Both the software and the media industries love a good David vs. Goliath story, which is why SaaS is often cast as the spunky new alternative to on-premises software. You know, Workday vs. SAP, Salesforce.com vs. Oracle, Google vs. Microsoft, and so on.

I am generally an optimistic person, and looking ahead at 2010 things feel pretty good. Conversations with HR and IT professionals are more upbeat than they’ve been in a long time. And even though analyst predictions for IT spending are only looking a little better than last year, companies seem to be back to planning and starting projects.