Software-as-a-service (SaaS)

Trung Pham Duy - Feb 2024

Overview

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is a form of cloud computing that delivers a cloud application—and all its underlying IT infrastructure and platforms—to end users through an internet browser.

It can be an ideal solution for large enterprises, small businesses or individuals that:
- Do not want the responsibility of buying or maintaining infrastructure, platforms, and on-premises software.
- Prefers simpler cost management through operational expenses (OPEX), rather than capital expense investments (CAPEX).
- Have challenges that require minimal customization to solve.
- Favor software subscription models.

The SaaS Model

Subscription model

SaaS apps largely rely on subscription models for provisioning software licenses.
- Unlike a perpetual license, this software delivery model ties each account to a subscription that grants SaaS access for a period of time — usually on an annual or monthly basis.

X-as-a-Service

PaaS vs IaaS vs SaaS

The term as-a-Service generally refers to a solution that is managed by someone else so you can focus on what’s important

IaaS means a provider manages the infrastructure for you—the actual servers, network, virtualization, and storage—via a cloud. The user has access to the infrastructure through an API or dashboard, and the infrastructure is rented. Users manage things like the operating system, apps, and middleware while the provider provides the hardware, networking, hard drives, storage, and servers—and the provider is responsible for taking care of outages, repairs, and hardware issues.
PaaS provides hardware and an application-software platform to users from an outside service provider. Since users handle the actual apps and data themselves, PaaS is an ideal solution for developers and programmers. PaaS gives users a platform on which to develop, run, and manage their own apps without having to build and maintain the infrastructure or environment that apps need to run.

Examples of SaaS vendors

Software vendors provide SaaS-style software applications to meet any number of business needs from basic business applications to complex enterprise resource planning (ERP) suites.

SAP’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) software
Paychex’s human resource software
CA Technology’s enterprise software
Atos messaging SaaS solution
Salesforce’s customer relationship management (CRM) software
Slack’s messaging service
Microsoft Office 365
Dropbox’s file storage service

References

[Redhat] What is SaaS?