Back in the old times, if you required a standard application to perform your business affairs, you needed to build one , provide the infrastructure required to support and sustain it and worry about upgrades, backup and maintenance.
The birth of SaaS (Software as a Service) has made things a lot easier for businesses wanting instant access to high adaptable solutions that are cost effective and scalable. In the SaaS model, applications are hosted and managed in a service provider’s data center and are paid for on a subscription basis. So an internet connection is the entire infrastructure you’ll need to hook up and get started.
Why you should like SaaS?
Below are some of my favorite reasons:
Low acquisition Cost: Since SaaS apps are subscription based and follow a multi-tenancy model the license, hardware, software and human resource required to manage the environment is all provided by the service provider. So there is no license fee plus due to the shared environment infra strucure cost is also low.
No Upgrade hassle: Because the service provider manages all updates and upgrades, there are no patches for customers to download or install. This not only saves time but a lot hassle on post-upgrade testing.
Reduced time to benefit: The best thing about hooking up with a SaaS app is that it’s pretty quick. Since the application is already installed and configured, once you’ve subscribed and have an instance in the cloud , you’re all set!
Accessible and Easy to use: A SaaS application is ALWAYS accessible from any computer or mobile device. All you need is an internet connection. Also since people are now quite familiar with using the Internet these days, SaaS apps tend to have high adoption rates with a lower learning curve.
Pay as you grow: As your business grows and you need to add heads, you can upgrade your monthly SaaS subscription. It saves on the cost for additional in-house server capacity and software licenses.
Resilience: If there is ever a disaster at your business premises, you can always get back to work from any other location without the risk of losing valuable data and time. This is possible only in a SaaS model where the IT infrastructure and your data reside in the SaaS Cloud data center, away from the disaster area.
Leading SaaS Vendors:
Abiquo, AccelOps, Akamai , Salesforce and Cloud9 are some of the bigger names. You can read more about the top twenty SaaS vendors at http://www.clouds360.com/saas.php
