What is SaaS (Software as a Service)?

SaaS is a tool in which a vendor provides the customer with Software, all hosted on a cloud server, simplifying deployment and use. Thus, the use of SaaS is almost immediate, does not require an executable and only requires an Internet connection. In addition, the Software as a Service manufacturer will be responsible for maintaining the tool, updating it and operating it daily so that the customer can tinker with the tool from anywhere and at any time simply by having access to the network.

Nowadays, it’s impossible to find a private user or company that does not use a SaaS. The former through their cell phones and the thousands and thousands of applications they deal with daily. The workers, through many Software a Service that has increased over the last few years: ERPs, CRMs, firewalls, WAFs… SaaS, or Software as a Service, is a marketing model for technological tools in the cloud.

The unstoppable expansion of SaaS is reflected in one statistic. The consulting firm Gartner estimates that globally, this business will move more than 150,000 million euros per year over the next few years. The model is also evolving, and, in addition to the concept of Software as a Service, there are already solutions on the market that rely on this same dynamic to offer other types of more specific products. The best-known cases are probably these two:

• Platform as a Service (PaaS). A provider creates a software and hardware infrastructure so that a potential customer can develop its Software.

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). In this case, a company offers the market all its cloud hardware as servers so that the potential customer can hire the resources he needs at any time.