Context

Amid a downturn in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) market, marked by declining sales and delayed purchases, innovation-led differentiation has emerged as a key challenge for most SaaS firms.

What is SaaS? – Software as a Service

• About: SaaS is a software licensing model. It provides access to applications on a subscription basis through external servers.
• Features of SaaS: It enables each user to access programmes over the Internet. The user does not required to install the software on their computers
• Examples of Saas: Salesforce, Google Workspace apps, Microsoft 365, HubSpot, Trello, Netflix, Zoom, Zendesk, DocuSign.

Benefits of Using Saas

• Business applications:  It includes file sharing, email, calendars, customer retention management, and human resources.
• Easy to Update: It is easy to implement, update and debug.
• Cost Effective:  It is not very costly as users pay for SaaS instead of purchasing multiple software licenses for multiple computers. 
• Accessing through Multiple locations: SaaS allows users to access the software through a web browser from multiple locations.

How Does Saas Work?

• Cloud Delivery model: Software as a Service works through a cloud delivery model
• Third Party Server Utilisation: SaaS vendors commonly host applications and data on their own servers and databases, or utilize the servers of a third-party cloud provider. 
• Managing Platforms: SaaS vendors also manage platforms, operating systems, and middleware.
• Granting Customer Access: Once a subscription to a SaaS solution is signed, the provider grants the customer access to the application through web browser user registration and login. 
• Multi Tenant Model: SaaS vendors usually adopt a multi-tenant model, meaning a single version of the SaaS solution will be hosted on the vendor’s servers and provided to individual subscribers.

Types of Cloud Services

• Platform-as-a-Service(PaaS): 

  • PaaS is a cloud computing model that offers users a complete cloud platform—hardware, software, and infrastructure—for developing, running, and managing applications without the high expense, complexity, and inflexibility associated with establishing and maintaining that platform on-premises.
    • Examples: Microsoft Azure App Service, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Aadhaar authentication services, etc.

• Infrastructure as a service (IaaS):

  • IaaS is a type of cloud computing service that provides critical computation, storage, and networking resources on demand and on a pay-per-use basis. IaaS is one of four forms of cloud services, which include software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and serverless.
    • Examples: Amazon E2C Services, MeghRaj Initiative, etc.

• Serverless Computing: 

  • Serverless computing allows developers to create applications without managing infrastructure. With serverless applications, the cloud service provider automatically provisioned, scaled, and managed the infrastructure required to run the code, but the code remains active.