People have loved and integrated technology deeply into their lives. As mentioned in this blog, nearly 84% of the world population has smartphones as of today. The Internet is also not behind in this revolution. There were 4.9 billion internet users worldwide in 2021 as per statistia! This shows how technology is growing at a crazy pace! With a lot of apps and functionalities, our computing needs have increased more than ever. Be it running complex scientific simulations or AI filters of Instagram that transform you into a Disney princess. All these functionalities are computationally intensive.
Handheld devices and computers can’t do much after a certain limit. The average Smartphone or a computer device has limited memory and computational power. This is where Cloud Computing comes to the rescue! Cloud computing meets all the computational, database, storage, etc. needs in the modern era. Cloud computing is ubiquitous.
Major enterprises like Twitter, Netflix, Pinterest, PayPal are all using Cloud. “Cloud Computing” has become a catchy and cool buzzword in the IT industry. But what is “Cloud Computing?”, you might ask. And “What are the advantages of it?”, “What is the difference between SaaS and Cloud Computing?”. All these questions will be answered here one by one. Let’s first get an overview of the difference.
SaaS-based vs. Cloud-Based Application
To simplify, SaaS is one of the service models of Cloud Computing. SaaS and Cloud share child & parent relationships. SaaS is a child and Cloud is the parent. To further simplify this, let us understand Cloud Computing and its service models.
What is Cloud Computing?
As per Microsoft’s definition, Cloud computing is: “Delivery of Computing services” including servers, storage, databases, etc. over the internet. Period. Cloud is as simple as that! Since the internet is the means of delivery, the symbol “cloud” is chosen. This is a very intuitive abstraction of all the delivery infrastructure.
This delivery is needed because devices have finite computational power as discussed earlier. Also, Cloud Computing is efficient in many ways. Therefore, enterprises are delivering various services like software development framework, platform, and infrastructure to overcome this. Apart from this, there are many advantages of cloud computing like scalability, flexibility, cost reduction, & enhanced performance.
Cloud Computing majorly delivers three types of services and Software is one of them. Term SaaS is used to describe this and stands for “Software As A Service”.
- SaaS (Software as a Service)
- PaaS (Platform as a Service)
- Iaas (Infrastructure as a Service)
As per this, Cloud Computing-based service/application can be using any of these models. PaaS gives the framework for Software Development. This means developers can develop their software without worrying about operating systems, storage, etc. Iaas means leasing servers, computers, etc. for your application. So, Cloud Computing encompasses all three service models.
Our services at Enliven include services related to Server and Cloud management. We can help you in leveraging the benefits of the cloud. We can lighten your load and transfer it to the cloud.
What is a SaaS-based Application?
As defined, SaaS means software service delivered over the internet. It is one of the Cloud Computing models. This means if your application is SaaS-based, the software is not running on your computer. It is running somewhere else, but you can see the results & output on your computer. This is as simple as that!
This means the software is “hosted” somewhere on the server. And you are accessing it through the web browser or similar interface. This idea is revolutionary and gives users immense power.
Google Docs is the perfect example of this. Unlike Microsoft Word, it runs on a remote server. You can do your work and access it through a Web browser. This service model has many advantages over the conventional way of computing.
Difference: SaaS-based vs Cloud-based Software:
Having discussed the Cloud and SaaS basics, let’s understand the key differences between the two. As mentioned, both concepts share a child and parent relationship. If your application or service is Cloud Computing based, this means it can be any of the three. Meaning, you can be utilizing any combination of SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS. You might be renting the framework, database, networking, or server infrastructure.
But if you say your application is SaaS-based, this means it is only the software hosted somewhere. You are clear and separate from the IaaS and PaaS services. Also, it is the software that is accessible to the users via a web browser or similar. Google Docs, Dropbox, Cisco WebEx are some examples of it.
How SaaS-based or Cloud-based Services can help your business?
Let’s see the advantages of Saas/Cloud-based service one by one.
1.Lower Installation & Configuration time:
SaaS differs from the traditional model from a configuration and installation point of view. Businesses can provision a separate server, create an instance, and have the application ready in a few hours. This lowers the installation & configuration time for deployment.
2.Cost Reduction:
SaaS can be cost-effective for your business. Reason being, the multi-tenant environment and “Pay as you go” model. Due to this, costs for hardware and licensing are low. This is not the case with traditional models.
3.Scalability:
SaaS software services generally reside in a multi-tenant environment. This means it is not necessary to buy another server or software. Cloud easily supports the addition of storage, servers, database, etc. This ensures that your site won’t crash due to heavy traffic during Black Friday sales.
4.Security:
As mentioned in this article, SaaS can provide better security than on-premise applications. If done right, it can be implemented securely for sensitive applications like banking without security risk.
Conclusion
As discussed, cloud computing can be superior to traditional ways in many aspects. Examples include scalability, reduced cost, and ease of upgrading. Due to these merits, Many businesses are aligning with the idea of ‘renting’ instead of CAPEX for license and hardware. Due to these reasons, we can say SaaS is the future of computing.
We at Enliven can help you take advantage of Cloud computing. We can help you in building business software, Web apps, etc. We can also help you with taking this software to the cloud and making your business seamless and burden-free. Reach out to us at Enliven to know how we can work together to leverage the cloud for your business.
