Software-as-a-Service solutions are some of the most common computing products that companies use for building and growing their businesses. SaaS represents the world's largest cloud market and is rapidly expanding every day. Through the internet, a service provider can offer a company fully managed applications with client interfaces that can be accessed via a web browser. Among the most popular SaaS business solutions are email, collaboration suites, healthcare solutions, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems.
While many often think of the differences between managing SaaS and cloud applications, there are many similar or overlapping features. With cloud computing, a user is able to customize and manage any software application on a server that is hosted remotely by a third-party like AWS. Companies are given access to their data on those servers via the internet.
With SaaS, customers pay a subscription to access an already developed, cloud-based software application via the internet and don’t have the responsibility of maintaining the software. One drawback of SaaS software is that users can lose some control over the management and customization of the application.
It’s possible to approach SaaS and cloud management together. And considering a combined cloud and SaaS approach can help to avoid significant challenges in the upcoming age of hybrid work, starting with the optimization of SaaS and cloud activities. With third-party management tools, companies should look for options that offer easy action on optimization recommendations and something that automates tasks.
These tools may introduce new problems that won't exist within a single public-cloud solution, such as performance, ops costs, and the ability to deal with composite services made up of two or more public-cloud services. An example would be if one were to combine the analytics engine on Google with a database that exists on AWS. Since the two cloud providers operate without knowledge of each other, they often change their services without regard for customers that co-mingle their services with other heterogeneous services from other cloud providers.
If companies take the time to properly define and design their hybrid management of SaaS and cloud applications, it’s likely to not only get them ready for the future of digital transformation but can increase their efficiency tenfold.
