Cloud Computing Certification Pathways
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1 Introduction 1.1 What is Saas? SaaS (Software as a service) changes the way software applications are stored and accessed. Traditionally software applications would be installed and reside on the same host machine, where they would be accessed from. However, SaaS changes this by hosting software applications on a remote server. These software applications and services are then accessed by remote users via the Internet. A simple example of SaaS: Although most people probably don’t realize it, SaaS is more commonly used than they actually think. One of the most common uses of SaaS is for web-based email services. Popular web-based email service providers include Microsoft, Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail and many others. These web-based email services are a good example of what SaaS basically is. Each web-based email service provider hosts all of their programs, information and data that are linked to the services they are providing (in this case web-based email access), in a remote centralized location. End-users can then remotely access these web-based email services and data which relates to them, via the World Wide Web using any normal web browser. To summarize things, there are a few basic points that are common to all SaaS implementation. 1. Software applications or services are stored remotely. 2. A user can then access these services or software applications from anywhere in the world, via the Internet. 3. In most cases, a user does not have to install anything onto their host machine, all they require is a web browser to access these services (although in some cases, a web browsers may require an additional plug-in or add-on for certain services). These simple set of points are common for all SaaS implementations, whether they are for business and enterprise use or even just for individual use. Categories of SaaS SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide 14 Currently, there are two main categories of SaaS; these are business-orientated services and customer-orientated services. Business-orientated services This type of SaaS involves offering software solutions to companies or enterprises. The software is either sold in a traditional commerce way or it is made available to companies on a subscription basis. A number of applications and software services fall under this first category. However, in most cases they relate to business processes such as product management services or customer relations applications. Customer-orientated services Customer orientated SaaS involves offering software solutions or services to the general public. Sometimes these services are offered on a subscription basis but in a lot of cases they are offered for free. Often, advertising is what make it possible for these types of consumer orientated services, to be offered for free. Who has ownership of software in a SaaS Solution? Normally a customer will purchase software along with a license (or licenses depending on how many copies they require), by paying a one-off fee. This is similar to buying any other product, whether it is software-based or hardware-based. A customer buys a software product and once purchased, that software product then becomes the property of the buyer. The customer now has full ownership of that software solution and can effectively use the software in any way they wish, as long as they do not break any of the terms and conditions (i.e. copyright terms) or licensing terms for that software. In most cases, once a software solution has been purchased, the vendor for that software solution will still provide software support in the form of upgrades and patches. In the case of SaaS, ownership of software solutions remains in the vendor’s hands. A customer does not buy a software solution or any licenses through a one-off fee. Instead they pay a recurring fee in the form a subscription (if the software solution is not one that is offered for free). The user then has access and permission to use that particular software solution, until either their subscription period runs out or they cancel their recurring payment. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide 15 In a SaaS solution, ownership of software applications and services remain in the vendor’s hands because th e software is not downloaded on to a user’s computer in any way. Instead it is accessed by a user remotely through the Internet using their web browser. This means that software vendors now have full control of their software solutions and do not have worry about consumers breaching their copyright terms or licensing terms. The main advantages of SaaS for software clients Briefly mentioned below are a few of the main advantages for of SaaS for software users. Lower costs – If a user only needed to use a software application for one month, it would be a waste of money for them to completely purchase this software application (especially for expensive software applications such as video editing, graphics, etc.). By using SaaS software solutions, consumers can save a lot of money. All they have to do is pay a subscription fee for one month or for the duration of time that they will be using an application for. This is a very cost-effective solution for users who may only use a particular software application on rare occasions. Reduced storage requirements – Some applications can take up a lot of hard drive space. By using SaaS software solutions, consumers can save a lot of hard drive space and in the long run this can save them money. Also, users do not have to worry about constantly backing up software data as this is all handled by the SaaS vendors. The main advantages of SaaS for software vendors Continuous income and greater profits – SaaS allows software vendors to profit like never before. Traditionally a client would purchase a software application, along with the number of licenses that they required and then that was it. A software vendor received very little from their clients after this initial purchase. However, SaaS now allows software vendors to receive a continuous stream of income in the form of subscriptions. In the long run, this means that software vendors are able to profit far more than they could before. A reduction in piracy and unlicensed software – By keeping ownership of software applications in their own hands, software vendors can benefit from a reduction in piracy and unlicensed copies of their software being distributed. Again, this increases their profits because the amount of money that they are losing through piracy can be greatly reduced. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide 16 There are many more benefits to using SaaS software solutions for both clients and vendors and only a few of the main ones were mentioned above. 1.2 The History of SaaS SaaS is a technology that first came of age during the 1990s. However, it was nearly lost in obscurity like many other new technologies that were emerging at that time, due to the dot com bubble bursting. Fortunately, SaaS was able to recover and it is now a software methodology that is widely used across the Internet. Issues that were holding SaaS back during the 90s The initial problems for SaaS during the late 90s included the fact that most software applications were never designed to be remotely accessible. Software applications would always be installed on to the same machines on which they were going to be run on. Other factors which greatly hindered the progress of SaaS, being widely implemented during the 1990s included limited bandwidth availability and Internet speeds. Many clients and potential users of SaaS accepted the subscription approach to software services and hosted delivery of software services. However, because Internet connections were so slow at the time (maximum of 56kbs for most users), SaaS just wasn’t practical. Bandwidth was also quite expensive, which made SaaS a very expensive solution at the time. It was far quicker and cheaper for businesses and individual users to install applications onto their local machines. Finally, software vendors were just not interested in changing their pricing models. At the time, most software vendors were happy with receiving immediate up-front payment for their software applications and tended to overlook the benefits that a subscription- based model would have for them. The major software companies like Microsoft, Oracle, etc., also just ignored SaaS and did not take it seriously. The resurgence of SaaS in the millennium As mentioned, a lot of technologies and concepts just faded with the burst of the dot com bubble, but SaaS was not one of these. To begin with, SaaS was just used in niche markets. SaaS was being used to address specific software problems and provide specific software services, in small specialized areas of a business. SaaS and Web Applications Specialist Level Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide 17 However with time, vendors like Salesforce, NetSuite and many more, began to develop purpose-built SaaS solutions, delivering them to customers in the form of subscriptions. This meant that businesses now had access to entire software solutions and could subscribe to as many of these services or as few of these services as required. This is one of the main reasons why SaaS solutions became widely adopted in the new millennium, because of the flexibility that SaaS offered. Of course this wasn’t the only reason why SaaS solutions b ecame so widely adopted in the new millennium. There were a few other important reasons which are briefly detailed below. Improvements in Internet speeds and an increase in availability In the new millennium, Internet speeds rapidly increased through the use of broadband technologies.