A new IDC report forecasts the global software-as-a-service market to grow to $50.8 billion in value by 2018.
The market research firm published this month a study that indicates the SaaS market will grow at a compound annual rate of 17.6 percent for the five-year forecast period.
“Demand for SaaS enterprise applications is accelerating and exceeding the demand for on-premise applications by five times,” said Christine Dover, research director of enterprise applications and digital commerce at IDC.
“Generally, wherever new enterprise application software is required, the expectation is that SaaS applications are preferred, particularly for customer relationship management and enterprise resource management applications,†Dover added.
She said the enterprise software used in the supply chain, manufacturing and engineering areas remains on-premise at present.