{"id":1688,"date":"2022-10-20T07:33:50","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T07:33:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.amt.in\/?p=1688"},"modified":"2022-10-20T07:34:05","modified_gmt":"2022-10-20T07:34:05","slug":"introduction-to-software-as-a-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.amt.in\/index.php\/2022\/10\/20\/introduction-to-software-as-a-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduction to Software as a Service"},"content":{"rendered":"

Software as a Service\u00c2\u00a0is a software\u00c2\u00a0licensing\u00c2\u00a0and\u00c2\u00a0delivery\u00c2\u00a0model in which\u00c2\u00a0software\u00c2\u00a0is licensed on a\u00c2\u00a0subscription\u00c2\u00a0basis and is centrally\u00c2\u00a0hosted. It is sometimes referred to as “on-demand software”, and was formerly referred to as “software plus services” by\u00c2\u00a0Microsoft.<\/p>\n

SaaS applications are also known as Web-based software, on-demand software and hosted software.\u00c2\u00a0The term “software as a service” (SaaS) is considered to be part of the nomenclature of\u00c2\u00a0cloud computing, along with\u00c2\u00a0infrastructure as a service\u00c2\u00a0(IaaS),\u00c2\u00a0platform as a service\u00c2\u00a0(PaaS),\u00c2\u00a0desktop as a service\u00c2\u00a0(DaaS),\u00c2\u00a0managed software as a service (MSaaS),\u00c2\u00a0mobile backend as a service\u00c2\u00a0(MBaaS), datacenter as a service (DCaaS), and information technology management as a service (ITMaaS).<\/p>\n

The vast majority of SaaS solutions are based on a\u00c2\u00a0multitenant\u00c2\u00a0architecture. With this model, a single\u00c2\u00a0version\u00c2\u00a0of the application, with a single\u00c2\u00a0configuration\u00c2\u00a0(hardware,\u00c2\u00a0network,\u00c2\u00a0operating system), is used for all customers (“tenants”). To support\u00c2\u00a0scalability, the application can be installed on multiple machines (called\u00c2\u00a0horizontal scaling). In some cases, a second version of the application is set up to offer a select group of customers access to pre-release versions of the applications (e.g., a\u00c2\u00a0beta version) for\u00c2\u00a0testing\u00c2\u00a0purposes. This is contrasted with traditional software, where multiple physical copies of the software \u00e2\u20ac\u201d each potentially of a different version, with a potentially different configuration, and often customized \u00e2\u20ac\u201d are installed across various customer sites.\u00c2\u00a0In this traditional model, each version of the application is based on a unique code.<\/p>\n

There are two main varieties of SaaS:<\/p>\n

\n
Vertical SaaS:<\/dt>\n
Software which answers the needs of a specific industry (e.g., software for the healthcare, agriculture, real estate, finance industries).<\/dd>\n
Horizontal SaaS:<\/dt>\n
The products which focus on a software category (marketing, sales, developer tools, HR) but are industry neutral.<\/dd>\n
Although not all software-as-a-service applications share all traits, the characteristics below are common among many SaaS applications:<\/p>\n

Configuration and customization:<\/span><\/p>\n

SaaS applications similarly support what is traditionally known as application\u00c2\u00a0configuration. In other words, like traditional enterprise software, a single customer can alter the set of configuration options (a.k.a.\u00c2\u00a0parameters) that affect its functionality and\u00c2\u00a0look-and-feel. Each customer may have its own settings (or: parameter values) for the configuration options. The application can be customized to the degree it was designed for based on a set of predefined configuration options.<\/p>\n

For example, to support customers’ common need to change an application’s look-and-feel so that the application appears to be having the customer’s\u00c2\u00a0brand\u00c2\u00a0(or\u00e2\u20ac\u201dif so desired\u00e2\u20ac\u201dco-branded), many SaaS applications let customers provide (through a\u00c2\u00a0self-service\u00c2\u00a0interface or by working with application provider staff) a custom logo and sometimes a set of custom colors. The customer cannot, however, change the\u00c2\u00a0page layout\u00c2\u00a0unless such an option was designed for.<\/p>\n

Accelerated feature delivery:<\/span><\/p>\n

SaaS applications are often updated more frequently than traditional software,\u00c2\u00a0in many cases on a weekly or monthly basis. This is enabled by several factors:<\/p>\n