Cloud Computing Easily Understood – SaaS

March 17, 2012 Off By David
Grazed from Sys Con Media.  Author: Jonathan Gershater.

In prior blog posts, I described Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS).

To recap:

  • If I use IaaS I get servers onto which I can load software and applications which I then maintain, though I don’t need to maintain the hardware. I can customize the applications and software running on the servers, at will.
  • If I use PaaS, I get a platform of ready to use web servers, application servers, databases etc. I write my own software application and host it at the PaaS provider. I maintain the software I write, but not the application servers, databases or hardware. I can customize the software I write, at will

Finally, we reach the top of the stack: Software as a Service (SaaS)…

SaaS is simply software that I use for myself or my organization, but often with limited customization.

Characteristics of SaaS:

  • SaaS customers are provided with login credentials (usually username/password) to the software application.
  • SaaS customers are  typically billed a fixed fee per month for that they use the software.
  • SaaS software offers limited customization.
  • SaaS software can be branded with a customer’s own look-and-feel.
  • SaaS customers usually don’t need to install any software to use the application, a web-browser or mobile device will suffice.

Some every day examples of Software as a Service applications for personal use, small or large business, government or non-profit:

  • Email, calendaring… – gmail, yahoo, or hotmail are all providers of email which a customer accesses using a browser with a login and password. (Companies that choose not to install and maintain their own email servers and software, can use email services such as gmail, Microsoft Exchange online and others).
  • Productivity applications such as Word processing, Spreadsheets, presentations etc. Two examples are Google docs and Microsoft Office 365
  • Financial applications such as online tax preparation and personal finance: example turbotax or quicken
  • Customer Relationship Management: salesforce.com and sugarcrm are two examples used by small and large organizations.
  • Enterprise Resource Planning: SAP and Oracle are two examples  used by small and large organizations.
  • Backup solutions:  Backup files and data from servers, laptops and desktops to cloud storage, two examples: mozy and carbonite.
  • Electronic Medical Records. Software as a Service to enable healthcare providers to access patient data via a browser or mobile device. Example: PracticeFusion
  • Many others….

In summary, no software to to install, maintain or deploy but little customization available. Simply pay as you go…

SaaS

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