SubscribeWhen you lose your operating system (OS) or it has a bit of a fit during upgrade you will instantly see the joy and power of SaaS (Software-as-a-service).
To recover your computer after a crash, virus, failed upgrade or other reason you should only need to perform very basic tasks. However, this is only the case when you are under the care of SaaS (online applications). The primary tasks are to re-install your browser and Adobe reader.
Meanwhile software users will need to be reinstall programs one CD at a time (if you can find the CD’s). You may need to find your out of date backups to recover lost data files (if you remembered to do your backups). You may need to re-engineer information (reinvent what your desktop and document files used to look like). You’ll almost definitely need to have a quiet little cry into your hands (or smash the screen). Worst of all face your fellow staff if you were slack and didn’t do the backups like everyone told you to.
It hurts but fear not as SaaS is here to help. She’ll care for you like no OS ever did. She wont bug you for upgrades, setup, disk required notifications or Product Keys. She’s a kind understanding mother who’s job is to nurture you and give you time to grow and play like a young child. She does all the nasty stuff behind the scenes for you like backing up, upgrading, installing and making sure you’re wearing the right colours (operating system and browser neutral).
I know the cost of losing the OS only too well. I lost my laptop operating system last year but I was lucky because I’m already under the care of mother SaaS. I had already moved all my photo’s to Flickr.com an online photo warehouse. Other SaaS products I use are Google Apps, Gmail and obviously Saasu. The impact was limited, I was back up and running in hours not days. Had I not been nurtured by my SaaS mother I would have lost a couple of months worth of photos which I probably wouldn’t have backed up at that time (i.e. My wife would hate me!).
Brad Howarth writes a great piece about this topic in his blog.
In a similar vein, Apple 3rd party developers are hitting frustrations dealing with the iPhone OS but SaaS developers building online applications for the iPhone have no such problem. The OS becomes virtually irrelevant in the world of SaaS. Web browser based it’s clearly less restrictive.
If SaaS is like a mum then the browser is your best mate, he’s light and nimble, he’s winning the battle over software, costs nothing and gives you access to all your stuff wherever you are. Feed him with lots of web applications and your best mate will watch your back by saving you time.
