SaaS model in simple terms
It so happened that I told many times about what SaaS is and what is good in it, both at various IT conferences and in backstage conversations, but up to this point there was no need to write on the topic. At the same time, the SaaS model is, in the first place, for me, in fact, native, considering the scope of activity, and secondly, it is one of the main trends in modern web technologies. In this regard, I want to talk about SaaS, as such, and in perspective, if it turns out to be interesting, about private aspects. In fact, the material is about basic things, but it is precisely this understanding that many lack. And you should at least try to talk about the complicated. It helps.
Just want to say one thing, SaaS is a specialized term and, if you start digging into it, difficult. He can bring not only anguish, but also a certain reverent horror. But the thing is really simple. To use some kind of SaaS product, including ours, it is not necessary to understand the deep, and even superficial, meaning of this term. Moreover, when uCoz was created, none of the developers themselves had even heard such a word. It was just that products appeared that had a general model in their essence, and then they began to classify it somehow, to highlight features, advantages, and disadvantages.
If you have made web technologies with your vocation or passion, or you are thinking about what type of products you like best for you, which are the most promising, etc., all this can be interesting and useful.
Much has been written about SaaS, and you can start exploring, for example, with an article on Wikipedia . But, as a rule, all this information from there is rather difficult to perceive. As a result, it would seem that what they are talking about is understandable, but why a person is needed is unclear. And if you ask to tell the person what he just read about, then, again, not everyone can. It turns out the classic situation: "I understand everything, but I can not explain."
Therefore, I will try to simplify as much as possible and consider the model of providing software as a service, as a service , using the simplest examples.
')
Often, SaaS is considered as a business model , while it is often mistakenly equated to rent , which, although it has common features, but the main point is still different. In this case, as a rule, the technological peculiarity of the model is interesting, and not the order and periodization of payment.
When we consume this or that service as a service, and not as software installed at home, we already at this moment, as a rule, become consumers of SaaS. The simplest, and all used SaaS service is an email service - the same gmail .
To organize your own email from scratch, you must:
Actually, in many organizations the post in this way works today, it is served by a full-time sysadmin, or even a whole staff of specialists, depending on the size of the organization and its infrastructure.
End users and the mass consumer does not use anything like this. He does not use the mail of his provider, although even 12 years ago almost everyone used it, and mail was taken only by pop3. Web interfaces for working with mail were in their infancy. Today, the absolute majority use mail via the web. And even people who are tenderly called geeks, even they are often transplanted to the web interface from mail clients. This does not mean that everyone will eventually move on to this model of mail consumption, there are specific tasks, there is a wild power of habit, but for the majority, it’s already convenient and more practical this way. Here, everything: reliability, simplicity and even security plays into the hands. Not only private users, but also entire companies, in some cases even corporations, are switching to such solutions. And specialized solutions for corporate mail based on the service have everything like Google , Yandex , Zoho and a number of others.
Mail, by and large, is the simplest example, and the most massive. At least due to the fact that the absolute majority of network users use e-mail, but some CRM, ERP systems, or the same site builders are needed by no means to everyone. They have a narrower circle of consumers. But already very many software products can be found in the form of services. In some cases, of course, they still lag behind their desktop counterparts, but often give their consumers advantages. Almost always, this is expressed precisely in the simplicity of operation, in the fall of maintenance needs, in economic feasibility, to put it simply, in the low cost of such a solution and approach. Other advantages depend mainly on a specific area, in some cases this is a higher degree of security , in others it is unprecedentedly convenient synchronization and availability of comfortable multi-user work , due to cloud storage.
That would not be sprayed on common words and characteristics, I suggest to look at examples. The most such ordinary.
More often than others, as examples of using SaaS solutions, one can come across project management systems , and collaborative work on them, on-line organizers , workflow systems. They are all at hand and many already use them, without thinking about the ideology of such services and terrible smart abbreviations.
As I said, you don’t have to go far for examples. Work with documents? Please - this is a popular google docs, which allows you to abandon Word, Excel, and get a number of advantages, primarily related to the possibilities of collaboration on documents. Moreover, a number of companies have such solutions - Microsoft has it, and Zoho and others.
In principle, online organizers are more than enough, as well as systems in general for organizing work, maintaining todo. Take at least our calendar and project management system in a webtop , or similar solutions from google, or the famous products of the company 37 signals: basecamp, backpack.
The third (not obvious) example is online games. They, of course, are not taken to refer to SaaS-solutions, but they are now available as services, with all the same ideology. Most often it is a MMORPG. Just in case, let me remind you that games are the same programs, and, for example, Microsoft's Xbox Live very clearly classifies itself as a SaaS product .
What were all these examples? In addition, the software, presented as a service, has long been around us. Both the market and ourselves use SaaS much more often than we think about. And convenience, simplicity, efficiency and other advantages of SaaS win the hearts of consumers, without explaining to them their complex structure and philosophy of the model.
