I do not envy anyone tasked with designing accounting software. It’s hard work, and the system houses very critical information. So, when I saw that there were some problems with an “update” to the latest Quickbooks, it made me think. To review the issue in a nutshell – people are installing an update that may or may not have come from intuit, and it’s wreaking all kinds of havoc in the system – deleting data, etc.
First off, the web 2.0 age can be scary. The immediacy of the web allows people to get patches, updates, installers, etc. automatically. But I would expect to see a lot more diligence with updating any business software.

But the problem with software aimed at the smallest of businesses is that there is usually no safety net in place. Small and home offices using off the shelf retail software like Intuit are highly vulnerable – especially when you open that software up onto the web.

I think Sugar users are more safe. If they are using On-Demand, they have the infrastructure and security handled on our end. And if they are using On-Site – there is less capability for someone to attack that instance via the web. But while the argument over SaaS rages on – whether it really is the next phase of app deployment – I do see a high value in the security side of things for small businesses.

As more and more applications leverage the web, on-site and SaaS security issues blur. So, given the amount of security SaaS vendors must promise, and for non multi-tenant offerings like Sugar that even offer great data backup for individual instances, there is more cost savings than simple app and web servers and databases, etc. Teh security and peace of mind that some SaaS vendors provide may be superior in some instances than running the software over a web infrastructure in-house.