SaaS
What is SaaS?
SaaS is an acronym for Software as a Service.
What does this mean?
Put simply, it is the delivery of software solutions as a service to businesses, rather than as a product.
What is the difference?
Software delivered as a product means that it arrives on or at your business premises and, once installed and proven to be working, it becomes your responsibility to keep it running, maintained, apply fixes, etc.
Software delivered as a service means that it is made available to your users 24/7/365 from any location and someone else ensures that the software solution continues to run.
Who can use SaaS?
Businesses of all sizes and verticals can benefit from using SaaS. Market analysis shows that there is an equal spread of interest and purchase of SaaS-based solutions across all sizes of companies - from the smallest SME to largest Enterprise.
What are the advantages of SaaS?
The reason that SaaS has such unilateral appeal is that the benefits of SaaS apply equally to all users of software. The major benefits are listed across the page...
Is SaaS the same as On-Demand and ASP?
SaaS can be viewed as an umbrella term for all 'styles' of delivery of SaaS. ASP is one form of technical architecture enabling software to be provided as a service. On-Demand moves that architecture to an increasingly shared environment technically. There will be many arguments and discussions from purists about what SaaS is (and many will centre around the tehcnical infrstructure/architecture of the product), but the true definition of SaaS remains that;
It can be used over public infrastructure - i.e. the
internet
It can be paid for on a Pay-As-You-Go basis
It can be used instantly - typically less than 24 hours
Little or no installation is needed on the customer-
side
It is Always On - 24/7/365
No investment in hardware or software is needed
If you can buy and use a software product and it meets these key criteria, then it is a SaaS solution.
How reliable is the service?
Service availability is guaranteed through an SLA (Service Level Agreement) in the same way that webhosting, broadband, mobile and other services are supplied. If you want to learn more about our ability to ensure that the SLA is met, please visit our Service page.
Is it really available Anytime, Anywhere?
Yes. If you have internet access you can gain access to your service - you may connect through broadband, 3G data cards, even mobile devices for some services!