In a new study, market research firm IDC projects that over the next five years, the business analytics software-as-a-aervice (SAAS) market will grow more than three times as fast as the total business analytics software market.

Service Virtualization is a crucial part of Federated SOA and cloud-based deployments

Microsoft's Windows 7 desktop operating system may have just hit retailers' shelves, but already a new battle to control the future of personal computing is breaking out. And this time it has nothing to do with the desktop.

Cloud computing offers a potentially higher speed development platform. It's time to get started, say three Forrester Research analysts.

"Of course it’s been the Web that has been instrumental in putting computing power in the hands of users in a way that lets them get a job done without having to become computing experts. Many of the trends I write about, including cloud computing, software-as-a-service and enterprise 2.0, are at the forefront of bringing the same access to computing power into the enterprise environment."

With sustained revenue growth and growing acceptance among larger customers, the SaaS community--led by Salesforce.com--has moved confidently out of the margins and into the mainstream.

Mid-market software-as-a-service will include the option of subscription-based pricing, the software company said.

A “future of software” panel at our InformationWeek 500 conference offered several fresh insights into why the software-as-a-service landscape is changing. Here are four...