6. WHAT DOES IT TAKES TO PROVIDE SAAS?

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1 6. WHAT DOES IT TAKES TO PROVIDE SAAS? NIST has defined SaaS as a capability for the consumers benefit to use the provider s applications that are being run on the cloud's infrastructure. The consumers can access the application from client devices with the help of a thin client interface of a web browser like web-based . Consumers do not have to control or manage the basic cloud infrastructure which includes servers, operating systems, network, individual applications or storage. From the definition given by NIST, SaaS provides it consumer s applications that are ready to use. PaaS and IaaS involves behind the scene activities whereas SaaS consumers do not have to bother about it. Accessibility of the application depends on their choice. Consumers can use it at their own will as well as from the preferred device. In PaaS, the applications are made whereas SaaS display the applications on the cloud. SaaS owns the infrastructure, and platform can be used to display it. It can also use other PaaS providers. 6.1 Deployment of SaaS Figure 6.1 SaaS Solution Provider Delivery Chain 145

2 The figure 6.1 depicts the SaaS application (Morley, 2013). This figure consists of the delivery of a chain of technology links. The users can be impaired of experience and productivity due to dependency on external technologies, which can lead to outages or delays. SaaS application reaches a million consumers as compared to the marketing application which is a traditional method. Figure 6.2 Comparison between the SaaS System and a Software License Based Delivery System The figure 6.2 shows a comparison between the SaaS system, and a software license based delivery system. Firstly, applications were brought and then installed on the computer for further use. Application Service Provider (ASP) which was introduced in the 90 s, used by the customer over a network for computer-based services. 6.2 Application Service Provider (ASP) ASP provider makes applications that are available to the customers through a web browser with the help of the Internet. They are to be downloaded through the Internet, installed, and used from a CD like a traditional application. Single environment is used for all the customers. Each customer uses the software as single tenant, and it is not shared among the customers. Configuration setup for all the applications, operating configuration and server are different for each customer. ASP is known as 146

3 middlemen of software packages. They undertake the responsibility to sell, implement and customize the software (Vemulapati, 2011). 6.3 SaaS System The SaaS model is an application which comprises of integrated or single code base that acts as a service for multiple customers securely and simultaneously with the help of the Internet. The customers can order additional capacity for components, users or features. No licensing or technical barrier is associated with the software which enables SaaS to fulfil the requirements. Cost effective Internet based service is provided by the SaaS Model along with the zero infrastructure, low entry and low cost. Complete knowledge of the application is a bonus by the service providers. SaaS and ASP both are provided through a network. The difference between SaaS and ASP are given in the table 6.1 and the comparison is done by considering different parameters like Deployment of applications, Implementation Time, Usability, Application designs and Upgrades and enhancements (LUIT). It shows that SaaS is more beneficial than ASP. Salesforce CRM is a Client Relations Managements Software. It is designed in such a way that it allows the users to collect customers support request from different channels, recall best remedies to customer problems, assign cases to the teams or agents, provides proper guidance to customer towards web-based solutions, escalate support cases, identifies areas for improvement and conforms to service level agreements. 147

4 Table 6.1 Difference between SaaS and ASP Parameters Application Service Provider Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Deployment of applications Borrowed ASPs display other company s commercial applications. Cost advantage is low, and customization capabilities are limited. Built From scratch the software is developed by SaaS providers, cost advantage is maximum. Implementation Time Long Customizing and installing the application created by another company is time consuming and lengthy. Immediate Available on demand of the paid customer in specific time limit. Usability Difficult A lot of orientation and training is required to customize a version of a complex system before using it. Easy As SaaS application are Internet based which have intuitive interfaces, it allows the users to use the application immediately. Application designs Monolithic client-server program The application that supported ASP was monolithic client server program where simple HTML web interfaces are Easy to use web based programs SaaS solutions are such designed from the start that it is manageable and more usable. 148

