Before going into the pros and cons of choosing SaaS, some of you might need a small introduction what the acronym means, or in other words, what’s in a name and why should you care at all?
The term Saas, or Software as a Service, has been around for around a decade by now, and it’s probably the most known branch of cloud computing where applications are hosted in datacenter of a service provider. The users can access it via internet through their browser and they usually pay for it subscription basis. Some of the more known companies offering SaaS are Logmein (provider of SaaS and cloud-based remote connectivity services for collaboration), Linkedin, Netsuite (company offering SaaS integrated business management software), Salesforce (global cloud computing company), just to mention a few.
Pros of SaaS
Cost savings
Compared to maintaining all the IT infrastructure on-premises SaaS subscription costs can be remarkably lower, especially if the services are used short or medium term. Compared to on-premise IT infrastructure there’s also no initial set up costs involved. You pay only for what you use.
Scalability
If your company grows and you need more power to give access to the services to more users, you don’t need to upgrade your hardware, rather you can just upgrade to the SaaS subscription you need.
Accessibility
SaaS applications can be accessed anywhere with internet connection, which means all you need is a computer (or a mobile device) and internet connection to use the applications.
Data loss security
As your data sits in the cloud, in case of unforeseen disasters you always have a backup and can be up and running again in no time.
Updates & upgrades
You don’t need an IT guy to always make sure your hardware and software is up-to-date, as the cloud service provider takes care of all that.
Compatibility
Because the SaaS apps can be accessed via internet, you can access your applications with pretty much any device. Not to mention the fact that you can use them from any location. Be it at your home in Birmingham or while traveling in Malta.
Cons of SaaS
As with everything, there are also downside to SaaS.
Security concerns
Whenever you leave your data to the hands of a third party the security issue arises. Sometimes there’s a reason for that, sometimes we simply tend to overthink. If the applications and data can be accessed from everywhere, also the matter of the user’s true identity can cause questions. Then again, it’s nothing new, nor so specific to SaaS.
Performance
While the speed of internet is growing, using your browser to access a remote data server to use the applications can be slower than running the same application on your own computer. But whether the speed difference matter here depend a lot on what type of applications you are using, and experience shows that besides the internet speed, also your own computer can cause additional performance problems.
Accessibility/outages
Even though cloud services are very reliable, even there downtimes, non-accessible periods, can happen. So before purchasing a subscription to a mission-critical app be sure to learn about the provider’s past performance.
Photo by NEC Corporation of America with Creative Commons license