infoworld.com/d/data-center/wake-it-and-get-grip-saas-218323