Software as a service (SaaS)  |  Google Cloud (2024)

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Software as a service (SaaS)

The cloud computing model that makes it efficient for companies to deliver software and easy for consumers to use software.

From anetworkthat spans the globe to innovativesolutions that transform organizations, Google Cloud has SaaS built into its DNA.

Google Cloud enables you to build better SaaS products, scale efficiently, and ultimately grow your business. Learn more about SaaS transformation.

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SaaS defined

SaaS stands for software as a service. It is a model in which the software is centrally hosted and accessed by the user via a web browser using the internet.

In a SaaS model, the software provider owns and maintains the software and the customer does not need to install any software on their own computer. Typically, in this model the software is licensed on a subscription basis.

SaaS is the new identity card of any company that is pursuing their digital journey.

SaaS is how companies generate revenue, pivot their product to customer demand, optimize existing apps, innovate, and go to market quickly to win against competition. When we talk to customers, SaaS is a businessconversation with emphasis on company growth, monetization aspects, and business models, onboarding customers faster to generate revenue and possibilities around cross-pillar and multi-product co-innovation. Google Cloud can partner with enterprises, share our best practices, and co-innovate with our customers for mutual growth and success.

In a SaaS business model, the software provider owns and maintains the software. The customer does not need to install any software on their own computer. Needless to mention, the SaaS business model is quite different from a managed service model. For a recurring fee or subscription, the end user does not need to worry about the provisioning, management, and maintenance of the infrastructure, platform, and application. This is usually done through a central cloud-based system.

Some interesting SaaS use cases that we explored as part of customer interactions, and how we helped them are listed below.

  • Customers with existing apps that need SaaS multi-tenancy: Modernize and secure applications
  • Customers that onboarded multiple tenants, but need to scale business quicker: Establish SaaS operations, and tenant business intelligence
  • Customers/startups that onboarded a few tenants, and need to scale globally: Enable agility and global expansion
  • Customers/startups that need to onboard free-tier tenants, and convert them to paid tier quickly: Provide a simple and efficient way to support free-tier customers
  • Customers that want cost optimization as they onboard new tenants: Assess and streamline apps/operations and optimize costs, enable usage-based pricing where applicable
  • Customers that need GDPR, data residency, and compliance requirements for their tenants: Bespoke approach to handle multiple types of tenants (SaaS, customer hosted, on-prem, multicloud) in a consistent way

Why should you care about SaaS?

There has been a fundamental shift in how users and enterprises consume software.

  • Consumers and enterprises are demanding free trials
  • Customers are exploring product fit for applications and are making self-service business decisions in days (not months or years) to start leveraging very complex business-critical apps
  • Expectations that the new digital enterprise is expected to offer these services readily, and have the resilience to onboard new customers seamlessly, scale geographically as needed, convert them to paid/subscribed customers, and offer them full transparency with reporting, observability, and chargeback from day 1
  • Customers need to future-proof their products and modernize their product architecture quickly and change their business model to a subscription offering (yes, licenses are a thing of the past!)

Software vendors/ISVs need to embrace these tenets to onboard net-new line of customers and to enable net-new revenue channels.

Google Cloud has a structured approach to help customers who are in their SaaS journey both to model their business and facilitate new revenue streams, and to model their architecture by elevating their existing offerings and making them ready for SaaS consumers.

SaaS journey with Google Cloud

Please contact your sales team to have your organization nominated for a Saas evaluation.

Some of the priorities covered in our no-cost workshop:

* Optimizing cost/security

* Enhance growth/monetization

* Innovation

SaaS Accelerator provides you with access to Google's expertise in open source, DevOps, and SRE, allowing you to modernize your apps/data, plan for multi-tenant onboarding, full security, funding to kick-start your SaaS pilot, and co-innovation with Google.

* Grow business, onboard customers/suppliers faster

* Modernize apps, minimize ops, eliminate dependencies

* Faster time to market, build differentiated offerings

Software as a service (SaaS) | Google Cloud (3)

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Related products and services

Google Cloud can help you meet SaaS requirements without changes to your application—by bringing in isolation at the infrastructure layer at the project level. Industry-leading services such as Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) can enable efficient SaaS operations for effective scalability and maintenance.

Google Kubernetes Engine Autopilot Put your applications on autopilot, eliminating the need to manage nodes or capacity and reducing cluster costs, using fully automated Kubernetes.
Solution Serverless application development and delivery Develop, deploy, and scale applications fast and securely by automatically scaling up and down from zero almost instantaneously, depending on traffic without infrastructure management.

