Let’s start off with a little quiz. SaaS is: A) a discount airline offering direct flights to Finland, B) a turbo charged automobile well suited for the German Autobahn, C) Software as a Service, D) not as good as the hype would have you believe. If you answered “C”, you get points for accuracy. If you answered “D”, you have passed the quiz with honors! (Don’t feel bad if you answered A or B)
Simply put, Software as a Service (SaaS) is a delivery method for software in which the applications are hosted by a third party, rather than reside on your servers. To access the software, you pay monthly subscriptions fees based on the number of users. At first glance, this model seems very attractive - no upfront software costs, fast implementation, no new hardware to purchase and maintain. But there are many critical factors to take into account if you are considering SaaS solution.
