# How SaaS Cloud Computing Is Driving Data Center Evolution Source: https://expedient.com/knowledgebase/blog/2015-07-13-how-saas-cloud-computing-is-driving-data-center-evolution/ [](#) # How SaaS Cloud Computing Is Driving Data Center Evolution July 13, 2015 3 min Read ## SaaS Cloud Computing With more and more companies transitioning more and more data and mission-critical applications to the cloud, the adoption of software as a service is becoming a dominant force in the future of data centers. According to a 2014 survey by North Bridge Venture Partners, in conjunction with Gigaom Research, the adoption of SaaS among its respondents is 74 percent – that is a whopping five-fold increase since the survey began in 2010. While this number is significant, it is also noteworthy to mention that the influx of SaaS adoption is mostly from company’s transitioning over existing applications. The most common SaaS applications used today are HR (Workday), CRM (Salesforce) and email and collaboration (Office365). The most commonly cited reason for the increased adoption of SaaS applications is cost. Lower upfront costs are attractive as is the pay-as-you-go pricing model. Particularly intriguing to companies is that SaaS offerings can be funded with operational expenses rather than capital expenditures. #### Increased SaaS Adoption and its Effect on the Data Center So now that we know myriad companies are increasing their use of SaaS applications, what does that mean for data centers? The trend indicated by companies’ cloud adoption for software deployment infers that the majority of data centers are moving to private cloud deployment for implementation of new software. According to a survey conducted by Gartner Inc., “respondents will push the adoption growth of private (a combination of internal or as hosted private cloud managed by a third party) cloud (46 percent) for deployment across all software markets by nearly twice the rate of public cloud (24 percent) adoption over the next two years. The traditional deployment model for on-premises software is expected to significantly shrink from 34 percent today to 18 percent by 2017. Legacy software will remain on-premises in the traditional model until end of life unless updates and upgrades allow for private cloud deployment models.” Along with the adoption of SaaS, Gartner expects the hybrid cloud model to become increasingly popular as companies will leave some legacy applications or applications that offer them a competitive advantage on premises and move SaaS-ready applications to external cloud servers housed in third-party data centers. For more information regarding SaaS, click [here](https://www.expedient.com/understanding-the-cloud-saas-paas-iaas/). To find out more about how Expedient can help you transition applications to the cloud, click [here](https://www.expedient.com/services/managed-services/). #### #### #### #### [ ![Steve Gruetter](https://res.cloudinary.com/dvlpy3tua/image/upload/fl_sanitize/uploads/SteveGruetter.jpeg) Steve GruetterDirector of Marketing Strategy ](/knowledgebase/blog/authors/steve-gruetter) [Cloud Computing](/knowledgebase/blog/tag/cloud%20computing) ### Related Posts [ #### The VMware Wait Tax: Why Every Quarter of Delay... Inaction on a VMware migration is widely treated as a neutral position, a de... Learn More ](/knowledgebase/blog/2026-08-04-the-vmware-wait-tax-why-every-quarter-of-delay-has-a-price-tag/)[ #### The Great Inversion What was easy is now hard. What was hard is now easy. {% include blog-key-... Learn More ](/knowledgebase/blog/2026-07-29-the-great-inversion/)[ #### Your New Cloud Strategy: Rebalancing for Cost a... {% include blog-key-takeaways.html items=page.key\_takeaways %} A few years a... Learn More ](/knowledgebase/blog/2026-07-15-your-new-cloud-strategy-rebalancing-for-cost-and-performance/) ## Subscribe to Our Blog VMware September 29th, 2026 at 1:00 PM ET ## It’s Time to Decide Your VMware Path [Join us →](https://go.expedient.com/VMWarePath) ### VMware September 29th, 2026 at 1:00 PM ET ## It’s Time to Decide Your VMware Path [Join us →](https://go.expedient.com/VMWarePath)