Byte and switch had a reasonably revealing poll about on demand in the context of online hosting (despite just 19 responses).

Here is the break down.

No surprise about the first one… The second is biased towards the hosting context (where the poll was published) – it would be good to get a better idea about what the 29% that stand for “Other” really stand for. In the third question the same 29% are generally unclear on the cost-saving benefits of SaaS – this is where more work has to be done by SaaS vendors to educate consumers. Finally, the last one is the most intriguing.

About 18% think that the cost is the barrier – is that in the context of the hosting industry? And it is only marginally consistent with the results of the previous poll. 18% site security issues – this is again surprising given not only the context but also the general premise of on-demand. It would be great to corroborate that with other analyses. Being unable to sell it internally 18% of the time is understandable - I could not sell it to my boss either. Finally SaaS vendor would really love to get inside the last one: Other 47%.

Speaking of insightful polls, take a look at Phil’s. Given some recent press, the collective wisdom seems to be right on target.

I am inspired to create a poll of my own, to get to the bottom of my questions. But better yet, given that the blog is still not mainstream :), I’ll be happy share my survey ideas with anyone who has interest.

Check out Top Ten SaaS Buzzwords from James Maguire

Here are a few more:

SaaS-enabler: a company/technology that can take an enterprise/offline business and replicate the functionality in terms of SaaS services. Essentially convert a non-SaaS application into SaaS offering.

SaaS vs. ASP: ASP (Application Service Provider) is a client-service architecture deployed over HTML. A “pure” ASP does not support a multi-tenant model. Each instance of the application/service may be customized for clients. ASPs may also take a licensed product and host it (as well as operate, maintain, support) for clients.

SaaS vs SOA: SOA (Service-oriented architecture) is a software architecture that supports loosely coupled software services that impart some business functionality. These services can communicate but it is not required. SOA may be interpreted as the underlying platform for SaaS. More on Wikipedia.