$10.7 Billion. According to CIO Insight that is the number that Gartner estimates will be the total spending worldwide in Software-as-a-Service this year. That is huge. But is it really huge?
What is it about big numbers? Everyone likes to see a big number. But sometimes they are just simply too big to really understand and appreciate. How can we put $10.7 Billion into perspective?
Here are some interesting comparisons:
- Bill Gates is personally worth $53 Billion
- Warren Buffet is personally worth $47 Billion
- Steve Jobs is personally worth $6 Billion
If we had the $10.7 Billion in $20 bills we would have 535 million bills. A bill is 2.61 inches wide, 6.14 inches long, 0.0043 inches thick and weighs 1 gram. That means that $10.7 Billion in $20 bills would weigh 1.18 million pounds, be 36 miles thick if stacked on top of each other and would stretch around the world twice if placed end to end.
It is amazing to think about all the places where you are using Software-as-a-Service or cloud computing today as well as all of the places where we are not using Software-as-a-Service. Although $10.7 Billion is huge, in terms of dollars I think we are still at the early stages of the SaaS industry.
