Software as a Service (SaaS) [English]

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Syndetic Relationships

InterPARES Definition

n. (SaaS, abbr.) ~ A high-level cloud service, managed and hosted by the provider, that offers consumers on-demand access to applications.

General Notes

"The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited user-specific application configuration settings" (Mell and Grance, 2011, 2).

Other Definitions

  • Gartner IT Glossary (†298 s.v. software as a service (SaaS)): Software that is owned, delivered and managed remotely by one or more providers. The provider delivers software based on one set of common code and data definitions that is consumed in a one-to-many model by all contracted customers at anytime on a pay-for-use basis or as a subscription based on use metrics.
  • Mell and Grance 2011 (†334 p. 2): The capability provided to the consumer is to use the provider’s applications running on a cloud infrastructure. The applications are accessible from various client devices through either a thin client interface, such as a web browser (e.g., web-based email), or a program interface. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited user-specific application configuration settings.

Citations

  • Duranti 2013 (†408 ): Software as a Service (SaaS) offers the consumer on-demand access to one or more applications and the computational resources to run them. The Cloud provider carries out management, control, and security of network, servers, operating systems, applications, and storage. (†486)
  • Furht and Escalante 2010 (†583 p.346): Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is based on licensing software use on demand, which is already installed and running on a cloud platform. These on-demand applications may have been developed and deployed on the PaaS or IaaS layer of a cloud platform. SaaS replaces traditional software usage with a Subscribe/Rent model, reducing the user’s physical equipment deployment and management costs. The SaaS clouds may also allow users to compose existing services to meet their requirements. (†1151)
  • ISACA Glossary (†743 s.v. Software as a Service (SaaS)): Offers the capability to use the provider’s applications running on cloud infrastructure. The applications are accessible from various client devices through a thin client interface such as a web browser (e.g., web‐based e‐mail). (†1805)
  • McLelland, et al. 2014 (†403 8): Software as a Service (SaaS) refers to a service which allows the client to remotely access software that is hosted on infrastructure owned and maintained by the service provider. This service enables a client organization to use software that might otherwise be too expensive to purchase, install, maintain, and update itself. [Text includes citations] (†459)
  • NIST 2011B (†415 p. 20): The capability provided to the consumer is to use the provider's applications running on a cloud infrastructure. The applications are accessible from various client devices through a thin client interface such as a web browser (e.g., web-based email). The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited user-specific application configuration settings. (Source: NIST CC Definition) (†520)
  • Stancic, Rajg, and Milosevic 2013 (†904 p. 110): Ability to deliver applications from cloud-based physical infrastructure, accessible via various client software tools or devices. The user has no awareness or control of the underlying physical components or software configuration capabilities outside the delivered application. (†2718)
  • Wikipedia (†387 s.v. "Cloud computing"): In the business model using software as a service (SaaS), users are provided access to application software and databases. Cloud providers manage the infrastructure and platforms that run the applications. SaaS is sometimes referred to as "on-demand software" and is usually priced on a pay-per-use basis. SaaS providers generally price applications using a subscription fee. ¶In the SaaS model, cloud providers install and operate application software in the cloud and cloud users access the software from cloud clients. Cloud users do not manage the cloud infrastructure and platform where the application runs. This eliminates the need to install and run the application on the cloud user's own computers, which simplifies maintenance and support. Cloud applications are different from other applications in their scalability–which can be achieved by cloning tasks onto multiple virtual machines at run-time to meet changing work demand. Load balancers distribute the work over the set of virtual machines. This process is transparent to the cloud user, who sees only a single access point. To accommodate a large number of cloud users, cloud applications can be multitenant, that is, any machine serves more than one cloud user organization. (†569)