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Software as a service (SaaS)  |  Google Cloud (2024)

FAQs

What is software as a service SaaS? ›

Software as a service (SaaS) allows users to connect to and use cloud-based apps over the Internet. Common examples are email, calendaring, and office tools (such as Microsoft Office 365). SaaS provides a complete software solution that you purchase on a pay-as-you-go basis from a cloud service provider.

Is an example of a SaaS cloud service? ›

SaaS uses the Internet to deliver subscription software services, which are managed by a third-party vendor. Well-known SaaS examples include Dropbox, Google Workspace, and Salesforce.

What is the difference between the cloud and software as a service SaaS? ›

SaaS typically provides a specific application or software solution, such as email, accounting, or project management. Cloud computing, on the other hand, offers a wide range of services including infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS).

What type of cloud is SaaS? ›

Software-as-a-service, or SaaS for short, is a cloud-based method of providing software to users. SaaS users subscribe to an application rather than purchasing it once and installing it. Users can log into and use a SaaS application from any compatible device over the Internet.

Is Netflix A SaaS? ›

Netflix is indeed an SaaS company that sells software to watch licensed videos on demand. It follows a subscription-based model whereby the customer chooses a subscription plan and pays a fixed sum of money to Netflix monthly or annually.

What is an SaaS example? ›

Some popular SaaS examples include:Salesforce: A cloud-based CRM platform. Slack: A collaboration and communication tool. Dropbox: A cloud storage and file-sharing service. Zoom: A video conferencing and online meeting platform.

Is Zoom a SaaS? ›

Zoom Workforce Management is a cloud-based SaaS service for organizing, optimizing, and systematically managing enterprise workforces through the Zoom web portal.

Is AWS a SaaS service? ›

AWS approaches Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) as a business and software delivery model that enables organizations to provide their offering to customers in a low-friction and service-centric manner.

Is Amazon a SaaS? ›

Amazon is not primarily a SaaS company. However, it does offer a number of SaaS products and services, including Amazon Web Services. AWS is a comprehensive, cloud-computing platform that provides a broad range of services, such as compute power, database storage, and content delivery services.

What is another name for SaaS? ›

SaaS is also known as on-demand software, web-based software, or web-hosted software. SaaS is a business model specific to cloud computing, along with infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS). SaaS apps are typically accessed by users of a web browser (a thin client).

Is SaaS always on cloud? ›

SaaS Is Cloud-Dependent

SaaS only exists with a supporting cloud computing infrastructure to host and deliver the software service.

Is software as a service same as cloud? ›

SaaS is a subset of cloud computing.

Each one covers an aspect of IT management as an alternative to on-premise IT solutions. With SaaS, the software is delivered and ready-to-use over the internet.

What are the three types of cloud computing SaaS? ›

Types of Cloud Computing
  • Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) ...
  • Platform as a Service (PaaS) ...
  • Software as a Service (SaaS)

Is Azure A SaaS? ›

The comprehensive suite of capabilities Azure SaaS provides enables businesses to create, launch, and maintain their apps end to end on the system. Your databases and apps are hosted in Microsoft's data centers while using Azure SaaS.

Is Salesforce a SaaS? ›

SaaS means one or more applications—available on the cloud—can be accessed through a network or over the internet. Salesforce is the leading SaaS provider with its flagship CRM platform, available exclusively online, as well as its SaaS platforms for marketing, service, and the Internet of Things.

What is SaaS for dummies? ›

Software as a Service, commonly abbreviated as SaaS, is a cloud computing model that has revolutionized the way software is delivered and accessed. In simple terms, SaaS provides users with access to software applications hosted on remote servers, usually over the Internet.

Is Amazon a SaaS platform? ›

AWS (Amazon Web Services) is a comprehensive, evolving cloud computing platform provided by Amazon. It includes a mixture of infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and packaged software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings.

Why is IT called SaaS? ›

Software as a service (SaaS /sæs/) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. SaaS is also known as on-demand software, web-based software, or web-hosted software.

Is Facebook a SaaS company? ›

SaaS simply stands for “Software as a Service.” Facebook is a consumer network product, not technically SaaS, but there's no other product that provides as many services as Facebook does. The top two social networks for B2B software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies are LinkedIn and Twitter.

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