We’ve come a long way.

Today, with the rise of cloud computing and SaaS, it seems that just about any service or function one might need is available online, nearly instantly, and for a fraction of the cost it would take to build it yourself. In contrast, back in 2003, you had to build just about everything yourself. Or hire someone to do it for you.

Having all of this functionality available at a moment’s notice has had a profound impact on business. At the software startup where I work we take full advantage of today’s on-demand software-as-a-service offering. We use SaaS products like Basecamp, Drift, GitHub, GMail, Hubspot, MailChimp, Slack, Trello, Wunderlist, and many more.

And, when something better comes along – as happens frequently in this dynamic environment – we will evaluate it and, if it makes sense, switch. Quickly. That, too, is something that is fundamentally different today. Switching platforms can be done relatively quickly provided the business did their homework upfront and ensured that their vendor had the ability – and willingness – to export their data in a clean and standardized format. It’s important to note that this sort of vendor lock-in – while real and not uncommon – is a business issue and an artificial construct that can be addressed in a contract. While there are other barriers to switching solutions they are far lower than previously and quite different than before.

Whereas previously a company may have invested a six or even seven-figure amount in upfront license costs and two or three times that amount (and often far more) in customization and implementation and then had to amortize these costs, SaaS solutions are generally much quicker and cheaper to implement.

This allows companies to be more agile and able to change systems more rapidly should a solution fail to deliver or a better alternative present itself. This flexibility and speed allow companies to react quickly to changes in the market, be it by rolling out a new offering, increasing or reducing system bandwidth and throughput by scaling dynamically, or by launching in new markets.

Similarly, just as the agility provided by cloud solutions is an advantage, so can being wedded to inflexible legacy applications put a company at a disadvantage. Not only do these systems lack the ability to scale to meet bursts of traffic or demand dynamically, they are often also inflexible in their ability to adapt to changes in the marketplace or accommodate new processes or offerings. This can be as simple as supporting new product or service bundles, integrating a new partner or service provider, or as complex as adapting to a new and emerging business model such as a subscription model.

While SaaS systems may not always have an inherent advantage over legacy software in these instances – though arguably they do – their lower upfront investment and quicker implementation does reduce sunk costs and thus vendor lock-in and make it easier to react to market changes by simply switching platforms.