Technology is one of the key factors for the world to develop, there are so many new theories, and new way on doing anything. Everything is changing, from the simplest things to, the most complicated things.
Computers are one of the first technological advances, they have been developed to a point that cannot be imagined, and might still be able to enhance it as time goes on. Now if you work with computer, or have done so in when you were little then you may know a thing about software and how it is installed, and how it works. Well as you know software has to be directly installed into the PC, this is what everyone is familiar with. You’ve probably even done it yourself. This was done so that the software could be there directly on the device.
But now this is not important, having to through the trouble of finding software, then downloading it, and setting it up is not needed anymore. There are better, easier ways to do this. This is known as SaaS, most of you may not be familiar with the term, but it will be explained later on. All you have to know at this point is that it may make things a whole lot easier than it was before. It saves you all the trouble. But I’m not saying that there won’t be any drawbacks, although it is nothing to worry about, it can be resolved, so now let’s get back to the SaaS explained part.
What is Saas?
For you’re whole entire life you may have been working with downloading the needed software on to your PC, or desktop, but now you don’t have to. SaaS, or Software as a Service is a cloud based service. That means you don’t have to deal with the downloading of anything. Now you can access the applications through the internet, on a browser. The software could be anything, any office related software, or any unified communication software, and so on. Now you don’t have to deal with the updating parts as well, as it is done through the browsers.
When it comes to this is it a licensed subscription that does mean that you will have to pay for it if you want to use it. And these are actually considered to be apps, and they are usually accessed by users that are using a thin client, this is just a web browser.
There is also an architecture to it, there are vast majorities of SaaS, one of the two main are Vertical SaaS, this is where the software answers the needs of a specific industry, for example the healthcare industry, or the real estate industry and so on. The second type is Horizontal SaaS, these are the products that focus on a software category. For example marketing, HR, sales, and so on.
SaaS also has a certain amount of beneficial characteristics, one being that there is configuration and customization. Now a single customer can alter it to however they like to, and each customer will have their own settings to do so. It also has accelerated feature delivery, which means the updates are frequent. Furthermore you could expect open integration protocols, and collaborative functionality, which means it allows you to be social when you are using it. There is also something called open SaaS, this is a software service based on open source, it is supported and maintained by the same service provider. And these are the general things that need to be known.
How does the pricing work?
Like I said before this is a licensed subscription, which means there will be monthly fees that have to be endure. When you buy this there will be an up front cost, and these will be priced either annually, or monthly. Then you would also have to deal with the set up costs too, but these are usually at lower rates, so there isn’t much to worry about it being overpriced. Some vendors will offer a free trial, but other than that they will have to pay for it in the end. This is commonly seen in adult websites and apps. Adult dating apps will often offer a free trial membership with a paid membership needed for full access. An example of this can be seen with the Skipthegames escort finder in which a free tour of app is offered and users can view limited escort profiles and escort reviews, but in order to have untethered access a subscription is required.
The prices can vary from vendor to vendor, the thing about this is that they will price is based on the numbers of users they have. So if there are less users there is the possibility of it being priced lower. But there is also competitive pricing that has to be taken into account. The pricing would also depend on how much space you need as well. Say that you need 10GB then it would cost you $54,000 a year, and this price can go up if you intend on buying more space. The initial fees will also run you about $100 to just over $200.
The benefit and drawbacks?
Having the SaaS explained is great because then you can make a proper decision, but that’s not possible to do until you’ve heard the benefits of it. SaaS is a good investment choice because there is more accessibility, which means that it can run through any internet browser, so the operating system doesn’t matter. Also you don’t have to update anything, all of it will be done on the cloud. Plus this reduces the need for hardware, the use of servers, and network switches are not needed, so the need for infrastructure decreases, reducing your costs as well.
However there maybe insufficient data security, there is the possibility of your work, and information getting leaked, but this issue can be resolved with the provider enhancing the security of it. Also there could be some troubles with the integration of the software, this could be because of it may not be compatible with your device. Moreover the costs can be pretty high too, not only do you have to pay an up front cost, a set up fee, but you also have to pay a monthly fee, an if you run out of storage then you need to buy more, and this is expensive.
