So, you want to do SaaS? Read this book chapter first.

It feels weird to endorse a book just on its first chapter but, in terms of ROI, this could be the most important chapter in the book. The introductory first chapter in Building Multi-Tenant SaaS Architectures by Tod Golding should be a must-read for everybody involved in a software as a service (SaaS) business. It should also be a must-read for those who don’t want a SaaS business model. The fundamental thing with software as a service is that it is a business model supported by technology. The two go hand in hand and you can’t have one without the other.

So much pain and failure comes from the inability to recognize or admit that combination. Obviously, in the case of large companies, that does not mean that the entire business and technology foundation of the company needs to be that way – you can (with difficulty, I will admit) have a clearly carved out SaaS business within a company that is fundamentally not a SaaS company. The key thing is that within the boundaries of the SaaS endeavor, business and technology need to be aligned on the model.

I think it is also really valuable for readers whose conclusion after reading the chapter is “I can’t / don’t want to do that!” The recognition that the union of all the prerequisites is unacceptable to you is valuable. Pursuing the benefits of an unattainable model does nobody any good. The relative cost of $80 (the book’s current list price) and the time to read 22 pages vs. embarking on a doomed software project should be a no-brainer.

I could (and probably will) write at length about how the SaaS model can be applied as part of an overall organization that, as a whole, doesn’t meet the prerequisites for a SaaS business but the first and most important step is recognizing the reality of the business model and the commitment it requires.