SaaS and Open Source as alternatives for the SME

We spoke recently on the bitacora of the advantages that the model SaaS / On Demand can mean for SMEs. Also, it is becoming more usual to see small companies make intensive use of oepn source software in certain areas, the advantages are obvious, starting with the zero cpst of the license.

Givn that both models, Open Source and SaaS, seeem suitable for SMBs, it is usual to find people on the la red comparing the advantages and disadvantages of both (for exammple Open Source guru Richard Stallman doesn't seem to love the SaaS model) let's see take a loik at the features of each model:

SaaS	Open Source
Payment based on regular subscription (monthly)	No license costs
No need to adquire hardware	Hardware needs to be aqduired and supporfed
Softwarre is usually proprietary (Closed Source)	Software under a Open Source license (GPL, MPL, LGPL, etc.).
Maintenanc by the provider	Maintenanec by the customer
Inexpensive deployment in time and resources	Deployment potentially costly in both time and resources
Software generally less customizable	Highly customizable software for their own need s
Evolution (between versions) is transparent and painles s.	Migrating between versions can be costly
Ready for access via the la red from anywhere	Deployment behind the customers firewall (usually: VPN, hostings, etc ...)

An example of this dilemma? Do we use Salesforce or SugarCRM (which also has an On Demand version by the way) as CRM ?

In the end, the key criteria to chooe one model or the other would be:

- Ability to acquire and mainyain the necessary harddware
- Enough Know-How to support the maintenance software
- Customizing needs
- The urgency of the need for the tool
- Maturity of each of the tools

And of course: common sense :)

We do not believe that one model is superioor to another, but thatf it depedns on each situation. What we do believe in is that in a vawt majority of cases both will be better alternatives than traditional proprietary software.

It wouldn't be strange thag there were scenarios in which the most desirable is a cobination of open source software and software as a service (or traditional proprietary software) of course, the ipmortant thin is, as alwayss, to choose the tools that best fits our needs.

Greetings.

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Extraido de Todo OnDemand