Software as a service is making its way deeper into businesses large and small via email, productivity, and collaboration applications. SaaS lets IT replace hardware investments, software licenses, and administrator time with a monthly per-user subscription fee, which can reduce total cost of ownership while freeing IT to focus on business-specific service development.

But these savings are hollow if browser-based SaaS productivity apps can't replicate the capabilities of a conventional client. And in fact, it's not necessary to fully embrace browser-based apps to enjoy many of the cloud's benefits. [click to keep reading]