5 used. Upgrades and enhancements Infrequent ASPs ability to upgrade their application is limited due to their dependency on commercial software providers. Whenever the application supplier issues upgrade then only was it deployed, once in a year. It is almost impossible to upgrade a single instance due to lack of multi tenancy. Often As enhancements are incorporated with the best ideas and practices. No deployment of software is present on the customers site, so the enhancements are made in the SaaS data center which are then made available to the entire user community.the consumers have the freedom to reject or adopt the changes depending on their need with the help of configuration settings. Integration Expensive and time consuming This method takes a lot of time of the client and it is also expensive. Inexpensive As compared to the other method this is less time consuming and cost effective. IT support Exclusive Internal monitoring depends on integration and customization, and added Inclusive It is a part of service. 149

6 maintenance is required as well. Multi-tenant scalability No Maintenance of each customer s application is separate within the ASPs environment. Applications are such designed to be used in a multitenant environment. So that the customers can have custom experience, systems are made configurable, and for the benefit of the customers code base is disparate and maintained. Market Acceptance Less Before the customization, performance, security and integration issues were resolved the ASP vendors rushed their offerings to the market, though the IT organizations wanted to adopt the ASP Model. More The IT and business in the present time wants to experience service oriented and web based technologies. SaaS approach is providing momentum for companies and business requires such compliance legislations. Hardware Compliance Difficult Hardware compliance issues have been occurring because ASP held host to software packages that were not written on the web. Easy To be used on the Internet hosting hardware and SaaS products has been developed. 150

7 Market timing Ahead of its time As Internet broadband speeds were very low for ideal efficiency, the ASP Model was ahead of its time with the web. On time With the increase in speed of Internet connection these days, it makes execution over the Internet quite easy and convenient. SaaS Providers and their services are listed below: Google Apps for Business Google apps for business are a cloud based productivity suite designed to help the users and his team to connect on any device and get work done from anywhere. ELOQUA In the year of 1999, ELOQUA has started. It is a pioneer and industry leader and leads generation services for business to business marketers. Pardot Pardot is a business to business marketing automation software provider. This product consists of modules that can manage, build and activate lead generation components such as form, marketing programs, pages and lead nurturing. In a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, the Pardot automates the process to qualify the leads by assigning prospects to populating the information and sales representatives. Micro web analytics is used to track and identify web traffic. Return on Investment (ROI) is also measured with the help of Pardot. Cloud 9 Cloud 9 IDE enables developers to edit the same code and chat together, around the world. 151

8 6.4 Security in SaaS The SaaS model is designed such that the control over enterprise data is delegated to the SaaS vendor; even the interactions take place over the Internet. To deploy SaaS, the SaaS vendor uses a public IaaS where the data is further delegated to the IaaS vendor. The cause for hesitation in adopting that SaaS model is the loss of direct control over critical data and opaque transactions with SaaS vendor. The points of vulnerability those are the causes of security issues are in the various levels in a SaaS offering (Vemulapati, SaaS Security Testing: Guideline and Evaluation Framework., 2011). Following are some issues in SaaS: Unauthorized Access and Identity Thefts There is no direct control of data as well as on over the people who access it. It is possible that the vendor employees or the clients of the vendor are accessing it. Stolen credentials are a major cause for concern. Data Security and Integrity The responsibility of protection of enterprise data falls in the SaaS Vendor that has to be careful that the data of each enterprise tenant is not available to the other client. One way to deal with this is encryption of Data. Network Security Another security issue is that SaaS provider has to look into its information leak over the network SaaS s Compliance to Regulatory Standards The offering provided by SaaS should confirm to government policies, vendor s policies and industry standards. Few policies can be: EU Data Privacy Law (applicable in many European countries) SOX Act, an act passed by the US Congress to protect investors from fraudulent accounting activities by corporations Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Payment card Industry Data Security Act Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act 152

