SaaS defined

Software as a service is the delivery of software distribution or application over the internet as a service by the SaaS provider. SaaS is also known by the some other names such as the on demand software, web based software, hosted software .

Categories

There are about three main categories to which a SaaS is classified

• Cloud computing

• Infrastructure as a service

• Platform as a service

SaaS providers

Some of the Leading SaaS providers are as follows

• Salesforce

• Oracle

• Sap

• Microsoft

Architecture

SaaS belongs to multitenant architecture. Which means a single version of the application which has a single configuration of hardware and network and operating system is used for all the customers while providing software as a service. A good example of this architecture is a bank.

Functionality

SaaS application runs on the servers of the SaaS provider. The provider manages the access to the whole application, including the security, availability and the performance of the application.

Facts

SaaS generated a revenue of about 21.3 billion dollars. Customer relationship management (CRM) is the largest market of SaaS which generated 3.9 billion dollars in 2011.

Advantages

• SaaS is a cloud service so it offers high scalability to the user.

• The user can access to more or fewer services on demand.

• The Customer can rely on the  SaaS provider for automatic updates and patch management.

• SaaS application is delivered over the internet so it can be accessed from any internet enabled devices across the globe.

• SaaS eliminates the expense which a user will spend on hardware acquisition.

• SaaS eliminates the user from provisioning and maintenance of the software.

• No need for the user to obtain software license.