Another is that the client benefits from economy of scale on the part of the provider. There are many different examples of cloud software service, and this paper ...
2012 7th International Conference on Telecommunication Systems, Services, and Applications (TSSA)
A new approach to Software as Service Cloud Gurudatt Kulkarni1, Pragati Chavan2, 1,2Lecturer in Marathwada Mitra Mandal’s Polytechnic Pune
Hemant Bankar3, Kundlik Koli4, 3,4Lecture in Vidya Pratishtan Polytechnic, Pune.
Abstract—Software is absolutely necessary in today’s business
world, where softwares help us in many different ways. For many years, companies have run software with the help of their own infrastructures. In recent years, many companies not prefer to buy traditional software packages, as most of them have migrated to the Software as a service, or 'SaaS' business model. As more companies now prefer SaaS, ISVs (independent software vendors) face fierce competition from SaaS providers. One of the defining characteristics of cloud software service is the transfer of control from the client domain to the service provider. Another is that the client benefits from economy of scale on the part of the provider. There are many different examples of cloud software service, and this paper seeks to combine the salient elements into a composite picture of the subject matter. Keywords- SaaS, ASP, Cloud, SDLC Introduction
On-Premise applications are quite expensive, affordable only to big enterprises. Why? Because On-Premise applications have a very high upfront capital expenditure (CapEx); which results in a high total cost of ownership (TCO). On-Premise applications also require a higher number of skilled developers to maintain the application. In its current avatar SaaS is going to be the best bet for small and mid size businesses (SMEs/SMBs). Now, they can afford the best software solution for their businesses without investing anything at all on the infrastructure, development platform or skilled manpower.
architecture, pricing, characteristics
Vidya Waykule5 5Lecturer in AISSM‘s College of Engineering Pune. partnering,
and
management
I. SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE (SAAS) The Software as a Service (SaaS) model implies the use of various applications in rent. It’s so-called Cloud Computing. The essence of the model is that the customer does not buy the software, but pays for the service which it provides. The customer does not install software on the servers, but uses capacities of the developer, needing only to pay for the service, cloud server maintenance and consultation services. As a result the with SaaS customer gets access to the necessary application on a cloud server of the developer which allows saving money and quickly introducing the software to the business. It is needless to say that as a result everyone wins: customers don’t need to spend money on system administration, and suppliers, thanks to software installation on their cloud hosting, quickly provide the clients with the necessary service. SaaS as a concept is often associated with the application service providers (ASPs) of the 1990s, which provided "shrink-wrap" applications to business users over the Internet.
Figure 1.1 Evolution of Software as Service
Figure1.0 Comparison between SaaS and Traditional Model
The sole requirement for SaaS is a computer with a browser, quite basic. SaaS is a recurring subscription based model delivered to the customer on demand – Pay as you use. Software as a Service (SaaS) makes use of a cloud computing infrastructure to deliver one application to many users, regardless of their location, rather than the traditional model of one application per desktop. It allows activities to be managed from central locations in a one-to-many model, including
These early attempts at Internet-delivered software had more in common with traditional on-premise applications than with modern SaaS applications in some ways, such as licensing and architecture. Because these applications were originally built as single-tenant applications, their ability to share data and processes with other applications was limited, and they tended to offer few economic benefits over their locally installed counterparts. Today, SaaS applications are expected to take advantage of the benefits of centralization through a singleinstance, multi-tenant architecture, and to provide a featurerich experience competitive with comparable on-premise applications. A typical SaaS application is offered either directly by the vendor or by an intermediary party called an aggregator, which bundles SaaS offerings from different vendors and offers them as part of a unified application
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2012 7th International Conference on Telecommunication Systems, Services, and Applications (TSSA) platform. In contrast to the one-time licensing model commonly used for on-premise software, SaaS application access is frequently sold using a subscription model, with customers paying an ongoing fee to use the application. Fee structures vary from application to application; some providers charge a flat rate for unlimited access to some or all of the application's features, while others charge varying rates that are based on usage.
commerce portal may continue using a company’s tech, even if it is higher priced, because costs of switching may be too high. The associated platform or hardware licensing issues may arise in cases of switching. Thus customers, once acquired, often are acquired for life, unless major customer dissatisfaction creates contingent situations. Another major challenge for entrepreneurial ventures is moving forward in the PLC curve.
