The software industry is seeing a mushrooming growth in platform choices available to software vendors looking to build their SaaS applications. As SaaS grows and platform becomes a necessary infrastructure, there is bound to be a consolidation among the SaaS platform vendors. Clear winners will emerge, if past history of software is any indication. Till that happens, what should be your decision criteria for choosing the platform? Here are some thoughts on this topic
1) Functionality - If your key differentiation is functionality like mobile operation, rich analytics, geospatial services, highest availability or personalized experience then the choice of platforms available to you will reduce dramatically.
2) Cost of Operation - Do you expect your business to grow. If yes, which platform will give you the lowest total cost of ownership when you have reached the pinnacle of your success? In a SaaS model, operating the software is your headache.
3) Flexibility - It is difficult to change a platform once you have built your application on it. Choose a platform which is open and a partner who has the resources to continue investing in innovation.
