Software as a Service SaaS is basically providing and consuming Software in a service oriented manner rather than as a product. In the cloud computing context, this means software is deployed on Cloud and is accessed by the users over the network, either through Web or Mobile Apps.
Software as a Service have few characteristics both business and technical as below
SaaS Business Characteristics
- Subscription based - Payment for the Service is based on Subscription and paid monthly normally
- No Licenses - There are no licenses or contracts, subscriptions can be cancelled at any time
- No Customization - SaaS software typically have customizations built in and apart from what is provided by the software, customizations (like reports, ui etc) are not possible
- CAPEX vs OPEX - one the significant attributes, SaaS allows users to reduce their capital expenditure (CAPEX) on software licenses and pay only for what they use, converting it to operational expense (OPEX)
- Sales Channels - Unlike traditional model of software selling, SaaS software is typically sold directly to customer without resellers, distributors. There might be implementation partners for some complex implementations
SaaS Technical Characteristics
- Multi-tenancy - Software is built on multi-tenant architecture, where multiple accounts are deployed on same software stack.
- Network based - Most of the SaaS installations are network based and typically on Cloud
- Scalable - SaaS is built with scalability in mind where in millions of users are expected to use the same infrastructure and application
Top SaaS companies
Google Apps
Salesforce.com
Zoho Apps
Basecamp