Figure2.0 SaaS Delivery Model Figure1.2 Software as Service Model
On the technical side, the SaaS provider hosts the application and data centrally—deploying patches and upgrades to the application transparently, and delivering access to end users over the Internet through a browser or smart-client application. Many vendors provide application programming interfaces (API) that expose the applications data and functionality to developers for use in creating composite applications. A variety of security mechanisms can be used to keep sensitive data safe in transmission and storage. Applications providers might provide tools that allow customers to modify the data schema, workflow, and other aspects of the application's operation for their use. II. SAAS DELIVERY MODEL Today, increasingly software providers are increasing the focus of selling information technology products as services. Thus there has been a spurt of adoption of SAAS (Software as a service) delivery models. However, switching to a SAAS delivery model requires the adoption of newer strategies, to maintain competitive advantage and sustained growth. A major success pointer for SAAS business model is pricing their services. Normally a company, which uses SAAS to provide any service, should have a 2 tier pricing strategy, a part based on usage, and a fixed (normally initial setup costs). The focus of a SAAS provider should be to provide the benefits of economies of scale at both ends of potential stakeholders. So for a SAAS e-commerce provider, pricing is of key importance. A major successful pricing strategy would be one based on the value of the technology to the user, i.e. strategies. Next another major issue is reaching out to potential customers and then keeping them. Technology firms keep entry barriers through technology platforms, and so an e-
III.
SAAS DEVELOPMENT LIFECYCLE
The SaaS Development Lifecycle (SaaS DLC) is an adaptation of the traditional iterative software development process with additional important phases added. These additional phases – Evaluation, Subscribing and Operations are less prominent and implicit for on-premise deployments. However, the activities performed during these phases become critical success factors for a SaaS development and deployment. During the Envisioning Phase where Business Inputs are defined one of those inputs should be collateral on the chosen cloud platform (or platforms from which a selection will be made). During the Platform Evaluation phase (which is new with the SaaS DLC) you will determine each alternative platform’s fitness for the service. Deliverables from this phase should include a platform comparison that includes considerations such as economics, capability, supportability, security and compliance. Cloud platform comparison results from the operations perspective should include considerations such as reliability, availability, scalability, performance and disaster recovery. In the Subscribing phase (which is also new with the SaaS DLC) you acquire a production quality platform subscription. Deliverables from this phase should include your Backup, Recovery and Disaster recovery strategies, Subscription Management strategy and Production Support strategy.
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2012 7th International Conference on Telecommunication Systems, Services, and Applications (TSSA) the expense becomes more predictable via the demand and metering features of SaaS.
