SaaS (software as a service)

With the development of Cloud Computing ,SaaS More and more into people's vision . In especial 2 It's spread in the month Google Intend to spend 2500 US $100 million acquisition SaaS supplier Salesforce, It also seems to stimulate China's primary capital market to focus on SaaS field . On the other hand , More and more traditional enterprises are using or considering SaaS service . that , What exactly is SaaS,SaaS What are the advantages , use SaaS What problems should be paid attention to in the process of construction , It seems that many people are still specious about this . The author from the 2012 Started to engage in cloud computing architecture design and development , experienced IaaS、PaaS, At present, we are also doing SaaS Related work of . The following is the author's thinking and summary on these issues .

What is? SaaS

SaaS（ Software as a service ,Software-as-a-Service） It is essentially a software delivery method . In this way of delivery , Users can be anywhere , Using any device , Connect with through the network Web browser , Access applications and data , Without having to install all the software on the client ; The software supplier is responsible for establishing and maintaining the servers required to constitute the software services 、 Database and software itself , And ensure that software services are normally provided .

meanwhile ,SaaS It is also a kind of cloud computing . As a kind of Cloud Computing , And PaaS（ Platform as a service ） And IaaS( Infrastructure as a service ） similar , It has the general characteristics of cloud computing ：1） Self service on demand , Consumers can deploy resources unilaterally , Resources are automatically deployed on demand without human interaction with service providers ;2） Network access resources , Resources can be obtained through the Internet , And can be accessed in a standard way ;3） Pooling resources , Suppliers' resources are pooled , In order to be used by different customers in multi-user rental mode , For example, different physical and virtual resources can be dynamically allocated and reallocated according to customer requirements ;4） Fast scaling , Resources can be deployed and released flexibly , In order to rapidly expand and reduce the scale as required ;5） measurable , Resource usage can be monitored 、 control 、 The report , So as to provide transparency of service consumption to service providers and customers .

SaaS What are the services

Similar to traditional software ,SaaS It can be divided into two categories ：ToC（ Face the individual ） And ToB( Enterprise oriented ）.

• ToC Of SaaS, That is, software services for individual users and consumers , Such as Google Docs、 Microsoft Office 365、 Impression notes, etc ;
• ToB Of SaaS, That is, software services for enterprise users . If provided CRM Service Salesforce, Provided by UFIDA ERP SaaS Service etc. .

according to SaaS Types of services provided ,ToB Of SaaS It can also be divided into two categories ： Universal SaaS Industry vertical SaaS.

• Universal SaaS, It is applicable to all enterprises , Providing a certain function required by the enterprise SaaS product , Such as Citrix GoToMeeting Provide remote conference services 、SalesForce Provide customer relationship management services, etc .
• Industry vertical SaaS, That is, facing a certain industry , Providing overall solutions SaaS. For example, Guanglianda provides SaaS、 Provided by Yilian cloud for gas and other utilities SaaS etc. .

in addition , from SaaS From the perspective of system ownership , You can put SaaS Divided into public SaaS、 private SaaS And mixing SaaS.

• If SaaS The service is provided to enterprises and individuals by external suppliers , Namely public SaaS.
• If SaaS Built and operated by the enterprise , For internal use in the enterprise , I.e. private SaaS.
• Self built inside the enterprise SaaS At the same time , Some business functions are integrated with those of external suppliers SaaS, That is, mixing SaaS.

Why use SaaS service

SaaS What are the advantages of service , Let enterprise users and individual consumers flock to it ？

Enterprise users

There are usually the following factors that attract enterprise customers to abandon the traditional software purchase and implementation , And use SaaS.

• No large capital expenditure in advance . Traditional software delivery , Generally, enterprises purchase software licenses and the required servers and storage , Then it is customized and implemented according to the needs of the enterprise . Enterprises need to pay software licensing fees before using the software 、 The purchase cost of hardware and the cost of customization and implementation . and SaaS Under way , The enterprise usually pays the lease fee on an annual or monthly basis .
• No special operation and maintenance is required . Under the traditional software delivery mode , Enterprises need to cultivate relevant IT personnel , Responsible for the monitoring of relevant systems 、 Operation and maintenance 、 Data backup and other work . For vertical industries , Especially for small and medium-sized enterprises , It's usually a big expense . in addition , If the enterprise is in IT Weak competitive advantage in , It is often difficult to attract high-quality IT personnel .
• Business requirements are more responsive . Traditional software delivery , Generally, the business department first puts forward the demand , Superior department or IT Budget approval by the Department ,IT Department bidding , Then the supplier will implement and customize the development . This process usually takes six months to 1 year , Even more time .SaaS Because there is no need for large capital expenditure , Rental expenses can be counted as pure expenses or costs , The approval process has less resistance or even no approval ; and , When the enterprise has sorted out its internal business processes , You can subscribe and subscribe directly , It saves time for software implementation and customized development . thus ,SaaS Patterns make the cycle from requirements to software services shorter .
• Better compatibility . Due to compatibility issues , Installation of traditional software 、 Updates and patches may take some time . in addition , The software occasionally has compatibility problems when upgrading large versions , Data export is required 、 modify , Then import . And for SaaS Users , Log in and use the latest version of the service .
• Industry best practices . Generally speaking , Whether it's general-purpose SaaS The product is vertical industry type SaaS product , They are all based on the best processes and practices in related fields , And make improvement according to the customer's feedback , It should be said that it represents the best process and experience summary of the industry . By using SaaS product , That is, in fact, the best practices in the industry have been obtained , Thus, the operation level of the enterprise can be rapidly improved .

