Not so long ago, “shadow IT” meant employees swiping a credit card for tools outside of IT’s control, rogue Dropbox accounts, unsanctioned project trackers, or unauthorized collaboration platforms. It was messy, risky, and costly.
Fast forward to today, and history is repeating itself. This time the shadow isn’t infrastructure or hardware, it’s SaaS sprawl.
SaaS: From empowerment to entropy
SaaS transformed how businesses adopt technology: fast, flexible, and user-friendly. Teams could solve problems instantly without waiting for long procurement or deployment cycles.
But that same freedom comes at a cost. Every self-serve subscription added without governance creates blind spots:
- Duplicate tools doing the same job
- Unused licenses draining budgets
- Unknown apps with questionable security practices
- Fragmented data and compliance risks
In other words: the same chaos as classic shadow IT, just in a shinier, subscription-based package.
Why this matters now
Unlike old-school shadow IT, SaaS sprawl is harder to spot. Vendors bill monthly, often on personal or departmental cards. Renewal cycles fly under the radar. And the low entry cost means apps slip in without CFOs or ITAM teams noticing, until the bills stack up.
This creates three big problems for organizations:
- Financial waste – paying for tools nobody uses or already exist elsewhere.
- Compliance gaps – lack of visibility into where sensitive data is stored.
- Operational risk – fragmented, siloed systems slowing down productivity.
The role of ITAM in the SaaS era
This is where IT Asset Management comes back into focus. ITAM is no longer just about hardware and traditional software licenses, it’s the discipline that ensures visibility, control, and optimization across all assets, including SaaS.
To tame SaaS sprawl, ITAM leaders should:
- Map the SaaS landscape (discovery tools, expense analysis, employee surveys)
- Build governance policies for app adoption
- Rationalize overlapping tools
- Align SaaS spend with real usage and business needs
Learning from the past
Shadow IT 1.0 taught us that ignoring the problem only makes it grow. Shadow IT 2.0 is here, and it’s happening in almost every organization. The lesson? If ITAM doesn’t step up, SaaS will quietly repeat history.
With the right visibility and governance, SaaS can empower the business without creating chaos. But without ITAM, the sprawl will only deepen the shadows.
At ITAM solutions, we help organizations bring SaaS back under control, turning sprawl into strategy. Want to know how?
Contact us to start your own SaaS visibility journey.
