Saas is a form of cloud computing that provides hardware and software tools over the internet.

Software as a service (SaaS) allows users to connect to and use cloud-based apps over the Internet. Common examples are email, calendaring, and office tools (such as Microsoft Office 365).

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• Common SaaS scenarios
• Advantages of SaaS
• Does SaaS provide hardware and software tools?
• What is SaaS in cloud computing?
• What is SaaS and PaaS?
• What is SaaS stand for?

SaaS provides a complete software solution that you purchase on a pay-as-you-go basis from a cloud service provider. You rent the use of an app for your organization, and your users connect to it over the Internet, usually with a web browser. All of the underlying infrastructure, middleware, app software, and app data are located in the service provider’s data center. The service provider manages the hardware and software, and with the appropriate service agreement, will ensure the availability and the security of the app and your data as well. SaaS allows your organization to get quickly up and running with an app at minimal upfront cost.

Hosted applications/apps

Development tools, database management, business analytics

Operating systems

Servers and storage

Networking firewalls/security

Data center physical plant/building

Common SaaS scenarios

If you’ve used a web-based email service such as Outlook, Hotmail, or Yahoo! Mail, then you’ve already used a form of SaaS. With these services, you log into your account over the Internet, often from a web browser. The email software is located on the service provider’s network, and your messages are stored there as well. You can access your email and stored messages from a web browser on any computer or Internet-connected device.

The previous examples are free services for personal use. For organizational use, you can rent productivity apps, such as email, collaboration, and calendaring; and sophisticated business applications such as customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and document management. You pay for the use of these apps by subscription or according to the level of use.

Advantages of SaaS

Gain access to sophisticated applications. To provide SaaS apps to users, you don’t need to purchase, install, update, or maintain any hardware, middleware, or software. SaaS makes even sophisticated enterprise applications, such as ERP and CRM, affordable for organizations that lack the resources to buy, deploy, and manage the required infrastructure and software themselves.

Pay only for what you use. You also save money because the SaaS service automatically scales up and down according to the level of usage.

Use free client software. Users can run most SaaS apps directly from their web browser without needing to download and install any software, although some apps require plugins. This means that you don’t need to purchase and install special software for your users.

Mobilize your workforce easily. SaaS makes it easy to “mobilize” your workforce because users can access SaaS apps and data from any Internet-connected computer or mobile device. You don’t need to worry about developing apps to run on different types of computers and devices because the service provider has already done so. In addition, you don’t need to bring special expertise onboard to manage the security issues inherent in mobile computing. A carefully chosen service provider will ensure the security of your data, regardless of the type of device consuming it.

Access app data from anywhere. With data stored in the cloud, users can access their information from any Internet-connected computer or mobile device. And when app data is stored in the cloud, no data is lost if a user’s computer or device fails.

If you’re just starting to explore the concept of SaaS, this is the place to find out what SaaS can do for you, see how SaaS is different, identify questions about SaaS, and learn more about developing SaaS applications.

Software as a service (or SaaS) is a way of delivering applications over the Internet—as a service. Instead of installing and maintaining software, you simply access it via the Internet, freeing yourself from complex software and hardware management.

SaaS applications are sometimes called Web-based software, on-demand software, or hosted software. Whatever the name, SaaS applications run on a SaaS provider’s servers. The provider manages access to the application, including security, availability, and performance.

Salesforce has revolutionised CRM with our SaaS based product. Learn More:

A good way to understand the SaaS model is by thinking of a bank, which protects the privacy of each customer while providing service that is reliable and secure—on a massive scale. A bank’s customers all use the same financial systems and technology without worrying about anyone accessing their personal information without authorisation.

A “bank” meets the key characteristics of the SaaS model:

A multitenant architecture, in which all users and applications share a single, common infrastructure and code base that is centrally maintained. Because SaaS vendor clients are all on the same infrastructure and code base, vendors can innovate more quickly and save the valuable development time previously spent on maintaining numerous versions of outdated code.