Individual users

For individual users ,SaaS The most attractive thing about the product is that it makes it unnecessary for individual users to download and install software , It is very convenient to use software services or software products . Users only need to surf the Internet , Pay as you go （ Of course, many products are free ）, And then you can use it .

SaaS Another attraction of the product to individual users is that users can activate or deactivate the product at any time according to their needs , Without the need to purchase software licensing fees .

choice SaaS The service , What to pay attention to

Usually the user is selecting an external SaaS The service , In addition to the assessment of business needs , The following aspects also need to be evaluated .

• Data security . Usually ,SaaS Users share SaaS Software and hardware systems provided by the supplier , It means , Compared with the traditional self built IT System approach , There may be a risk of data leakage . say concretely , Data mainly has the following risks ：1） Suppliers intentionally steal data ;2） Data leakage or loss caused by accident by the supplier , For example, a data loss accident occurred recently in the micro alliance due to the intentional deletion of data by the operation and maintenance personnel ;3）SaaS Users break through tenant and permission restrictions in some way , Get data from other users . The first kind of risk is very difficult to occur where the business environment is perfect , However, users should avoid horizontal competition when selecting suppliers ; For the second risk , Users need to evaluate the supplier's O & M operation and data management capabilities , Is there a sound data backup and recovery scheme ; For the third risk , Service providers should be considered SaaS Data isolation scheme of the system 、 Safety level of system software .
• Lack of control .SaaS Systems typically run in a provider's data center or in a leased public cloud , The user has no control over the IT System , And can only rely entirely on SaaS provider . therefore , If the enterprise adopts public SaaS service , It is necessary to evaluate the supplier's high availability and data disaster recovery backup schemes , meanwhile , For key business , consider Plan B.
• Vendor binding .SaaS When service providers attract users , It usually takes a lot of energy , Be friendly to customers . But if the customer is not satisfied with the supplier's service , When you want to move out of a family , It is often found that this process is not so easy . in addition , For those who provide non-standard process services SaaS Come on , Moving to another company may mean readjustment and adaptation of business processes .
• cost . Although users use SaaS Just pay the rental fee , However, the accumulated rental cost may not be lower than the one-time purchase cost , Especially for more than three years , High volume of business . You may need to carefully evaluate local deployment versus adoption of public SaaS Cost of .

Why does the supplier pass SaaS The way Provide services

As mentioned earlier ,SaaS Under way , The supplier is responsible for establishing and maintaining the servers required to constitute the software services 、 Database and software itself , And ensure that software services are provided in a safe and reliable manner . For providers ,SaaS The pattern has three advantages .

• Network effect . For suppliers ,SaaS The core of the way is what it brings “ Network effect ”, That is, excellent SaaS The product will attract more users , And more effective customers will bring more funds to support the development of better products , meanwhile , More customer feedback will improve the product more effectively . in addition , More customers reduce the cost of supporting unit customers , So as to give SaaS Providers bring more profits , Or allow providers to attract more customers at a lower price .
• Provide excellent user experience .SaaS This approach allows providers to convert their products from hardware 、 Overall control from database to software , Regard software products as a kind of universal 、 Scalable services available to users . Especially for complex software and the need for multiple software integration to provide services , Providers can integrate it into services , And carry out operation and maintenance and safety guarantee in a professional way , At the same time, it is provided to users in a simple way , Thus, the user may be saved from incorrect installation 、 Insufficient hardware environment performance 、 Problems caused by incorrect configuration parameters .
• Lower marginal cost . One design is good , Efficient multi tenant support SaaS The system will make the marginal cost of supporting new users very low . This allows providers to make more profits by adding new users .

Summary

SaaS It is essentially a software delivery method , It is also a kind of cloud computing . Generally, it can be divided into general types SaaS And for vertical industries SaaS. Compared with traditional software delivery , User pass SaaS Get a better user experience , And provide excellence SaaS Product providers succeed by providing better services to customers , To achieve a win-win situation . On the whole , Compared with traditional software delivery ,SaaS It should be a better business model .