SaaS – Software as a Service, the present day mantra of the software industry. Looking at the history of this revolutionary concept, we can see that this concept has evolved to this stage from the centralized hosting of business applications dating back to 1960s. Today’s SaaS essentially extends the idea of Application Service Providers, which came up in the 1990s. SaaS solutions today are more focused in terms of SaaS vendors typically develop and manage their own software, rely predominantly on the Web and only require an internet browser to use and solutions normally utilize a multi-tenant architecture, in which the application serves multiple businesses and users, and partitions its data accordingly.
So what is SaaS?
SaaS is a software application deployed as a hosted service and accessed over the internet. To be more precise, SaaS is a software distribution model in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network, typically the Internet.
SaaS is increasingly becoming prevalent delivery model as the underlying technologies that support web popular. Benefits of the SaaS model include
· easier administration
· effective maintenance like updates and patch management
· compatibility: All users will have the same version of software.
· easier collaboration
· global accessibility
· reduced TCO
Risks of the SaaS model are
· Increased risk of service disruption, connectivity and online security
· All of the documentation and productivity is in the vendor's hands.
· Security and protection of the data and privacy becomes even more necessary
Above all these, SaaS proves to be the perfect cost-effective solution for small and medium enterprises.
