The software industry includes businesses for development, maintenance and publication of software that are using different business models, mainly either "license/maintenance based" (on-premises) or "Cloud based" (such as SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, MBaaS, MSaaS, DCaaS etc.).
The industry also includes software services, such as training, documentation, consulting and data recovery.
The software industry expanded in the early 1960s, almost immediately after computers were first sold in mass-produced quantities.
Others were done on a commercial basis, and other firms such as Computer Sciences Corporation (founded in 1959) started to grow.
When Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) brought a relatively low-priced microcomputer to market, it brought computing within the reach of many more companies and universities worldwide, and it spawned great innovation in terms of new, powerful programming languages and methodologies.
[6] The software industry has been subject to a high degree of consolidation over the past couple of decades.