Preface – This post is part of the Cloud Computing series.

Introduction

Software as a Service (SaaS) is a cloud platform that delivers Software or application through the Internet. SaaS provides marketing automation, payment, accounting, team communication, and Business process management. Other standard SaaS services are Office 365 by Microsoft, Gmail by Google, etc.

SaaS offers applications that can be easily installed and run on any device. SaaS users are able to subscribe to an application rather than purchasing and installing it. Users can use a SaaS application from any device over the Internet. Users can perform their daily tasks on the SaaS application.

Features of Software as a Service

• Data Security
  SaaS products take care of data/business information, are protected from corruption and unauthorized access, and take various security measures. Frameworks play a critical role in SaaS products. CASB (Cloud Access Security Brokers) system is a framework that deals with privacy and data security.

• Multi-tenant model
  Multi-tenancy is Software that allows access to the application through multiple users. Each instance of a virtual machine is called a tenant. Multiple tenants can share the same applications running on the same operating system.

• Subscription-based billing
  Software as a service offers its products on a subscription basis, monthly or yearly. This type of billing is usually low, with more significant benefits.

• Hardware
  No additional hardware is required for installing SaaS products.

• Architecture
  SaaS is architected, and the customizations are unique to every user or business and are preserved through upgrades.

How does Software as a service (SaaS) work?

Traditionally, people used to install real hardware or purchase it, but as in today’s generation, technology has evolved, and the cloud came into existence, providing various services virtually.

SaaS providers mostly offer a very high percentage of uptime. Organizations using such reliable Software can focus on their business and be more productive. SaaS mainly works on

• Scalability of an application so that the resources can be added or deleted to meet changing demands.
• In SaaS, an independent software vendor (ISV) may contract a third-party cloud provider to host the application.
• It works irrespective of devices, such as it is accessible via mobile, desktop, and web apps
• The subscription fee of SaaS is usually monthly and annually.

Conclusion

SaaS consists of many features in the business, communication, management, and many more. The primary advantage is that it can be used on any internet. It is easy to operate by users and provides data security. It offers flexible billing options where you can use the pay-as-per-use model.