I hope this publication for someone made the term SaaS not as mysterious and scary as it seemed before, and its triumph in the future is finally obvious.
Just want to say one thing, SaaS is a specialized term and, if you start digging into it, difficult. He can bring not only anguish, but also a certain reverent horror. But the thing is really simple. To use some kind of SaaS product, including ours, it is not necessary to understand the deep, and even superficial, meaning of this term. Moreover, when uCoz was created, none of the developers themselves had even heard such a word. It was just that products appeared that had a general model in their essence, and then they began to classify it somehow, to highlight features, advantages, and disadvantages.
If you have made web technologies with your vocation or passion, or you are thinking about what type of products you like best for you, which are the most promising, etc., all this can be interesting and useful.
Much has been written about SaaS, and you can start exploring, for example, with an article on Wikipedia . But, as a rule, all this information from there is rather difficult to perceive. As a result, it would seem that what they are talking about is understandable, but why a person is needed is unclear. And if you ask to tell the person what he just read about, then, again, not everyone can. It turns out the classic situation: "I understand everything, but I can not explain."
Therefore, I will try to simplify as much as possible and consider the model of providing software as a service, as a service , using the simplest examples.
')
Often, SaaS is considered as a business model , while it is often mistakenly equated to rent , which, although it has common features, but the main point is still different. In this case, as a rule, the technological peculiarity of the model is interesting, and not the order and periodization of payment.
When we consume this or that service as a service, and not as software installed at home, we already at this moment, as a rule, become consumers of SaaS. The simplest, and all used SaaS service is an email service - the same gmail .
To organize your own email from scratch, you must:
- first configure the server;
- install specialized software on it, some kind of mail transfer agent (for example, Postfix), configure all this, and serve it in the future;
- then install and configure an email client on your computer, for example, The bat or Thunderbird;
- Of course, all of this will have to be monitored, which would continue to work, would not be entered into the black lists of other mail servers, fight on its side with spam, etc. etc.
Actually, in many organizations the post in this way works today, it is served by a full-time sysadmin, or even a whole staff of specialists, depending on the size of the organization and its infrastructure.
End users and the mass consumer does not use anything like this. He does not use the mail of his provider, although even 12 years ago almost everyone used it, and mail was taken only by pop3. Web interfaces for working with mail were in their infancy. Today, the absolute majority use mail via the web. And even people who are tenderly called geeks, even they are often transplanted to the web interface from mail clients. This does not mean that everyone will eventually move on to this model of mail consumption, there are specific tasks, there is a wild power of habit, but for the majority, it’s already convenient and more practical this way. Here, everything: reliability, simplicity and even security plays into the hands. Not only private users, but also entire companies, in some cases even corporations, are switching to such solutions. And specialized solutions for corporate mail based on the service have everything like Google , Yandex , Zoho and a number of others.
Mail, by and large, is the simplest example, and the most massive. At least due to the fact that the absolute majority of network users use e-mail, but some CRM, ERP systems, or the same site builders are needed by no means to everyone. They have a narrower circle of consumers. But already very many software products can be found in the form of services. In some cases, of course, they still lag behind their desktop counterparts, but often give their consumers advantages. Almost always, this is expressed precisely in the simplicity of operation, in the fall of maintenance needs, in economic feasibility, to put it simply, in the low cost of such a solution and approach. Other advantages depend mainly on a specific area, in some cases this is a higher degree of security , in others it is unprecedentedly convenient synchronization and availability of comfortable multi-user work , due to cloud storage.
That would not be sprayed on common words and characteristics, I suggest to look at examples. The most such ordinary.
More often than others, as examples of using SaaS solutions, one can come across project management systems , and collaborative work on them, on-line organizers , workflow systems. They are all at hand and many already use them, without thinking about the ideology of such services and terrible smart abbreviations.
As I said, you don’t have to go far for examples. Work with documents? Please - this is a popular google docs, which allows you to abandon Word, Excel, and get a number of advantages, primarily related to the possibilities of collaboration on documents. Moreover, a number of companies have such solutions - Microsoft has it, and Zoho and others.
In principle, online organizers are more than enough, as well as systems in general for organizing work, maintaining todo. Take at least our calendar and project management system in a webtop , or similar solutions from google, or the famous products of the company 37 signals: basecamp, backpack.
The third (not obvious) example is online games. They, of course, are not taken to refer to SaaS-solutions, but they are now available as services, with all the same ideology. Most often it is a MMORPG. Just in case, let me remind you that games are the same programs, and, for example, Microsoft's Xbox Live very clearly classifies itself as a SaaS product .
What were all these examples? In addition, the software, presented as a service, has long been around us. Both the market and ourselves use SaaS much more often than we think about. And convenience, simplicity, efficiency and other advantages of SaaS win the hearts of consumers, without explaining to them their complex structure and philosophy of the model.
I hope this publication for someone made the term SaaS not as mysterious and scary as it seemed before, and its triumph in the future is finally obvious.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/113980/
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