The perfect storm for software workers is forming.
The software as a service (Saas) sector of enterprise software is expected to jump by about $1 billion by 2014, according a new report from technology research analysts Gartner. Developers and coders should be paying attention to these technologies for career growth and job opportunities.
In 2009, annual sales topped out at $7.5 billion, but they will expand to $8.5 billion by 2014 forecasts Gartner analyst Sharon Mertz in the report. It’s not only about Salesforce.com and the CRM market, but that is one area that has been and will continue to mature with adoption. CRM SaaS apps were roughly a quarter of all CRM sales in 2009 and will be slightly above that in 2010.
“The market landscape for on-demand CRM continues to evolve and mature as the availability and use of SaaS solutions becomes more pervasive. Greater market competition and increased focus by the mega-vendors reinforces the legitimacy of on-demand, mitigating initial objections about security and availability for many, as acceptance of SaaS as a viable model for enterprise computing services grows.“
By mega-vendors, Mertz means the likes of Microsoft, IBM, SAP and Oracle who see on-demand applications and cloud computing services as the next wave in enterprise applications and are geared up to capitalize.
With national averages for software engineers at $101,000 according to Glassdoor.com, Web services, SaaS development, and information architects should get your job experience, training and certifications now.