SaaS and cloud computing: The channel is far from dead

One of the misconceptions of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and broader cloud computing market is that these new web-based services will "disintermediate" the channel because of their simpler, more user-friendly solutions, and direct sales and delivery business models.

While there is no question that the role of the traditional channel will be significantly impacted by the rapidly evolving on-demand services market, there is still plenty of room for innovative channel organisations to operate. There are also plenty of opportunities for new channel partners to succeed.

Traditional value-added resellers (VARs) and systems integrators (SIs) that are primarily focused on capitalising on the complexities of legacy applications are certainly at risk as a result of the fundamental feature of today's SaaS solutions and cloud computing services - its simplicity.

By eliminating the complexities of deploying software and systems, reducing the need to extensively customise these solutions and systems, and lowering the costs of operating them, SaaS and cloud computing take a big bite out of all the marginal costs which historically represented the primary profits of traditional VARs and SIs.

However, there are still lots of modifications which VARs and SIs can make to today's basic SaaS solutions, as well as reconfigurations they can make to the basic cloud computing services, to justify their role as these markets grow and mature.

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