A new study, released Tuesday by McKinsey & Company, reveals in some of the clearest terms yet the sea change that is under way in business software. The consulting firm surveyed more than 850 corporate software buyers, from firms of all sizes, and found that software-as-a-service is rapidly “becoming mainstream,” with three-quarters of software buyers saying they are “favorably disposed to adopting SaaS platforms” for software development and deployment. The rapidly growing embrace of Web applications is leading, says McKinsey, to a fierce competitive battle, between “traditional mega-vendors and the larger SaaS incumbents,” for the future of the enterprise software business.

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