Software as a service gets White House nod

The White House became the latest supporter of software as a service (SaaS) to make the electronic world hum instead of clang. Karen Evans, administrator of the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Electronic Government and Information Technology, said the U.S. government needs to move to a more service-oriented software model. "Our track record is clear--we are not very good at delivering our own software in the time frame set," Evans said at an SaaS/Gov conference in Washington, D.C. Some federal agencies haven't embraced the idea because they want control of software development, she said. But government agencies cannot afford to keep developing their own software without sharing with other agencies.

Software as a service has been hailed as a way for agencies to deal with budget cutbacks and to get a bigger bang for their buck. But whether software as a service is a real trend or a short-term fad is up in the air. We'd be interested in knowing what you think about this--let us know in the comments.

For more on software as a service:
- Check out this PC World article