What is SaaS? – Software As a Service

What is SaaS? – Software As a Service

Software Application Development

Software as a Service

Software as a Service (SaaS), a.k.a. on-demand software, is a software delivery model in which software and its associated data are hosted centrally and accessed using a thin-client, usually a web browser over the internet.

SaaS in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted.

SaaS can be accessed on any web browsers.

Simply put, SaaS is a method for delivering software as a web-based service via remote access. The software service can be purchased with a monthly fee and pay as you go.

What is SaaS?

Software As A Service is Multi-tenant architecture or we can say Virtualization as an alternative.

It is a Pricing model pay as we go, the relatively low cost for user provisioning

It also provides Configuration and customization and Accelerated feature deliveryIt means a much shorter release cycle.

It also based on Open integration protocolsTypically HTTP/HTTPS, JSON, REST, SOAP.

We are in the era of Cloud Computing!

  • Cloud computing stack
  • Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
  • Platform as a Service (PaaS)
  • Software as a Service (SaaS)
  • Monitoring as a Service (MaaS) – emerging
  • Communication as a Service (CaaS)
  • Anything as a Service – emerging

There are so many services but SaaS is one of the most widely used service models in the world.

Business’s perspective

SaaS has a lot of appeal to businesses. Here are a few reasons why:

  • Multi-tenant software architecture
  • Low cost, fast investment, shared license
  • High manageability
  • Free of deployment and support
  • Cost-effective: pay as we go
  • Customization is easy
  • Can scale well – commercialization

 Advantages of SaaS

  • Easy to use – Most of the applications in Saas require the only web browser to run.
  • You don’t need to worry about upgrade software or security, these are the responsibility of Saas provider to upgrades, uptime, and security.
  • Work anywhere.
  • Lower cost of entry – The pay as you go pricing model of SaaS makes it affordable to small businesses and individuals.
  • Scalability: As SaaS application is On-Demand software so it can be easily scaled up or down to meet consumer demand. Consumers do not need to worry about different computing infrastructure on their own side.
  • Applications are less chances of data loss since data is being stored in the cloud and SaaS provider’s servers.
  • Compared to other traditional applications, SaaS applications are more capable as they do not require to install binary code on each machine.
  • SaaS applications can be run on many devices and operating systems.
  • Provides better communications between teams since the data is centrally stored.
  • SaaS applications are much faster and also favors an Agile development life cycle. Software changes and frequent and on-demand.

SaaS case studies

Here are the details of services provided by two of the biggest SaaS providers today: Amazon & Google.

  • Amazon Web Services(AWS)
  • Storage
    • Amazon simple storage services(S3)
    • Amazon Elastic Book Store(EBS)
  • Networking
    • Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)
    • Amazon Route53
  • Database
    • Amazon Dynamo DB
    • Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)
  • Compute
    • Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2)
    • Amazon Elastic Map Reduce (EMR)
  • Google App Engine

Posted on September 19, 2018 by Keyur Patel
Keyur Patel
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