We all know that SaaS stands for Software as a Service. If asked, most CIOs would describe SaaS as Application Service Providers (ASPs) that provide hosted applica-tions. But that's not really 'services' at all. Services are supposed to be modular soft-ware components that provide atomic nuggets of business functionality.

But this popular definition of SaaS could change in a big way.

The fast-moving Enter-prise Web 2.0 movement, driven by SOA-like Services, Ajax, and Mashups, could give SaaS a second life by reassigning it to SOA and Ajax as a Service. Some might even label this SaaS 2.0. It is a trend every IT executive should be watching.