More Evidence of Cloud Computing, SaaS Trends

Coghead, which provides a platform for authoring applications that are "mashups" added to other existing business apps, now is selling its services on a usage-based basis, in addition to a per-user basis, Clint Boulton, eWeek staff writer, notes. That change allowsCoghead to price in a way more attractive for lighter users, and using a model similar to Salesforce.com, the popular application sold as a service.

Coghead CEO Paul McNamara saysCoghead, to date, has charged per user—$49 per month for five users as a base plan—regardless of how much users were using its applications. That worked well for active users but not so well for infrequent users.

Coghead will continue to offer per-user pricing plans for full access to Coghead applications.

Coghead hopes the new pricing will help keep its current customers from jumping ship to Salesforce.com, Bungee Labs or Google App Engine, while luring new users with the flexibility options.

The changes illustrate the growing importance of business-oriented software sold as a service and the simultaneous use of utility computing "in the cloud" to create and deliver the services.