<p>By Rodney Gedda* During the past decade, enterprises and government agencies have progressively adopted software as a service (SaaS) as an alternative delivery model to software applications deployed and managed onpremise since the days of the mainframe.</p><p>This year, more tangible evidence is surfacing that will force government IT decision makers to take a closer look at SaaS as a viable option.</p><p>Nowadays the term 'cloud' has steamrolled its way into meaning anything remotely resembling IT delivered by a service provider in an on-demand fashion.</p><p>For software, however, the concept of SaaS software delivered by a third-party over the internet and billed as an OPEX remains unchanged amid all the hype about cloud. And one of the best examples of how disruptive the SaaS delivery mode can be is demonstrated by the application we all love to hate e-mail. Microsoft Exchange; IBM Lotus Notes; Novell GroupWise; what's your poison?</p><p><a href="http://www.governmentnews.com.au/2013/01/07/article/Google-Apps-stirs-government/XGAUVTLVKI.html">Keep reading...</a></p>