The ability for each user to easily customise applications to fit their business processes without affecting the common infrastructure. Because of the way SaaS is architected, these customisations are unique to each company or user and are always preserved through upgrades. That means SaaS providers can make upgrades more often, with less customer risk and much lower adoption cost.

Improved access to data from any networked device while making it easier to manage privileges, monitor data use, and ensure everyone sees the same information at the same time.

Anyone familiar with Amazon.com or My Yahoo! will be familiar with the Web interface of typical SaaS applications. With the SaaS model, you can customise with point-and-click ease, making the weeks or months it takes to update traditional business software seem hopelessly old fashioned.

Organisations are now developing SaaS integration platforms (or SIPs) for building additional SaaS applications. The consulting firm Saugatuck Technology calls this the “third wave” in software adoption: when SaaS moves beyond standalone software functionality to become a platform for mission-critical applications.

SaaS is one of several cloud computing solutions for business IT issues. Other ‘as-a-Service’ options include:

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – the provider hosts hardware, software, storage and other infrastructure component
• Platform as a Service (PaaS)
• Everything as a service (XaaS) – which is essentially all the "aaS" tools neatly packaged together.

The payment model for these kinds of services is typically a per-seat, per-month charge based on usage – so a business only has to pay for what they need, reducing upfront costs.

In the past, businesses bought and relied on packaged software – from multi-application systems covering spreadsheets, databases and email to specialist packages for particular tasks like project management or business intelligence.

To use sales and marketing as an example, a business may have used on-premises software for CRM.

• This software needed to be evaluated, bought, installed, kept secure, maintained and regularly upgraded on in-house systems by the internal IT department.
• Using packaged software placed a burden on the IT team which could turn into a bottleneck for projects.
• A business could end up needing to support a wide variety of systems side by side, but find it tricky to integrate them as they were coded and built differently.
• This approach also presented upfront costs for software and licences and potentially servers for the software to sit on.
• The costs of the CRM software and hardware might mean it is not affordable for small businesses. It could also be difficult to scale up quickly in response to growth or change.

Learn more about Sales Cloud and the benefits of cloud-based CRM

Increased efficiency and cost effectiveness are the reasons many businesses give for turning to cloud-based SaaS solutions. The advantages include:

1. Low setup and infrastructure costs
   You just pay for what you need with no capital expenditure that needs to be depreciated on your balance sheet over time.

2. Accessible from anywhere
   Just connect to the internet and you can work from wherever you need to be via desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile or other networked device.

3. Scalability
   You can adapt your requirements to the number of people who need to use the system, the volume of data and the functionality required as your business grows.

4. Industry leading service level agreements (SLAS) for uptime and performance
   So you have assurances that the software will be available to use when you need it – a difficult promise for in-house teams to make.

5. Automatic, frequent updates
   Providers offer timely improvements thanks to their scale and because they receive feedback about what their customers need. This frees up your IT department for other more business-critical tasks.

6. Security at the highest level required by any customer
   Because of the shared nature of the service, all users benefit from the security level that’s been set up for those with the highest need.

Cloud computing and SaaS have come a long way in a short time. Increased awareness and uptake has accelerated the growth of SaaS products and led to the rise of SaaS Integration Platforms (SIPs) such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS). Companies will continue to outsource non-core IT activities to specialist service providers who can do it better. The cloud approach can help companies develop end-to-end integrated solutions and allow them to concentrate on what they do best, leaving a wide range of hardware and software IT issues to service providers.

With companies adopting various "aaS" services, long-term relationships with service providers will grow – which in turn will lead to innovation as customers' growing needs are understood and provided for.

In the future, high-performance computing will help with a wide range of business uses, such as analysing large volumes of customer data and monitoring application logs. SaaS may be one day be able to help address critical challenges for business such as predicting which customers will churn or which cross-selling practices work best for your business.

With the need for high-volume data, software performance and backup increasingly daily, it’s easy to see why so many businesses are choosing to outsource to cloud-based providers. If you’re considering a move to a SaaS platform, find out what Salesforce has to offer for businesses of all sizes.

Does SaaS provide hardware and software tools?

What is SaaS in cloud computing?

What is SaaS and PaaS?

What is SaaS stand for?