Software as a Service (SaaS) is the term that has gone mainstream in the last two years. SaaS is a delivery model for software needs. Essentially, it is "renting" or "leasing" parts or all of your IT infrastructure: servers, email, software applications for accounting, document management, etc. etc.

While we don't dispute the fact that in certain situations renting or leasing can be the right decision, it certainly does not fit all businesses all the time. And yet - this is where everyone is going, and going fast.

According to report published by ZDNet magazine, in March last year, Gartner forecast that worldwide SaaS revenue would reach $14.5 billion in 2012 — a 17.9% increase over 2011's $12.5bn. This healthy growth rate is set to continue, according to the research company, which predicts a $22.1bn SaaS market in 2015.

In this post we attempt to swim against the current and argue that SaaS is a poor business model for a large number of businesses. As the first step, let us take a look at the main pros and cons that are typically assigned to SaaS.