Software as a Service, Study notes of Introduction to Computing

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Software as a Service

Haojie Hang Ogheneovo Dibie

Executive Summary

• In this presentation, we go through the Software as a Service Methodology, examine its benefits and drawbacks and talk about two state-of-art SaaS systems– Amazon Web Service and Google App Engine
• We also look into Service Oriented Architecture powering SaaS applications and its impact on modern web 2.0 applications
• Finally, we examine hybrids of traditional and SaaS applications

What is SaaS?

• Definition : Software as a Service (SaaS), a.k.a. on- demand software, is a software delivery model in which software and its associated data are hosted centrally and accessed using a thin-client, usually a web browser over the internet. – Wikipedia
• Simply put, SaaS is a method for delivering software that provides remote access to software as a web- based service. The software service can be purchased with a monthly fee and pay as you go.

What is SaaS?

• Where does the term SaaS come from? o The SAAS acronym allegedly first appeared in an article called "Strategic Backgrounder: Software As A Service", internally published in February 2001 by the Software & Information Industry’s eBusiness Division
• Multi-tenant architecture o Virtualization as a alternative
• Pricing model o pay as we go, relatively low cost for user provisioning
• Configuration and customization o Easy for application customization
• Accelerated feature delivery o It means a much shorter release cycle
• Open integration protocols o Typically based on HTTP, JSON,REST, SOAP

A Brief History

• In 1960s, IBM and other mainframe providers conducted time-sharing or utility computing services, offering computer power and database to banks and large organization
• In 1990s with the expansion of Internet, Application Service Providers (ASP) appeared. They provided small businesses with the service of hosting and managing specialized business application
• Starting from 2003, the true SaaS became popular due to the increased speed of internet connections. Ultimately, all software will be web- based and pay-as-go

This diagrams shows the evolution of the Software as a Service and its ecosystem

The Big Picture Software as a Service is located in the application level of the stack

Related Terminology

• Cloud computing o Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network
• Platform as a Service o Platform as a service (PaaS) is a category of cloud computing services that provide a computing platform and a solution stack as a service.
• Infrastructure as a Service o Infrastructure as a Service is a provision model in which an organization outsources the equipment used to support operations, including storage, hardware, servers and networking components. The service provider owns the equipment and is responsible for housing, running and maintaining it.
• Multi-Tenancy o Multi-Tenancy refers to a principle in software architecture where a single instance of the software runs on a server, serving multiple client organizations
• Application Service Provider o provided businesses with the service of hosting and managing specialized business applications, with the goal of reducing costs through central administration and through the solution provider's specialization in a particular business application

Computing Today

• We are in the era of Cloud Computing!
• Cloud computing stack o Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) o Platform as a Service (PaaS) o Software as a Service (SaaS) o Monitoring as a Service (MaaS) - emerging o Communication as a Service (CaaS) o Anything as a Service – emerging
• So many buzz terms...but SaaS is one of the most widely used service model

SaaS is everywhere

Business’s perspective SaaS has a lot of appeal to businesses. Here are a few reasons why:

• Multi-tenant software architecture
• Low cost, fast investment, shared license
• High manageability
• Free of deployment and support
• Cost-effective: pay as we go
• Customization is easy
• Can scale well – commercialization

Advantages of SaaS o Easy to use – Most SaaS applications do not require more than a web browser to run o Cheap- The pay as you go pricing model of SaaS makes it affordable to small businesses and individuals. o Scalability: SaaS application can be easily scaled up or down to meet consumer demand. Consumers do not need to worry about additional computing infrastructure to scale up. o Applications are less prone to data loss since data is being stored in the cloud. o Compared to traditional applications, SaaS applications are less clunky. They do not require users to install/uninstall binary code on their machines o Due to the delivery nature of Sass through the internet, SaaS applications are able to run on a wide variety of devices. o Allows for better collaboration between teams since the data is stored in a central location. o Velocity of change in SaaS applications is much faster. o SaaS favors a Agile development life cycle.

• Software changes and frequent and on-demand. Most Saas services are updated about every 2 weeks and users are most time unaware of these changes.

Robustness

• SaaS applications may not be able to provide the same level of functionality as traditional applications. This is partly due to current limitations of the web browser. Consider Google doc and Microsoft Office
• Most SaaS applications are intolerant to slow internet connections and this can lead to erratic behavior o Google doc may not be synchronized well between teams in a low internet connection

Privacy

• Lots of issues arise with sensitive data stored in the cloud. Common privacy questions include: o Who has the access to the data? How to distribute the rights? o What type of data can be saved on the cloud, and locally? What about the confidential data? o Don’t we really have to worry about data sharing? Who is viewing our data, modifying the data, and re-distributing our data? With or without permission? o Data sharing between private and public clouds