Saas, PaaS and the Cloud? Part 1: Hosted Services Basics for the Sourcing Professional – Software/Platform-as-a-Service

Grazed from NationalLawReview. Author: Christine M. Wahr and Sarah T. Hogan.

In today’s world, it seems that virtually every business is using or offering some degree of online services. If you’re involved in making technology purchasing decisions for your business, you likely receive numerous requests related to purchasing hosted services, though the nuances of what a hosted service is and the particular legal considerations such a purchase raises may still be hazy concepts. If this resonates with you, you are not alone – even the most tech-savvy users can be left confused in this ever-evolving industry. To assist you in responding rapidly to these requests, we have pulled together a two-part series containing a quick reference guide of basics and top 5 considerations for purchasers of hosted solutions. Welcome to part 1 of this series, Hosting 101: The Basics.

What is a hosted service? The term “hosted service” is used to refer to a product or service powered by information technology resources that you do not own or control. Users are provided with access to the product or service without the need to purchase and maintain the necessary software,hardware, server space and other logistical and technical resources. You may run into hosted services that are provided on a dedicated server owned by the provider, but today, more often than not, hosted services are provided via the cloud…

What is “the cloud” anyway? The cloud is really just a metaphor for the Internet, and the term“cloud computing” is used to refer to information technology resources provided over the Internet. Accordingly, “cloud services” means hosted services provided through the Internet. Still confused?…

Read more from the source @ http://www.natlawreview.com/article/saas-paas-and-cloud-part-1-hosted-services-basics-sourcing-professional-softwareplat

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