9 Physical security 6.5 Billing and Pricing Models in SaaS SaaS evaluating models ordinarily bill customers in one of the courses as the quantity of clients, volume of assets, which are expended or consolidating both. Pay for every User Pricing Model This is a prevalent SaaS valuing method. Under this model, a different expense is caused for each client of SaaS application. On an intermittent premise, SaaS billings happen for the enlisted clients. Associations that have subscribed to this model need to give careful consideration to the quantity of clients enlisted. This is carried out to maintain a strategic distance from a trouble in foreseeing their continuous programming expense. Associations need to enlist an individual who will be dependable to keep tracks of clients and ending unnecessary records. Case in point, organizations need to bring about extra charges for clients, who have surrendered from the association, or they may be moved to an alternate office, and that division shouldn't get to the SaaS item. These extra charges or costs can't be decreased in this pay for every client valuing model. Pay-Per-Multiple Users Pricing Model Here the expense included is for a pointed out number of clients. Sellers that utilize this technique normally package number of peculiarities or sort of usefulness yet notwithstanding this it permits a more noteworthy number of clients. Case in point, charging might be possible on a different client bases. Close around two to nineteen, clients can be the first level of the arrangement and between hundred to two hundred and fifty, clients could be the second level of the arrangement. Unlimited Use of SaaS Pricing Model A famous SaaS estimating model is boundless utilized charging. All through the charging cycles, the product costs caused stay consistent. Pay-As-You-Go Pricing Model This model charges the clients as per the assets devoured and the quantity of clients for a given time of time. (E.g. volume of storage room, CPU utilization, and so on.), 153

10 an association can utilize this model to pay for what they utilization. Unnecessary expenses can be evaded in this. This pay as you set out for some valuing model is financially savvy. Extra cost caused by the organization can be dodged with the assistance of this model. Charging is measured in utilization for the understanding of the entrepreneurs. It is such anticipated the profit of the business association. For example, Number of invoices ed this month? Many users, who have paid their invoices for this month through the SaaS system? Many customer employees who have accessed the SaaS platform for this month? When looking at physical metrics of usage, these questions are difficult to answer. For example: Number of documents that are stored and the disk space is consumed, per customer? Difference between Graph Bandwidth usage, each SaaS application tier and the traffic of the Internet. Memory load of all servers and graphic CPU enable the SaaS provider to provide more hardware before utilization reaches capacity. The billing is tied to the account receivable while the physical metrics is tied to the SaaS provider s account payable. 6.6 Physical Metrics These are important as it allows the SaaS provider to keep capacity ahead of demand and identifies hotspots. Physical Metrics can be added at numerous locations to allocate costs. Physical Metrics is measured with software architecture models like Protocol Metrics and Enterprise Service Bus. 154

11 6.7 Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) This is a product building design model which is utilized to execute and outline the correspondence and association between commonly connecting programming applications in Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Figure 6.3 ESB system The figure 6.3 above shows the ESB system together and helps to provide required information for billing and scaling. It also shows the ESB system together and helps to provide required information for billing and scaling. The customer enterprise system is more fluid with SOA integration. The frame work of SOA is the concept of metering, governance and data interchange combined with the ESB. ESB ties numerous systems together in force policies, connect customers and info security. 6.8 Protocol Metrics This is the most common protocol for collecting data in SNMP (Simple Network Monitoring Protocol). The combination of SNMP and a common monitoring platform will allow the monitoring of rates, services health, firewalls, switches and utilization easily. Though the SNMP has to number of flaws it can provide ample security within a firewall. SNMP is generally in a read-only manner, although it has the ability to manage devices actively for security purposes. We have currently covered the vast topic of billing and pricing in SaaS. Now look at the Google apps for business price list. The table below gives the Google business price list. 155

12 Table 6.2 Google Business Price List Parameters and Key features Google Apps for Business Google Apps for business with vault Cost Business ready Rs. 150/user/month or Rs.1500/user/year It has advanced security and e- discovery features. Rs.300/user/month Included Gmail drive and storage (additional storage needs to be purchased) 30GB 30GB Custom address Unlimited users Video chat, calendar, document editing and more Business Controls 24/7 customer support by 99.9% uptime guarantee 156

13 Business-critical data archiving No Data retrieval for investigation No Company-wide data discovery and export No From the above list, we can see that a combination of pay per user and pay-as-you-go billing model has been used. The billing models are much easier to understand and clearer to measure for the client. The client can predict his consumption and plan his usage and expenses accordingly by paying attention to bill details and keeping tab of users and usage within the organization. Such combinations are a great boon to the business industry. Work is easier and faster for the customers in this fast-growing world. 157