SaaS business applications have never been more popular. The net growth of SaaS apps was 18% year-over-year in 2022, with organizations now using an incredible 130 apps on average, up from 110 last year.
Given that, you might be wondering why a new industry report suggests that SaaS adoption shows signs of slowing.
The answer has to do with application sprawl and shadow IT concerns, which have become a significant problem for SaaS business users.
The independent software vendor BetterCloud surveyed more than 740 IT and security professionals. They discovered that 40% of respondents had gotten rid of duplicate or overlapping applications. Als0, as IT professionals double down on automation, researchers found that the average size of organization’s tech stacks are expected to decrease in the coming year.
Also of note, BetterCloud found that 59% of IT professionals said SaaS proliferation is hard to manage. Thus creating a greater need for security services from internal IT teams. The line between security and IT is blurring. Now 81% of IT professionals say they are responsible for protecting sensitive data within SaaS apps.
The anticipated slowdown is already being seen in large enterprise organizations, which have decreased the number of apps they’re using on average over the past year, even while small and mid-size organizations continue to increase the number of SaaS apps they’re using.
One of the most likely reasons for this decrease among large enterprise organizations involves account consolidation — when IT professionals optimize tech stacks and discover redundancies between applications. Through that process, a growing number of enterprise organizations are finding opportunities to eliminate redundant apps while taking better control of their SaaS sprawl.
Solving SaaS Sprawl with Automation
Automation is a topic that comes up frequently in BetterCloud’s 10th annual report. Eighty percent of IT professionals surveyed by BetterCloud said employee experience is a primary driver of initiatives to automate workflows. However, respondents said it is impossible to automate actions without complete visibility into the SaaS environment.
Despite that, organizations of all sizes are attempting to double down on automation right now. This is in an effort to better manage and secure their application stacks. Without automated visibility into SaaS environments, IT professionals say they are essentially working in the dark. Among the biggest challenges arising from a lack of automated visibility are that it takes too long to manually solve problems, it’s too difficult to identify file security risks> Plus, it’s hard to make sure automated workflows execute as planned.
Seventy-two percent of IT teams in BetterCloud’s survey said they are prioritizing automation. As well, 71% said they have already automated at least one help desk process like onboarding or password resets. More than 40% of teams now have a dedicated SaaS Ops automation role.
Automation can also help improve the two most important IT metrics: employee experience and the number of tickets.
Staying Ahead of SaaS App Growth
The biggest obstacles to achieving workflow automation have to do with a lack of current information and visibility. However, researchers found that investments in automation are helping IT stay one step ahead of SaaS application growth.
Thankfully, BetterCloud found that there is a growing commitment to SaaS framework. Additionally, the number of IT professionals who say they have the resources to manage their SaaS environments is up. Even while other departments are being cut, the majority of IT teams say they predict their budgets will stay the same or even increase in 2023.
To download the complete BetterCloud report, click here.
