SaaS and its Popularity
We have transformed into the cloud dependent society. If you take a second to reflect on the number of applications that rely on the cloud technologies, it is insurmountable. The iCloud saves and updates data from apple devices. Spotify saves created playlists and allows offline downloads. Office365 and Slack allows us to work collaboratively from home. The list goes on and on.
We opt for these choices because it allows low maintenance and unlimited accessibility with just a wifi connection and a web browser. It also provides convenience and affordability with just a subscription payment plan. The same mentality is shared among business owners and developers, allowing small enterprises to afford high scalable and functional software with subscription based payments. Before cloud based software, the only option for enterprises was to put down a large investment for on premise ERP(economic resource planning). The development of SaaS has equipped small enterprises with opportunities for scalable application and infrastructure deployment, making it affordable by spreading the total cost of ownership overtime.
SaaS(Software as a Service) is a cloud based software where software is licensed on a subscription basis and centrally hosted. This means that we are able to connect to these applications anywhere — from any device with an internet connection and a web browser. Examples of SaaS are gmail, office365, Dropbox, oneDrive, slack. These web based models host and maintain servers, databases, and the code that makes up the application.
How does SaaS differ from on-premise and is it really much better?
On-premise ERP(economic response planning) is stored locally on the company’s computer and their servers as opposed to vendor servers from any web browser. While SaaS supports subscription payment plans, on-premise is a one time capital expenditure where you invest money all up front. Because cloud ERP can be accessed anywhere with a web browser, there are some security concerns that on-premise does not need to worry about. As the term “on-premise” alludes to, it allows flexibility with customization to specific needs that cloud ERP doesn’t offer. They both offer maintenance and update services.
Both are viable options but SaaS has become more mainstream with the affordable monthly/annual subscriptions, offering more opportunity for smaller enterprises while on-premise serves larger enterprises who want to have special customization and security of data.
