SaaS defined
Software as a service (SaaS) is a way of delivering applications remotely over the internet instead of locally on machines (known as “on-premise” software). SaaS applications are also known as:
- Web-based software
- On-demand software
- Hosted software
As the name suggests, SaaS transforms software from a product that’s purchased — a commodity that you buy once and download to your device — into a service that’s rendered: a set of capabilities that you subscribe to.
Traditionally, IT departments installed business software on employees’ computers and had to manually update and maintain it. Users had only so much storage on their hard drives, and companies had to buy individual licenses for everyone. That made it difficult to collaborate, to work from a communal database, and to update data as needed.
With SaaS, applications live on software providers’ servers. That frees users from licensing and hardware limitations, as well as maintenance responsibilities.
Cloud computing is a key enabler. In its most basic form, the cloud is “software, data storage, and processing power” that’s available via the web. Users therefore access cloud-based software as a service through websites and apps.
On this page, you’ll learn the basics of software as a service, including how SaaS can:
- Simplify software maintenance and management
- Reduce upfront IT costs
- Enhance collaboration
- Improve flexibility and scalability
Table of Contents
How does software as a service work?
Can moving from on-premise to SaaS make employees more efficient?
What are the advantages of SaaS?
What are software-as-a-service examples?
How does software as a service work?
With software as a service, you don’t install and maintain software. Instead, you log in using the internet. The provider manages application security, access, storage, and performance. This empowers your IT department to spend more time on strategic work instead of software and hardware management.
Can moving from on-premise to SaaS make employees more efficient?
Software as a service can be an asset to your IT department, to your broader workforce, and to your customer base.
Traditional software generally demands large, upfront investments in exchange for limited installations. Updates arrive in the form of new software versions that you must buy and install. Meanwhile, your company needs energy, servers, and storage to accommodate applications and data. If anything goes awry, you have to fix it. And if your business experiences a data breach or natural disaster, it could lose access to critical applications and information.
SaaS takes a different approach. It’s subscription-based, with pricing options that support both individual and multiple users. Software also lives on providers’ servers. That means there’s no hardware to maintain, applications and data are always backed up, and updates are automatic. Plus, many vendors offer training to help users make the most of their investment.
All this helps your employees get more mileage out of business software and, in turn, deliver more value to your customers.
