Software as a service (SaaS) is one of the many facilities offered by cloud computing that helps businesses of all shapes and sizes achieve more with the budgets that they have available to them.
By taking the burden of running critical apps and services off in-house hardware and placing it in a flexible, scalable cloud environment, businesses can get more done without spending additional cash, but what benefits does SaaS offer over other solutions and how best can it be harnessed by businesses today?
If your company has yet to adopt SaaS and is looking for motivation to make the switch, the following overview of three top applications that it supports might help you make a decision.
Security
IT security is a growing concern for many businesses, because as more and more elements of commerce become digitised, so too do the threats that have to be faced.
Running the necessary preventative tools to prevent third parties gaining illicit access to systems that are vital to your business can be taxing and expensive if you plan to host everything internally. However, with SaaS you can enjoy fundamentally better levels of security across the board, providing you with total protection.
This not only covers specific data and apps, but also communications services such as e-mail, allowing you to manage and filter what comes in and out of your systems without putting them at risk of being compromised.
The power of SaaS platforms means that security never needs to be sacrificed as a result of budgetary constraints. In addition, you can access levels of protection that would not normally be available to individual firms.
Continuity
With SaaS, the integrity of your apps and data is never entirely reliant on a single in-house server that might be susceptible to a range of potential hazards and disasters, most of which cannot be prevented, but rather planned for to give you the best chance of survival.
Remotely hosted apps will spread the burden of responsibility and ensure that even if problems arise at one location, your ability to access them will not be compromised.
Downtime of any kind can end up being cripplingly costly to businesses and those who are most susceptible to its effects are typically smaller firms, so even start-ups need to look at the benefits of SaaS if they want to shore up their defences and improve overall resilience. Business continuity planning can be the difference between continued operation and a slow commercial death.
Mobility
The biggest practical benefit of SaaS when it comes to its application in a business environment is that it endows companies with the ability to be far more flexible and mobile than was previously possible.
Rather than tying software to a single device or network, it is instead made available to any user in any location, opening up new opportunities for mobile and remote working.
You can adjust working hours for staff so that they are a better fit and make it easier to collaborate and engage with colleagues and clients regardless of where they happen to be based at a particular time.
SaaS does not encounter as many of the issues with platform compatibility and hardware availability, which means that it also operates more effectively across a variety of device and OS ecosystems.
In short, with SaaS at your disposal, it is possible to turn your business from an IT lightweight into a responsive powerhouse without all of the investment and expenditure that would normally be required to achieve this. On-demand payment and the benefits of cloud computing should help to convince companies to adopt this approach.
About the Author: Daisy Group are a leading provider of unified communications solutions. Find out about their SaaS solutions here.
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