Everybody wants to own the customer

One of the reasons SaaS/SOA has failed to take hold given it's early roots in 2000 is that it is designed around everyone making specialist components that exist in a all is equal garden or commons.

Here is what has actually been happening instead. Entrepreneurs, Geeks and general money makers have been producing web apps by the thousand. They have an idea and sell it, but not as a component, but as a solution. They produce an impressive user front end, registration and and private login. In the end most of them are trying to own the end user, thats the nature of competition, think only of yourself...

Thus one of the reasons that SaaS/SOA has to date failed to take over the world is probably because of it's utopian vision. Meanwhile real businesses the world over are starting to use many of these web apps along side their existing structures (and sometimes instead of them for newer businesses). The result is yet another bunch of private data silos, this time however the silos aren't all sitting behind the firewall, they are out there in cyberspace waiting to be tapped. Whats more many of the newer web apps are building in APIs and data exchanges. Not nesesarily the WS* everything (thank god), but often REST, JSON, ATOM and RSS based.

Thus we have SaaS/SOA by stealth, not the utopian architected WS* dream, but one of practicalities, where real problem mashups and business process meshing, drawing on the network of available services.Thus what is emerging is an agile on demand toolbox, providing opportunity for many willing to dip their feet. What is more, doing so can be achieved at a fraction of the previous costs enabling even SMBs to play .

Also worth reading around this conversation:
Who owns the On Demand customer - Phil Wainewright