# How Drupal as a Service Can Save Our Livelihoods and our Lives

Drupal is better than ever, but as i and others have been warning for years, whether it is more successful is questionable.  Drupal is threatened from two sides. On the one, we risk discouraging new users and contributors, who face too much of Drupal's complexity early on. On the other, proprietary platforms increasingly squeeze out custom web development through sheer economies of scale. Retreating into Drupal's new fortress, the enterprise, aside from leaving many of us behind, doesn't change these dynamics, which will continue until there's nowhere left to hide.

Adding a new economic model, that of software as a service, can make Drupal the best choice for small organizations that can drive innovation and contributions. Instead of waiting for proprietary SaaS companies to slowly add features and come eat our lunch, we can swoop in and eat theirs. At the same time, a well-designed Drupal SaaS provides many more people with the traditional entryway to web development and to Drupal (namely, hacking around with HTML and clicking together functionality).

So long as we continue to adhere to the principles of Free Software, it's only going to make the Drupal software and community better. And if we organize SaaS-providing businesses as platform cooperatives, we'll be putting the people of the world in control of software that affects our lives, which, in an age of flying killer robots, may be almost as important as the health and happiness of the Drupal community.

Come hear and talk about how Drupal LibreSaaS, like Open Social and the coming Drutopia, can save us all!

Learning Objectives & Outcomes: 

* What leads to long-term success in a software project?
* What Libre SaaS efforts exist in Drupal?
* Identify some areas where making the leap from services to product may make sense for you, your sector,

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## Metadata

Track: Drupal Means Business

Experience Level: Intermediate

Timeslot: Saturday, 2:15pm - 3:15pm

Session Length: 60 minutes

### Submissions:

* http://2017.tcdrupal.org/session/saas-how-drupal-service-can-save-us-all (accepted; presented moderately well; recorded)