Figure 3.0 SaaS Development Cycle
IV. SAAS FEATURES The potential benefits of delivering software via SaaS are vast. Access to industrial strength, branded software can enhance a conceptual course and even attract students. In addition to many pedagogical benefits, SaaS offers rapid deployment, minimal expense, reduced organizational burden, as well as resource and location independence. • Deployment Speed and Agility Since there is no extensive hardware and network infrastructure involved, it is merely a matter of obtaining access for instructor and students to meet technical needs for a course. In most of the SaaS cases we discussed earlier, instructors may sign-up and receive approval immediately or within 24 hours. Such rapid deployment minimizes the time to- use, which we’ve found crucial for courses taught in an accelerated 8- or 9-week format. It is not always possible with rapidly changing technology or sudden changes in staffing or teaching material, to develop course contents in far in advance. We have been able to introduce new learning experiences for students in as little time as a break week or even a weekend of setup and practice when necessary. Such agility enables courses to keep up with essential changes in technology and may even afford a competitive advantage. • Minimal Expense Financial benefits of SaaS can be substantial and of particular value for educators with their limited and often shrinking budgets. When vendors offer SaaS to educators under special licensing it is no longer necessary to obtain approval and have the cash ready to purchase the software or the capital to buy required hardware platforms, saving both time and expense. In addition, the expenses related to installing and maintaining software are eliminated or minimized. When the software will only be used by a few courses or small group of students, SaaS can suddenly make the impossible become feasible. It is true that some vendors such as SPSS, maker of statistical analysis software, still require fees to use their product via SaaS. However those fees are often discounted under established market rates. Further,
Figure 4.0 SaaS Solution Features
•
Lower Organizational Burden An instructor can obtain and integrate specialized software in a course without requiring an organization-wide commitment that may be difficult to negotiate. Further, shifting the IT installation and maintenance to the vendor minimizes the demand on technology resources as well as the internal IT department. In the event an organization has older personal computers for student use, hardware upgrades may not be necessary using SaaS as long as the compatible browsers are supported. And lastly, the organization is not committed to recurring licenses and future upgrade fees.
•
Location and Resource Independence A fundamental feature of SaaS is easy access via standard methods such as a browser over the internet. This feature has two important implications. First, implementation is not tied to the hardware and operating system environment of the educational institution. Second, and perhaps more important, we’ve found that SaaS can profoundly improve the educational experience for students in distance education. The once traumatic process of obtaining and installing specialized software on personal or employer computers is eliminated, saving the instructor hours and days of technical support at the beginning of a course.
Figure 4.1 Scalability
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Scalability Traditionally, adding new users of software would require procurement of new licenses, new pieces of software, and designation of technical staff to help your new user “get set up”. This can be costly and time consuming. With SaaS, the software is all operated centrally by your SaaS supplier who has invested heavily in a sophisticated, scalable and reliable computing platform. As such, if you need to add (or remove) a user, a quick instruction to your SaaS supplier will result in almost instantaneous adjustment to your service. SaaS gives your company the ability to scale up or down on demand, allowing you to focus on your business.
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CONCLUSION SaaS provides a faster and more cost-effective alternative for enterprises to achieve their business objectives. IT decision makers that want to consider SaaS must first assess the appropriateness of this model for their enterprise. Rather than licensing applications, buying whatever equipment is needed to run them, tuning the applications, debugging the install, training users and maintaining the code, SaaS customers buy access to applications over the Internet. All patches and version upgrades are done by the independent software vendor (ISV) who hosts and sells access to the application. Software as a Service is relative new to IT industry. However, its delivery model represents a brand new and economic outsourcing model. Since SaaS technology is still under developing stage, there are many issues need to be resolved before it can be fully utilized in the business world. SaaS represents the potential for a lower-cost way for businesses to use software—using it on demand rather than buying a license for every computer, especially when you consider that most computers sit unused almost 70% of the time. Rather than having to buy multiple licenses for a single user, the closer a business can get to put a license to use 100% of the time, the more money that business will save. ACKNOWLEDGMENT Gurudatt Kulkarni one of the authors is indebted to Principal Prof. Mrs. Rujuta Desai for giving permission for sending the paper to the conference. Mrs. Pragati Chavan is also thankful to the Secretary Principal B.G. Jadhav, Marathwada Mitra Mandal for giving permission to send the paper for publication. We would also like to thanks our colleagues such as Lecturer Mrs. Geeta Joshi and Jayant Gambhir for supporting us. REFERENCES [1]
[2]
Towards enterprise software as a service in the cloud by Schaffner, J. Jacobs, D. Eckart, B. 1-6 March, 2010.http://www.technopulse.com/2010/04/saas-introduction-example-cloud-service.html http://cloudyinnewyork.com/2012/06/02/software-as-a-servicedevelopment-life-cycle-and-the-cloud/
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